(Fairly) New '09 Prius Owner!

:welcome: from another November purchaser. I strongly advise you to spend a few hours reading on this site. Tire pressure, gas tank filling, engine blocking, and pulse/glide are worthy topics.
You're gonna love that Prius :cheer2: and PC will really enhance your experience

 

You made a good choice, the car fascinating to drive, you may even end up being one of our champion hypermilers. I second the last poster, but, end up reading everything at Priuschat. You never know where the knowledge may lead you.

 

"Eleanor" (my '09 SuperWhite, Package 3) has been home with me one week now!! I just love her. I have made PC part of my morning ritual of reading and am learning alot. My average mpg is 42.9 so far and she has just 200 miles on her. I am looking forward to the challenge of getting more!! I sold my '05 Focus for her and am not sorry for one minute!!

 

I too am a new owner of an '09. Congrats on your purchase. I hope you have come to enjoy driving this car as much as I have already. We all talk about its mileage all of the time, but prospective buyers need to know that it is also a well built car that is a pleasure to drive, is very well thought out and has the best storage innovations out there.

Here's a pic of my baby on a lake in B.C.. She's got her winter skivvies on, but looks great anyway.

Duskrider

 

Boy, you are right........it is a really well-built car.........with more storage than I ever imagined. Eleanor doesn't have "winter skivvies" since she lives here in Baton Rouge with me. She might need a beach umbrella come summer to keep cool....though she naps and sleeps inside.........

 

My car goes in in the morning for installation of a Vaistech SL2Vi interface. I'm excited about that. After that, graduated mirror tint on the windows, a hitch for my bike rack, a few minor accessories and I'm done. This car is worth adding this stuff as she's a keeper.

FYI: Vaistech has been excellent to deal with, even from Canada.

 

"Duskrider..." did your baby survive the day surgery ok??? How are you mpg's there?? I have read that some people get horrible gas mileage in cold weather........a real freaky occurrence here.....even though we had snow here (3") for the first time in 20 years. Also any suggestions for how low to let Eleanor get on fuel before filling up for the first time......and if I should fill her slowly??? Newbie questions for sure..........but I am concerned.............Thanks...

 

My baby survived just fine! Only issue seems to be that the installer didn't put in the park brake wire right, so I can't get video yet. I'm an avid podcast listener though, so that's okay for now. I'll get the installer to fix it on Monday.

I suppose "terrible gas mileage in cold weather" is a matter of perspective mostly. I have only had it in very cold weather but my gas mileage is a vast improvement over that of my Mazda B4000 pickup, so I'm happy. Further, knowing it will only get better as we climb out of this unusual deep freeze is encouraging.

I didn't just buy the Prius for the mileage though, although that was a major factor. I love high-tech gadgets and the Prius is in wonderful, stark contrast to my extremely bland experience with my truck and all past cars I've owned. In other words, the Prius is fun, as I knew it would be.

I do have the well-known problem with filling her up when the weather is very cold, but I just fill slowly as I near the top, shake the car a bit, wait a bit, and then all is well. Almost always I get a full tank or sometimes I'm down 1 pip after fill-up. I don't think there is any good advice about filling at better or worse breakpoints, but I used to work with airplanes and we always were condensation-conscious and filled up when conditions were right for that, particularily when you are hovering around the freezing point. I'd imagine that isn't even an issue anymore, but I still won't leave my car with a half of a tank full in those conditions. Old habits die hard.

Nascrlvr, how are you enjoying your new car? Have you driven it much? How did your car handle the snow, or more likely, the heavy slush you ended up with?

Ciao!

 

Duskrider..............I enjoy the car very much!! Like you, my previous car ('05 Focus) was bland and boring. I do love the the tech stuff. I just finished reading the manual and still have to go back to it to figure some stuff out. It's just pure technical magic to me!! The mileage for me right now is not the biggest point of the car, but when prices go back up, it will be a nice advantage!! As far as the snow was concerned, that was back on December 11.........and I didn't have the car yet. She's just 9 days old!! But on that day.........nothing really moved here. We don't have snow removal equipment....just a couple of truck that sprayed sand/antifreeze on bridges. Sadly, by late afternoon most all of it was gone. It was odd this year to have a hurricane day off (for Gustav) and a snow day off.......in one year. Thanks for the tip on feeding Eleanor when the time comes.....I will fill slowly and tickle her withers when she's almost full!! On a side note........what's the park brake wire connected to??? I'm learning here.............

 

The Vais unit needs to see the park brake status to know if it's okay to show video on the screen. Apparently there is a wire that goes from the park brake sensor that needs to be attached to the Vais unit. Fortunately, this is wired into the stereo harness already, so Vais supplies a link wire for attaching this to their unit. If that wasn't hooked up, then no joy.

No biggie, just got missed by the installer. It was his first time doing one of these units though, so he's forgiven. The only reason I even used a shop in the first place is because I don't have a garage and it has been around -20C out here. Not fun. The Vais unit is only about an hour to install yourself and has very clear instructions.

 

I love my back up camera, but the back up beeper........I feel like the UPS truck!! Is it easy to undo that somehow?? My hubby is great at this stuff, but I lack the "techno" knowledge??

 

Prius Beeper disable​

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[FONT=&quot]To eliminate the beeps from seatbelts and reverse, follow these steps:[/FONT]​

1. Power on the car to IG-ON or READY. IG-ON will do for this purpose.



2. Using the Trip/ODO button, set the Trip/ODO display to ODO (not Trip A or Trip B)



3. Power off the car.



4. Now power the car to READY (brake on). This is required so that step 6 works correctly.



5. Within 6 seconds of powering on, press and hold the Trip/ODO button for 10 seconds or more (there is no indication... just count)



6. WHILE STILL HOLDING ODO *after* the 10 seconds, shift the "gear" selector to R, then press the P button. Now release the Trip/ODO button.



7. If the last step was successful, "b on" or "b off" should be displayed in the location where the Trip Odometer or Odometer is normally displayed (front dash area). "b on" is beep on (default), and "b off" is beep off.



8. Press Trip/ODO to toggle the mode.



9. Now power the car off to exit the toggle mode.



10. Power the car on to READY and confirm the reverse beep status by shifting to R. The beep should not be audible if "b off" was selected, and should be audible if "b on" was selected..


Note: The Repair manual page states that if the the 12v battery is disconnected, the beep will reset to the default of on, and this procedure will need to be performed again - I have confirmed this to be true!. The repair manual also is not clear that Trip/ODO should remain depressed while shifting.



Additional Note: The driver and passenger seatbelt reminder chime can be disabled or enabled (respectively, defaults are driver on and passenger off) using similar steps. Instead of shifting from P to R to P in step 6, simply buckle then unbuckle the appropriate seatbelt while continuing to depress the Trip/ODO button. Might want a helper for this one!

 

Doc......thanks for the info. I have printed it out for my hubby to do that.

I gave Eleanor her first partial fill-up yesterday (she still had over 1/2 tank...) but was wanting to see if all the concerns about fuel filling might happen to me. She did just fine and gave me no problems. Today she is 2 weeks old!!

 

Runner...........I named her Eleanor in honor of the Mustang boosted by Nicholas Cage in the movie "Gone in 60 Seconds." (one of my favorite movies!!!...) I have had 4 Mustangs in my life; they truly gave me the "warm fuzzies." But.....different times demand different vehicles; hence Eleanor and the Prius. I think cars are aptly named female names.....like ships. So, have fun, find a name and let me know. Judi