Help!, New Prius owner car making sounds

Hi Will. Congratulations on your new Prius and welcome to PriusChat! Live long and post often!

i think both sounds are probably normal. The Prius makes a lot of sounds that a less advanced car doesn't make. Without hearing the sounds, it's a little hard to guess, but here are some clues.

When you start your car and when you shut down, fluid is transferred between the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) and a "thermos bottle" located in the front left corner, just behind the bumper. When you start up, a small (noisy) electric pump takes the hot fluid from the thermos and puts it in the ICE to warm it up faster to keep down emissions. Conversely, when you shut down, hot fluid from the ICE is pumped into the thermos.

Another odd, ratchety, sound comes from the brake fluid pressure accumulator. When you step on the brake pedal, you're not mechanically pressing on the master brake cylinder like in earlier cars, you are telling the computer how fast you want to stop. Regenerative braking, turning forward motion into electricity to store in the HV (High Voltage) battery for later use, takes care of most of the stopping, but some pressure is needed for the mechanical brakes, used just before you stop. A little pump comes on every now and then to make sure brake fluid pressure for the mechanical brakes is available.

As for rattles, as you read the threads here you'll see some people have them and some don't. I don't usually have rattle, but like you, on worn concrete roads, I can get some terriffic buzzes and noise which disappears when the pavement changes. I personally think it must be harmonics of some sort.

Other noises you'll here: racing engine, ICE running fast to generate electricity for the motors; ICE running when it's warm and the battery display is green, burning off excess electric charge to protect the battery.

The Toyota engineers are a pretty smart lot, so any regular noises you hear with any frequency are probably normal. Just drive and enjoy! All those beeps and dings sounds are supposed to be there, but search and you can find out how to disable many of the warning noises.