is it better for the Prius to go 8 miles to work instead of 4?

No, 8 miles vs 4 miles won't really make much of a difference. However, if you *only* take short 4 (or 8) mile trips, then you might want to take the car out for a longer trip (30 minutes maybe) every few weeks just to make sure the engine really gets warmed up every once in a while. If you take longer trips occasionally anyway, then you shouldn't have to do anything special.

 

Agreed; if you take the 8-mile route, you're still running the car while cold for 4 miles as if you were going straight to work. But then, you're adding on an extra 4 miles of wear on top of it!

The best thing to do is to bike - I bike 4 miles to work every day, my fiancée bikes 9 miles each way, and one of my coworkers bikes about 42 miles, albeit only 2 or 3 days a week (and I think only one way - he takes public transportation home). But not everybody is up for that sort of thing: so go ahead and take the 4 mile route. Your car will be no worse off. (You could consider adding grill blocking, as many hypermilers do, which will help it warm up faster - but it's probably not going to save you anything other than a little gas.)

 

Drive it normally, just take out to Snook once in a while to get some chicken fried bacon. That'll warm up both of you.

 

(lol) Geez, couldn't you just work from home and use your Prius to take cool trips to San Antonio? IMO, it's an interesting question, at least with regard to how much traction battery charge/consumption occurs. I suppose that depends upon engine temp, braking, terrain, yadda, yadda... . My opinion is that it really doesn't matter.

Happy Motoring,

Tom

 

A four mile trip will not be good for the oil. It will need to be changed quite often, unless you run the vehicle enough other times during the week to fully heat up the oil and boil off the moisture.

 

That's what I was thinking with my above advice... however, I don't think that adding another 4 miles will really help much. Even 8 mile trips aren't going to be great for the oil. Ideally the OP will supplement his 4 mile commute with somewhat longer trips occasionally.

 

Find a 2 mile route.

 

I would walk! Good exercise and save a ton of money. Short trips a car killers!!! H

 

You might be over thinkiing this just a bit.
Granted.... College Station isn't as warm as the Gulf South, but you're hardly up in the frozen North.
My ICE usually shuts down before I've gotten to the 4-mile mark, and I don't 'pre warm' the car when the temps go down into the 30s, which tells me that your car might also reach normal operating temps before you arrive at work.

Either way, if you're logging that few miles a week, then your warranty will reach the 5-year mark long before you get 60,000 miles on the odometer, so your basic warranty will cover you for any problems that (won't) arise from this diving pattern. If you're like most folks, the "change owner" light will illuminate before you've reached the 5-year mark.
If not....and if you're really really REALLY worried about it...get an extended warranty, but seriously. I'd put the giveacrap switch back to the '"don't" position, and enjoy the fact that your monthly fuel bill is so low.