New Prius owner

Congratulations from across the pond.
You will grow to love and depend on your clever little car.
I think you made a very good choice

There is a wealth of information here, use the search function and post away !

 

Congrats! We are into 10 days of ownership and have had NO regrets. Not too sure about the snow - wondering ourselves about that living in Denver. But hey it does not snow here anymore. At least not like it did when I was a kid. - But hey, there is no global warming.................

What color did you get?

 

The "search" function on this site works pretty well. Try a search of all forums for the word snow or cold weather etc. You will find a lot of good information about the Prius in snow and cold.

If you live over near the mountains you may need winter tires. I got through last winter with the original equipment Goodyears and had no problems. I live just across the border in Oregon but I'm down by the river and winter isn't as harsh here as it is near the Cascades.

Why not give it a try with the tires you have and if they don't work out put a set of winter tires on. Les Schwab usually has some good sales on winter tires with or without studs.

 

Are you going to put on snow tires?

Right now, NO - Lived here all of my life. Driving for over 30+ years, and lived in the mountains for 3 years. Never have I had snow tires. I'll wait and see how the Prius does once the snow starts to pile up.

It KILLS me to see these people in HUGE SUV's driving around in the summer with "STUDDED SNOW" tires. It just pi$$es me off because they are not only tearing up the environment, and the air, they are also tearing up our roads. The funny thing is that they are usually the ones I see rolled over on Floyd Hill coming into Denver along I-70.

The key to driving on snow and ice is just SLOW DOWN and take it easy. Do not exceed the safe stopping distance, and worry like hell about the other guy. I can take care of myself in snow and ice.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Prius The First @ Nov 26 2006, 04:18 PM) [snapback]354286[/snapback]</div>

In most states it's illegal to use studs in the summer. Isn't that true in Colorado? Whenever I drive through any state in the summer it's all-season radials, and non-studded snow tires in the winter.

Dave M.

 

Congratulations on your new Prius!

The most important thing you need to know about driving a Prius - you can drive it like any other car. There's a lot of stuff posted here in the forum about leaning to pulse'n'glide to maximize your MPG, but you don't HAVE to learn that. Just drive the car sensibly - don't speed up so that you can stomp on your brakes at a red light.

I DO keep my MFD on most of the time, but on the Consumption screen. The far right-hand bar on the bar graph is a feedback mechanism for me that lets me know when I have more pressure on the accellerator than I need. I don't use the Energy screen - I find it too distracting.

A couple of other things:

- the Prius takes a bit of time to get the catalytic converter up to the temperature it needs to be, so your first 5 to 10 minutes (depending on outside temperature) will get lower mileage while it runs the engine to bring the car up to the correct temperature. It's normal, but it will affect your overall MPG, especially if you take very short trips. My commute to work is 15 to 20 minutes, so my average MPG is in the high 40's, and that's fine with me.

- keep your tire pressure at 42 front/40 back and you'll get better mileage than if you keep the pressure at the factory-recommended levels. Check the tire pressure at least once a month.

But the absolutely MOST important thing to know about your Prius is that it's fun to drive, and it's even more fun to discover new and different things about your car. Enjoy, and welcome to Prius Chat!