Sudden Mileage Drop Mid-Drive & Other Concerns

Hi Everyone!

There were a couple of issues I'm experiencing with my 2012 Prius Liftback that I wondered if other people have noticed. I did a search for these but didn't come up with anything or could not find a solution! Basically I want to know what others have to say before taking it into the shop (I like to avoid shops unless absolutely necessary, and I wanted to knock out everything I've been experiencing in one huge post.) Hopefully you all don't go tl;dr on me!

First issue I've experienced is that sometimes, randomly, in the middle of my drive, my Prius will feel like it gets a little juice even though there is no change in pedal pressure, geography, or change in speed either. My mileage indicator will instantly drop roughly 10-15 mpg and will last for roughly 20-30 seconds before I feel the "juice" wear off and my mileage go back to normal. I would say this happens roughly once every 15-20 minutes in consistent driving (most noticeable on the freeway). I kept an eye on my ICE indicator and notice no change in my power flows. Anyone else notice this? Do they know what it's for? I was thinking that the engine was switching from using the electric motor to help power the wheels to actually recharging some of the battery power I was using but the ICE indicator still stays all arrows to wheels (like I said typically freeway driving).

The second issue I've been experiencing is a rattling sound I notice at low speeds (under 20 mph) on paved roads (condition of road doesn't seem to matter). It seems to be coming from my glove compartment (my girlfriend has confirmed this). Emptying my glove compartment has not helped.

The final thing I've noticed is extremely poor sound quality in the radio/satellite/blue tooth phone calls. I've done a couple of searches on this topic and came up with topics of people discussing these... but to no real fix. Anyway radio reception seems particularly terrible. Also the constant switching from HD radio over to standard radio is very distracting (and I've turned off HD radio completely as I find it more distracting to keep switching from HD to standard 10-15 times a minute). Satellite radio sounds very "tinny" as well with a very metallic echo. This goes as well for bluetooth phone calls, all sounding very very "tinny." People have also complained that talking to me while I'm on the phone there is a terrible echo on their end.

Other than these "issues" (which may just be perfectly normal things for the 2012 Liftback) I am absolutely LOVING this car. I'm getting an average of 53-54 mpg even with lots of hilly driving and a lot of freeway driving.

Thanks in advance for your help! Happy MPG's!

 

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I did update entune all the way (it just seems like the sound is poor radio reception, although other posts seem to indicate that this is a common problem with the Prius and not antennae related.

As for the car's mileage moving around every once in a while, I notice it even after driving on the freeway for over 20-30 minutes which should be well over the car's warming up cycles. Anyone else seeing this? On flat terrain suddenly the car seems to gain roughly 5-6 hp at the cost of 10 mpg which lasts for again roughly 10-15 seconds.