What the heck is she talking about?

Besides it is dangerous and illegal. See if you can get to the "no arrows" glide position instead, it is effective neutral. Of course if you happen to be on a grade where you can do this for miles, I suspect you will have a VERY sore right leg from holding your foot in that same spot for a long time.

 

seeing as most other cars the hybrid option over regular gas is around $4000... i doubt the battery is very much at all. my guess would be at most $1200 including parts and labor. but that's just a guess.

 

I can't believe there's so much debate/speculation on this. Her
symptom reflects well-known behavior of the car. You put it in
READY mode and leave it for a long time, and here's what happens:
the ECUs and accessories and other 12V stuff are powered, and the
inverter maintains the 12V system from the hybrid battery. So SOC
in the hybrid battery slowly falls. Somewhere slightly down into
two-pink-bars territory, the ICE starts and recharges the hybrid
battery back up to somewhere into three-blue-bars territory. Not
a lot of charge, and not back up to the nominal 60% SOC or six-blue-
bars state, but just enough to keep maintaining the 12V system and
other mild demands. It'll do this forever, as long as it's in
READY mode.
.
Naturally, if you get in and start driving with this low SOC, the
engine will come on almost immediately and begin charging back up
to the 60% state. I don't think anyone's figured out why the 60%
target isn't maintained when parked in READY mode, but that's what
the computers have been told to do.
.
_H*