Prius newb saying hello

Saying hello. Found this site while searching for shudder & lurching issues on a 2016 Prius C. (She goes into the shop Wednesday). Love the car, but something is badly wrong. Keeping my fingers crossed.... and a bit worried I may have made a mistake. I'm a new Prius owner, but not new to Prius. Worked in the dealership for years (no longer however). Driven Toy's now for nearly 20 years!

 

Yeah, must be. Not a single reply and only a few views to my question in the Prius C troubleshooting forum.

 

Picked it up last September. It was an impulse buy. Stopped in at the dealership to chat with a couple friends on my way home. (I had previously worked there.) I didn't even know what it was when I first seen it, but I liked the color! If I remember correctly, I think I walked out of there somewhere close to 16K on the price. Had a trade (old Yaris which I still miss). Trim level Two on the Prius btw.

She's sitting outside right now covered in snow and ice... Enjoy your new Prius - I'm finding the display a bit distracting, and almost think it's made me a worse driver. lol But I'm still trying to learn how to drive this thing and squeeze out as much mpg as I can. It's almost like a challenge to see how high I can get the mpg's. (though it is getting worse with the cold temps, but I expected that) Also taking my sons advice to keep the battery as fully charged as I can on these cold days.

 

New to Prius here - if the traction battery is the one that drives the electric motor then yes. I know the car is new, and the battery is still under warranty. But figure I may as well do what I can to make it last as long as possible. Talking with my son and the other techs at his dealership (Honda), plus the guys at my old workplace (Toyota), the all agree it's best to have it as fully charged as possible on these single digit winter nights. They are NIMH batteries correct?

Do most hybrid vehicle drivers not worry about this? *charge level on extreme cold days*

 

16K after trade - car was sold to me at invoice price.

 

I understand the computer takes care of charging the battery, but what I'm speaking of is battery longevity. While speaking to the techs, they have all told me that extreme cold tends to shorten this life. It's cold here (very cold) for about 4 months of the year. If I can extend this batteries life by doing what I can to keep it charged, then I would prefer to do what I can. So far, I've only seen about a 6 mpg difference. Something else I've noticed with this cold weather. The battery tends to lose it's charge really fast. But then, I notice that with any battery powered device in the cold.

So on my final stretch on my drive to work or home, I tend to nudge the accelerator pedal just enough to get the engine to kick in, or apply my brakes way too early and slow down like an 80 year old grandmother. So I can get as much energy back into it as possible before sitting in this cold. Still hovering around 50mpg's, so I'm happy.