Thanks Uart - I'll do it when I get home tonight, after I eat some dinner. Hopefully it's right below the dot! I'm also going to try the battery test when I get out to the car this afternoon. It will have been sitting for a good eight hours, which I assume is long enough.
Umm ... reset a trip meter before each short trip? That is how I do it. Much faster and more detailed feedback than waiting for a tank refill.
He means that he resets the MPG calculation data on the MFD. This makes it restart the cumulative MPG calculations from that point.
By resetting each time, I can see how minor changes may affect my overall MPG. UPDATE: after properly doing the oil check, it looks like I'm right beneath the dot (on three samples). So the next big Q: is there any way to push my MPG over 50 without having to drastically change the way I drive? I've been setting cruise at 55 MPH for my commutes, which lets me sit back, drink my coffee, and listen to the radio without much hassle (although the people behind me freak out, because driving the speed limit is totally unacceptable).
:doh: thanks mike! i have never done that because i'm only interested in averages, not what i can do on a certain drive. although, i can see how it might be helful in experimenting and learning.
argh, another speed limit driver. look around the board, several accidents occured due to slow prius drivers. move with traffic!! or your gonna get rear ended one of these days! i own a prius, love to get 50+ mpg after midnight when i drive home, but at 3 pm when i go to work, i drive with traffic, yeah it kills mpg, down to 46 mpg, but i dont have people honking, cutting me off, or crashing into me...
yeah, people who obey the laws are the WORST SORT! they should do what everybody else is doing, not vice versa. that's what i taught my children, 'emulate the criminals, it's the only way to get ahead.'
Do you have the same commute as this guy? How do you know he is being unsafe? Seriously, one can drive the speed limit in many cases and not act as a road hazard.
I've lived my entire life in areas where the speed limit is within the normal speed spread of traffic. I hope that when you visit any of these areas, you can adapt to these conditions, rather than be one of the tiny minority who are try to bully others into going faster than the limit.
People die on the semi-rural highway I drive daily from going too fast. They do 70 in a 55, then wind up crashing into a tractor or other farm equipment that just pulled out onto the roadway around the next bend. I'd much rather go the speed limit and make it home to my family 5 minutes later then get scrapped off the back of farmer joes John Deere. BTW - you can never be at fault for getting rear-ended while going the speed limit.
you said... (although the people behind me freak out, because driving the speed limit is totally unacceptable). that would imply you are not driving at an acceptable speed as in same average speed as everyone else, i'm glad your insurance company will take your side, as the other driver is clearly at fault, when you are a paraplegic and your kids are dead because you were right and obeying the law and doing 55. the prius is no match for most cars on the road, in an accident you will lose. get "pushed" off the road by a bump from a car behind you, lose control, a tree or head on with oncoming traffic will destroy our dinky prii. taking pride in going too slow for conditions is just as stupid as bieng a hot rod and going to fast. i said "move with traffic" i didnt say drive like a speed demon, prius is no demon, around me, speed limit is posted at 55 or 65, everyone is doing 75, i dont care what the sign says, i'm not doing 55 if it risks my safety. i'm glad you live in an area where speed limit is the norm, where would that be?? again, you said (although the people behind me freak out, because driving the speed limit is totally unacceptable). i am not in the minority as a driver who goes over the speed limit, everyone goes over the speed limit. minority is people doing 85 and peope doing 55. i'll stick to my plan, do same speed as everyone else on the road, no faster , no slower. which was my original advice.
F8L , pretty funny the first thread i pull on "rearended" was from a guy in sacramento... if you read it, page 5 post #44, sounds like everyone in that town is driving over the limit too, definitely safe to slug along at 55. this just happened in FEB2011 http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...en-great-my-prius-rearended-highway-80-a.html to be clear here, i own a prius , and love it, dont become another reason for people to hate prii, by getting in the way of normal traffic flow. ps settling in to drink coffee and enjoy the radio, that sounds distracting...also fiddling excessively with the prius energy monitor. hands on wheel, eyes on road. since we want to set a good example.
Are speed limits actively enforced where you live Lextoy? Here police radar-camera's make it difficult to routinely speed without getting lots of fines and eventual loss of license. Here in NSW they used to be fairly lenient with the speed cameras, setting the threshold to the posted limit +10% + 5km/hr. So for example in an 80 km/hr zone you could theoretically get away with up to 92 km/h without triggering the camera and yep that's the speed I'd drive to. Recently however the state government sold off the speeding revenue collection to a private company and the very first thing they did was lobby to get the tolerance lowered, so now you can get fined if you go more than about 2 or 3 km/h over the posted speed limit. Sorry but I wont risk fines and loss of license to keep others happy. I'm mostly sticking fairly close to the speed limit these days and yes that's the norm here. I don't think you should be in any major danger of being rear ended if doing the posted speed limit.
How fast are people driving when they can't stop before hitting someone driving the speed limit?!?! I've been rear-ended before, but that was because I had to make a hard stop and someone was following me too closely and not paying attention. It had nothing to do with my speed.
Yeah good point. Even if someone was doing 70MPH on a 55MPH limit road then it's only a 15MPH speed difference. It's got to be a pretty crap driver that can't cope with that and rear ends someone. Far more likely is that the speed limit driver see's an obstacle (eg tractor pulling out of a property) and can stop safely in time, but the speeding driver approaching from behind cant stop in time and rear ends him.
Stoods It may seem that the discussion about going the speed limit is off topic, but here is a chart (for a Gen III Prius) showing MPG vs MPH http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii-2010-prius-fuel-economy/64296-updated-mpg-vs-mph-chart.html
The speed limit on I-80 and Hwy 50 is 65mph. It would be unsafe IMO to drive 55mph in the Sacramento area. I see people do it all the time however. Thankfully there is usually at least 3 lanes per side of the freeway and in some areas up to 5 lanes. I stick to 65mph and speed up when needed. It's really just common sense or at least should be. The problem here is you came in with a campaign of sorts to reduce Prius hate by telling people to drive faster. Most of us don't like being told what to do in that manner nor is your advice really going to change much. People drive slow in all sorts of vehicles. The Prius us hated because of it's environmental and political stigma, not because they are always driven slow. At least not in my area. I get what you are saying and I generally agree so please don't take this as a flame. On a lighter note, the guy that was read-ended also owns a Corvette.
