New 2012 Prius C owner, it's also my first Toyota. I really love my new 'C', but I'm always worrying that I'm accelerating to hard, it's difficult to tell without a tach gauge. I commute 78 miles to work each day (156 mile round trip), and I get great gas mileage... somewhere between 55 and 63 mpg. Does anyone else miss the tachometer or is it just me?
You basically have two choices. Get an Android tablet and put the Torque app on it. On which you can display several gauges. Or, buy a ScanGauge where you can display 4 gauges at a time. The ScanGauge, for me, is easier to set up and use. Search for these on this forum and you will find a lot of good info.
Unless you know the exact RPM you should be at or stay under than it doesn't matter if you have one or not. The HSI indicator will tell you what you need to know until you know more about Prii and hypermiling. Then you can look into the options jbrad4 mentioned.
however... however, i too like a tach. my solution along with many other folks is the scan guage II. i also use it for water temp. do i have have it. no. do i choose to have and enjoy it. yup
yeah.. when you're accelerating, the HSI is the best thing to really use to gauge from. a tach isn't really indicative of how fast you're accelerating because of the Hybrid system and how it works together. most times, an individual would want to read the RPM of the ICE when they're using it to see if the ICE is running high or not and using it to help with their fuel economy.. not so much about acceleration and speed.
I do not use the tach in my scangauge for accelerating per se. It confirms wind speed and direction: 1700 No wind 1600 Tail wind 2000 Head wind etc. and it confirms how steep hills are. It is much more a 'how are the driving conditions stressing the power needed to go 61 MPH' meter for me.
