Just got back tonight from a grueling 2,000 mile trip to pick up my Sea Glass Pearl Prius four with Deluxe Solar (premium nav required) from Billings, Montana. AT LAST, I can feel like a full-fledged member of PriusChat! On the way back we climbed and descended the hilly terrain of the Black Hills to visit Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial site and still managed to get 45.6 mpg (hand-calculated) on the first nine gallons! Fuel economy slipped to under 40 on the flatter sections after we were forced to fill with E-10 (no straight gasoline available) at a gas station that looked really questionable to me. But we got on down the road and topped off with 5.3 gallons of nice Shell 87-octane ethanol-free gas and by the next fill-up we were back up to a little less than 45. Only things that bother me to this point are: 1) No coolant temperature gauge that I can find. Having had a little experience in the past with engines overheating or starting to overheat, I feel insecure without this gauge. 2) Daytime driving was great, but am having a hell of a time seeing sufficiently ahead of me on an unlit road at night, PARTICULARLY if there are cars behind me shining lights into the cabin and reflecting lights back on me from the mirrors. Ideas for remedying 1 or 2? On 2 I was thinking that if the cargo cover was pulled over the lower back, then it will reduce at least SOME of the light. Maybe tint the windows to maximum legal tint, too? In a moment of desperation also tried re-aiming the mirrors to reflect back at the other cars, instead of into my eyes. Anything to reduce the reflectance of the rear-view side mirrors without significantly deteriorating their function? Thank you for your thoughts!
Congrats on you new Prius. I suggest you use the tern "Four" instead of "4". That is technically correct and will avoid some "generation" issues in the future. The window tint is an absolute "must" for me. I was able to get the dealer to have that done prior to writing the check for the car purchase. You will also find that the "Four" is going to save you a lot of decisions in the future. I constantly see people writing about "should I get the EBay back-up camera", or "should I get leather installed", or "should I get this or that". I am glad that I answered those questions when I decided on the Four over the Three. I do know that most of these things can be ordered on the Three but it seems that a lot of people only consider them after their initial purchase. I also love my sharkfin antenna and side molding (after-market purchases). I got the scan gauge to let me stay on top of things like coolant temp, etc. I have not been bothered by the lights on cars that follow me at night. But then, I don't do a lot of night driving. I expect you will love the car more and more. I use to get "grief" from family members because they remembered me as the guy that had to "be involved" in the driving experience. I drove the Saabs, the BMWs and other cars noted for their handling traits. I tell them now that I am still "involved" in the driving experience, just on a different lever. I now take pride in anticipating stops, and doing other gas-saving tricks.
Congrats on the car. Window tinting is will help with the lights through the back window. I drove mine for a week before getting the windows tinted and it made a huge difference.
Congrats! I was hope you would report in when you'd picked up your Four. Great color! Play a little with the angle of the rear-view mirror. The auto-dimming will work, but it's a little quirky. I know that doesn't help with the side mirrors. But to avoid blind spots, the side mirrors should not be looking behind the car anyway.
There is an overheat light, but to your point, that's more of a "you're already too hot" light. In the 3 cars I've had (200k miles combined), I've never had that light come on. The Scan Gauge II device can show water temp (as well as many other things). Once it's at operating temperature, I've never seen it get beyond 197°F, and it's usually lingering at 190°F on a cooler day, and 195°F on warmer days with A/C. Do some searching here on Priuschat if you're interested in this device or seeing interesting data from the car.
Great choice of color ! I could have worked a killer deal on a 2011 but I wanted that Sea Glass Pearl too. Enjoy ! John
Congrats on the new ride. As far as the mpg's you are getting so far, don't seat it. First there is the break-in period. Then watch this video to get an idea on how to get better mpg's: Consider joining in on Fuelly to track your mpg's and to share with the rest of us as time goes on.
I don't know which temp I'd measure -- There's engine coolant, inverter coolant, transaxle temperature and traction battery temperature.
congrats ralleia. i remember your dealer screwing you over by selling "your car" and forcing you to wait another month. then you had the month long debate 3 vs 4. 1. scangauge. ive been looking to get one for two months. the cheapest ive seen so far is amazon's 160. 2. like everyone said, tint does help. lights that are blinding you are probably due to people that improper HID kits. properly set up HIDs have cutoffs that never shine the light above the bummer. if you can't see far enough with the factory lights, then follow wick1ert's thread. HID cutoff not as good as I thought? | Page 8 | PriusChat did you get the dealer to turn the continuous reverse beep into a single beep? turn sks on for all doors instead of driver side? if no, then you can change these yourself with the scangauge. and seagrass green? its nice. but i thought you were another brigade member.
I installed the OEM foglights on my 2011 Prius 3, so I'd highly recommend doing the same on your 2012 when they come out with a kit. However, there is that problem regarding having to buy a new lower grill to accommodate the foglights. They definitely allow you to put more light down the road.
Having to wait on this twin car to arrive at the dealership actually worked out ok. In order to pick up the first four, I would have been making this trip the week of final exams, which would have been more stress. If I have any criticism at all of this particular dealer, it would be that they weren't able to tell me until the day before the car arrived at the dealership that it was finally available. I had originally wanted to try to make the trip to pick up the car via train, but without a couple weeks notice at least, seats and family rooms fill up! Everyone at this dealership was super nice however, and for me, the no-hassle pricing and having straightforward communications with the dealer is the only way to go. It was well worth the 2,000 mile trip for me. We're even considering another trip(s) in the future because I have my dad thinking HyCams now. He might get one next year, and my mom's old Camry will also eventually need replacing. So next time we might drive out with one car and come back with two! Naw, the sea glass pear was always my preferred color! We live along a dusty gravel/dirt road, and anything white or black quickly becomes some not-so-white-or-black color. The cursed HyCam that we had very briefly was bright white, and it even looked out of place. That plus it never did anything for us except sit dead in the driveway. I am MUCH happier with this little green Pri!!! And I am quite happy that I stuck with the four instead of the three, even with the additional $5K. My lower back was fine the whole trip back. My tush and left leg not as happy, but we all made it back. I'll check out that scangauge, HID cutoffs, tint for SURE, and the fogs. The beeping on reverse doesn't really irritate me yet (grew up over in Europe and am pretty used to that sound for backing vehicles) and I don't know what the sks is... Would the scangauge allow me to see the tire pressure in all the tires, like the tire pressure screen on the loaded hybrid Camry XLE? If so, I will be all over that in a heartbeat!
SKS is the Smart Key System. Default is that only the driver door opens upon touching. Option is to have all doors unlock when you touch.
I actually set mine up for all of them (transaxle temp is actually MG1 and MG2 temps as separate values, IIRC), but I'm most concerned about engine coolant since it runs the hottest. There's only 4 fields in a single ScanGauge (you can stack two though). You could try Torque via phone for additional simultaneous data, however one has to wonder how many frequent polls the ECU will tolerate (not thinking gratuitous data like tach, accelerator position, etc.). I digress...
sks - smart key system. or keyless open/lock system. fogs - not to burst your bubble but its really hard to diy the fog lights on the 2012 because only the 2012 five has the bumper grill to support the fog lights. you need to buy a $160ish bumper to replace your four's bumper. then buy the fog lights at pc store for even more $$$.
U can go to autoanything.com as they sell scangauge w/ free shipping & use their 10 to 15 percent promo which they give out frequently. They will charge u tax since u live in CA. but still cheaper if u get 15 % off.
As others have already mentioned, ScanGauge-II ($134.95 at cleanmpg.com) is the most popular, but there are numerous other engine monitors available. ScanGaugeE, displaying just 2 items, is cheaper. A similar competing product is named Kiwi. And several other devices can connect via BlueTooth to your smart phone. Pointing the mirrors back is a waste of effort, as it is nearly impossible to get the aim right. A bunch of retroreflectors on the back of the car will do better. Many of us no longer point the outside mirrors straight back, thus avoiding the headlights of cars directly behind. Instead, point these mirrors to the side, minimizing the flank blind spots when driving on multilane roads. This has been discussed in many threads. With this strategy, only the inside mirror points straight back. If the night dimming switch isn't enough, i.e. they are tailgating with high beams, then you just need to let or make them go around, forcing them to pass if necessary. The cargo cover will not help, it is too low to block the lower window.
