Scary Prius Moments...

Seeming almost invisible to other drivers, who change lanes on the freeway into my lane without checking their blind spot. It's a good thing I drive defensively and can almost always tell when they are going to do it. Also, it helps that I installed the FIAMM Freeway Blaster HI/Lo horns into the Prius. It sure gets their attention when I have to blast them to let them know I'm there.

 

I like the idea of the Freeway Blaster horns... folks switching lanes without checking their blind spot might also have to switch their Depends out for a clean pair, especially when they realized the blast came from a Prius....

 

Discovering that the antilock system thinks an uneven paved road is a wet road and applies brake force accordingly. Learned to start braking from farther away, also helping the regen system.

 

The first time the regen brakes switched off on rough pavement. (Answered here - now I expect it.)

The first time I walked into the garage and heard the purge cycle running in the middle of the night. (Answered here - normal.)

The first time I had the rough start was AFTER I read about it here, so I knew what it was and it wasn't scary - just annoying.

 

The very first time I test drove a Prius and the gas engine shut off (I knew nothing about the Prius aside from seeing the est. fuel economy on the sticker and that it had an eletric motor with a regular engine). It reminded me to much of when I drove a truck that had a faulty idle engine sensor that would shut off the engine when it idled to low.

 

Either that, or a new medication that functions like super-Viagra.

 

1. Staring at the HSI so intently to get better FE that I almost went into a ditch

2. Having an 18 wheeler right up my back end because I was going too slow on the freeway (maybe he was trying to draft me?)

Probably not as bad as some folks, but #2 really freaked me out.

 

Do the 2010s have VSC? It should not have drifted very far. Usually just a little jerk, followed by beeps and the flashing skid control icon, the car will slow some, and then you are on your merry way...

 

LOL @ Drafting.

I have found my DRCC awesome to draft 18 wheelers with on the one bar (100 ft) setting.

 

That used to get me too My college car had something sticky in the carb and used to totally fail to idle from time to time. Got pretty good at feathering the gas pedal with the side of my foot while simultaneously pressing the brake and clutch when stopped. Was also hyper sensitive to it stalling while rolling to a stop, so I could usually pop the clutch and restart before stopping Every so often when the ICE would quit on the Prius I'd try to pop the clutch to restart before remembering I didn't have one anymore

Rob

 

The first time you are forced to use the Panic Mode braking in bumper-to-bumper traffic and you stop much quicker than the car on your bumper.

 

The 3 doesn't have DRCC

 

One of the scariest moments for me was driving from Chicago to Seattle... Around Montana I was feeling tired so we stopped at a rest area and fell asleep with the AC on..... I would hear the ICE kick on intermittently. I totally lost track of the time, when I finally got around to, we were down to 1 bar of gas...
I don't know if you're familiar w/ Montana or not, but on the road, gas stations are few and far between.
We had to back track to find a place for gas... I'm sure we made it on vapors alone...

 

Drove Montana back in the Middle Ages... not much there other than impressive thunderstorms inbetween gorgeous mountains and grizzly traps from my youthful memories - when they can harness that lightning power through generators to something we can safely use... what a day it will be!

 

1) Driving behind a 18 wheeler and feeling the turbulence on front end along with swaying and rattling of the body. Really need to hold tightly on to that steering wheel if you don't want to drive to a ditch.

2) Driving beside front end of 18 wheeler and feeling their side wheel turbulence trying to drive you off your lane.

 

Occasionally the TC indicator lights up and I lose regen braking, which is scary since the friction brakes by themselves are very unresponsive.

Figured out this happens when I leave my phone syncd to a kiwi obdii adapter when I shut the car off (to run into a store real quick, for example) then return to the car and drive again.

phone using an app

 

First time ever employing ABS in any vehicle, but when bozo looked straight at me talking on her cell phone, then pulled from side road RIGHT in front of me - ABS did wonderfully - Totally impressed with how quick she stopped!

BlackBerry 9930 ?