My Dad has a Gen II Prius so I've driven his quite a bit but one thing I've never tried is sitting in the car with the heat on waiting for one of the kids. Now I know, that isnt' the right thing to do and I rarely do this anyway but there has been an occasion where I've been freezing at soccer practice, band practice, church- whatever and will turn the car on and heat it up for a few minutes before it goes off again. (Never a/c - heat only) Is this possible in the Prius C or do I need more blankets?
When the car is upto temperature the heating system is quite efficient and you can leave the car in Ready mode and it will keep the inside warm, only occasionally turning the engine on and off to keep the heat level right. When the car is cold it will run the engine to warm both itself and the heater (which gets its heat from the engine coolant system) and then switch off when upto temp. I used to use my Prius as a taxi and it was nice to keep warm between jobs without running the engine continuously.
If youre an mpg geek it makes for some disappointing gas mileage. Since it's started to get cold I now start my car to get the frost off with windshield before I leave. If I let it sit to warm up for 5 minutes before leaving my average mpg goes down to about 35 when it is normally upper 50's. My drive to work is maybe 5 miles. I know, a prius driver of all people shouldn't be warming their car up in the morning but it has to be done.
plenny of people do this and keep in mind, you're using a lot less gas than a regular because the ice turns on and off instead of running constantly.
Would an engine block heater help? I don't know how powerful they are but I've heard they are very easy to install. I figure you'd use less gas if the engine started out warm.
