Ran out of Gas, got BAD advice from Dealership!

For emission control, the Prius uses a rubber bladder for the fuel tank. In the summer time, the capacity might be 11.9 gallons. But when temperature changes, the tank capacity changes as well due to expansion and contraction of the rubber bladder. So the smart thing to do is just listen to the car and don't do it again.

Enjoy your Prius!

 

BTW, you will find the people on this forum know way more about the Prius than most dealer service managers. I have been told by my service writer (after telling him that I had repaired the dash rattles they couldn't find) that I shouldn't take apart the dash or work on the car because the Prius is different than other cars and has DANGEROUS voltages that could kill me. (I'm sure Toyota corporate would be thrilled to hear that advice, they've been fighting that kind of image for 7 years now!)

 

I've always run my tanks down to empty in all cars previous to the Prius. The Prius is a different animal though. In my previous cars, the mileage would improve as the tank emptied but it doesn't seem to affect the Prius at all. Also, the manual says to fill it up before it gets down to a quarter of a tank so I think that that's the prudent thing to do.

 

I just checked with Toyota, and it has definately been d/c as a complimentary service for 2006 Prius. Even though in the pocket reference, they will not honor it.

 

Heck, on my last visit (2 weeks ago) to the Toyota dealership here in Leesburg, I found out that 2 of the sales guys didn't even know about PC and were surprised that I knew so much info on the Prius models. One doesn't own a computer! I'm not sure they like "informed" consumers.

I'm sorry gbgirl79 that I sounded a little harsh.

 

Thank you JackDodge! The bottom line is the manual says to fill it up before you get to a quarter of a tank. Now that is common sense; to follow what it says in the manual. RTFM!

 

Heck yes it does. This chart explains why it is so important to keep records. Unlike all the other folks making claims on mileage, mine are out there for all to see.

Running the heater requires HOT coolant. Hot coolant can only come from one place and that's the internal combustion engine (ICE). This means that when you come to a stop, unlike in the summer, the engine stays on! It's pretty amazine how much energy we waste running motors at stop lights!

 

The sales guy at my local dealership didn't know that you didn't need a key to open or start the car. He even challenged me about it. Said go ahead and start the car. I pushed power and started pulling away. He looked at my all confused. Didn't even know that you didn't need a key with the Smart Key option. He said he has all along been inserting the key. He said I knew more than him. I said yeah maybe I should steal your job from you I was just suprised about it. That is one feature I would be showing off if I was a Toyota sales person.

If they don't even know about the options it seems like the know very little about the car overall!

 

it won't add up. you'll never get much more than 10 gallons, if that, into that tank. especially in january. my average fill up in NC right now is around 7-8 gallons. in the summertime it gets closer to 10.

i'm telling you calculating this stuff will do no good on estimating what's left in the gas tank.

i'm glad you'll stop next time when you see the blinking light. that is the car's way of saying 'hey, get gas' and it's best to listen.

as far as dealers, bad dealers will in fact try to take advantage of overly concerned prius owners and try to get them in for all sorts of crap they don't need. find a good, honest dealer and stick with them.

as far as the bf doing work on your car, oil changes/tire rotations are fine. but major work does require a prius tech.

 

Odds are, he didn't top it off....just enough to fill the bars.

 

they only know where the cup holders are. anything beyond that --> :blink:
At least apply to my salesman.

 

Thanks for the tip! I guess I should RTFM after all. Since I'd been driving a Prius for so long, the 06 Pkg 7 was just an upgrade for me. I learned about the smart key and the new shifter when I picked up the car on Jan 2, and never felt the urge to read the manual. The only time I opened it was to look up the Homelink programming stuff. Everything else seems so intuitive.

 

Yeah, it doesn't matter how great the car is, you still have to deal with the usual clueless salesperson or dealership. Mine was great, though. The dealership has one salesman who's basically the Prius expert. They send people looking for a Prius to him. They also have a mechanic who's the expert at the Prius too. They take pretty good care of Prius owners there.

 

You're most welcome, AgilePagile and mmfjj. Actually, this board seems to have quite a few people who actually read the manual which is rare for this society in general.

 

Yeah that was the first thing my salesman man pointed out when I bought the car.