This is my first Pruis and there are more Dash displays than four Ford cars. My question is which one to drive by for the best MPG and which Mode is best to Drive in for the best MPG. Gosh I even have reread the manual to even find out where the gas gauge is. :crazy:
LOL, you do have choices. When I first started driving hybrids I likes the one minute display. However now I use the one that shows the long horizontal box that goes between charge and power. Remenber too you also have to make a choice as to which trip screen you will use as well. I use B for the tank average and A for the current trip average.
I use the Hybrid System Indicator 95%+ of the time, switching to the 1 or 5 minute consumption screens only when curious about trends or to see the short-term effects of pulse and glide. I don't find much use for the power flow screen, and the past trip info screen is good to glance at once in a while to observe trends.
I also use the Hybrid System Indicator. When the bar goes beyond halfway the ICE kicks in. When you have a decent charge in the battery, as long as you keep it from going beyond halfway, you can run on electric. That seems like the most useful screen to me. Interested to see what the consensus is.
I used to watch the 1 minute display but those results are "after the fact". I now only use the Hybrid System Indicator because it shows you "real time" results of your driving habits. As others have noted the ICE will run when you get past the halfway mark at speeds below 45 MPH so you can make an effort to keep the line below that mark for engine off driving.
The nice thing about the Hybrid System Indicator screen is that it's fairly large and the moving band showing you where you are is easy to see. One of the real tricks to maximizing FE is to practice lifting your foot and reapplying the light touch on the accelerator until it becomes a second nature. It will be aggrivating at first and you'll forget it from time to time. But here is a common scenario. You pull out from a stop, accelerate and while you may be going say 50 mph, the instant fuel gage may be reading 40 mpg and the ICE is on. If you lift your foot (while observing the gage and the instant FE indicator) you see the instant FE gage shoot up to 100 and the bar on the eco gage moves to the left. You apply light pressure to the gas pedal and kick in the battery power. The speed does not drop, you see a 55 to 60 mpg reading and you're moving along like that until you hit a slope. Then you start the process over. You don't have to necessarily drive slow to get results from the system but it helps if you are willing to push it from time to time. Watching the screens and experimenting will improve anyones milage and driving habits.
I use the the five minute display most of the time and when not in that screen I use the long box between charge and power. I agree with WVGASGUY with the light touch onthe pedal after you have reached the desired speed. I take my foot off the accelerator and then lightly touch it. My mileage to date on IV with SR is 54.8 and 1400 miles on the car Great improvement from my previous 17.6 mpg car
It's my first Prius too, so I've been wondering what others use. We've only had the car for 10 days and traveled 225 miles. But so far, the Hybrid Systems indicator is my favorite display for its instantaneous feedback. Until today, I'd been driving in base mode, but used ECO for most of a 75 mile trip today and averaged 57 mpg with the AC running, which is 5 mpg better than any previous trip w/o AC.
I too use the HSI screen 98% of the time with infrequent changes to the 1 minute screen, and keep the car in ECO mode unless I need PWR mode real quick... I actually never go into normal mode, go figure.
I stay in ECO mode and use the indicator with the ECO icon. I use cruise control most of the time while on the road, and pulse and glide using the cruise, (cancel, resume), trying to hit resume on the downhill side if possible. First Prius and I seem to be averaging around 48 to 51 mpg. Love it. Beats 17mpg by a long shot for sure.
I stopped using Hybrid System Indicator and now use the Power Flow just because passengers think its neat. I'll check my one minute every once in a while. The reason I don't use HSI is that it's a lot easier to tell when I am in all electric mode at speeds of 30-40ish just by using the instantaneous MPG. The problem I have noticed is after you 'pulse' you generally have to take your foot completely off the throttle for a split second to enter elec mode at higher speeds where you really make good MPG (you can tell when instantaneous MPG is 100). If you just release the throttle slowly and watch the HSI bar you can end using some gas in the left half of the HSI graph near the middle at speed, and this encourages you to let it drift further to the left to get into elec drive requiring another 'pulse' sooner. If you take your foot completely off the gas and return to the same level on the HSI (near the center but to the left of the midpoint) you will now have better MPG as you enter all elec drive and can get the nominal 100 MPG in all electric right up to the halfway point. I find it's easier to do by monitoring the instantaneous MPG and going by feel rather than using HSI. I can also monitor my warm up and battery topoff periods as well.
I used the power flow screen today just to see how I liked it. I am currently averaging 52.8 MPG over the last 300 + miles since I got the car. My average speed is 20 MPH. I still prefer the HSI screen to the power flow screen. The cool thing about the power flow screen on the Gen II was how large it was. It was also really fun to get into stealth mode (no power indicated in either direction). Does that happen on the Gen III? I was attempting get into stealth, but I don't think I was able to do it.
I try to keep the display on the Hybrid System Indicator. However, the Dynamic Radar Cruise Control has its own idea. It keeps superseding my choice. It appears that whenever the radar detects a car moving in or out of range it insists on replacing the display I chose with the cruise control display to show me that the car icon has been added or deleted. It is very annoying! It is especially annoying since the cruise control display doesn't include the average fuel economy value. On the other displays, the bottom line shows the full trip data (i.e. which trip meter is displayed, the distance, the average fuel economy, and the average speed). On the cruise control display, it only shows the trip meter in use and the distance for that meter.
