Car has no pickup speed from a stop!

This will be a huge adjustment for me coming from a stick shift. I learned how to drive a stick and automatic at the same time. And I remember my dad blaming me for ruining the transmission in the Buick for hitting the gas too hard like I was in the Colt. So now I have transmission anxiety in automatic cars. Was my dad full of it?

 

And if you are driving to keep that ECO leaf symbol lit 100% of the time, then yes, you will be going slow off the line. The ECO leaf is a nice goal, but there are some times it just can't be maintained (some of the hills here are too steep to keep that indicator lit at any speed, for example).

 

My now-ancient 2004 still does pretty good if I push the gas pedal half-way to the floor. That's when I'm first in line at the light, though. Otherwise it'd be messy...

 

I'm not sure if all gas pedals are drive-by-wire now-a-days, but the Prius definitely is. When you push it down, you're telling the computer you want to go. For a medium amount of acceleration, ECO mode requires you to push farther than Normal mode, which requires you to push farther than PWR mode.

By the time you've pushed the pedal all the way down, all three modes result in the same amount of power. (As far as I understand.) So in one sense, the three modes are more of a sensitivity setting for your game controller: do you want a twitchy setting (PWR) or a smoother setting (ECO) or somewhere in between (Normal)?

Beyond that, they do change other settings as well. ECO mode runs the air conditioner in a lower mode, and I also think it causes the gasoline engine (ICE) to cut off sooner when it's not needed. It may be that PWR mode also causes the electric motor to be more likely to jump in and assist without you flooring it, etc, etc.

 

What did you expect? Its a 134hp car that weighs 2700+ lbs. Were you expecting head-snapping power AND 50mpg?

 

You are correct. If Toyota would explain this clearly to new owners, there would be a lot less confusion. All modes have full power available, the mode selection only affects how far down and how hard you need to push the gas pedal to get that power. It would be risky to have modes where you couldn't accelerate at the maximum rate. For safety reasons you sometimes need all the power the car can provide to be available regardless of what mode is selected.

 

modes

I have names for the modes I often share with my clients.
One aside: Where is your salesperson? You should know what every button is and what it does. Shame on the person who did your delivery. Jane/I do our own deliveries except when cars are shipped out of the area... and if you picked the car up at a dealership, march right back in and demand a proper delivery.

Anyway, I often tell folks the button philisophy:

ECO: that's your training wheels, to learn how to minimize acceleration and improve fuel economy.
POWER: I don't care about fuel or average econ right now. I want SPEED baby!
EV: Let's see how long we can coast on no fuel used

No Mode: drive it like you don't need training wheels!

 

To all the other's advice I would only add that this is the most interesting car I've ever owned. It gives you a lot to think about! Every time I get in I can drive it a little differently and there's a 'mode' for every road condition I encounter. It's so much more interesting than just getting in and pressing the pedal! So don't be afraid to experiment!! While there are techniques for getting maximum FE from the car, I'm pretty sure there's no wrong way to drive a Prius.

 

+1 to DeanFL's points.

Like Dean, I leave mine in ECO because it reduces power drain by ancillary systems (mostly the AC as far as I can tell).

I noticed a couple of important things after driving in ECO 95% of the time for a couple of weeks, then driving in normal mode for a couple of weeks, then switching back to ECO all the time.

First off, I typically got a few MPG better in ECO, probably due to a combination of reduced drain on the car's systems and the slower acceleration.

But perhaps more importantly, I've noticed that it really doesn't make a significant difference to your drive time when you accelerate off the line slowly. Sure, the car behind you gets upset because they're used to stomping on the gas just like you used to do, but it really doesn't add hardly any time to your drive.

This is especially true for local drives in urban or suburban areas where there are lots of stop signs and stop lights. I see the car in front of me leap off the line and roar down the street, and I accelerate slowly off the line, but 2 minutes later I'm stopped right behind that other car at the next light. And even on the off chance that other car beat me through the next light before it turned red, sitting through an extra light really doesn't have an impact on my monthly commute average time.

It's a psychological barrier I've found I've had to get over. I used to drive a stick and leap off the line like everyone else; now I feel like a little old man creeping along when the light turns green. But the Prius still gets up to 40-45 mph fairly quickly in ECO mode, just a few seconds later than everyone else. And that translates to money you can take to the bank with the extra fuel economy you'll get.

Or if you feel like it, you can just turn off ECO or turn on PWR.

 

Re: modes

LOL too bad I live so far away, I would have bought a car from you. Although our sales person was honest and reasonably competent, she didn't show us the controls: we showed her how to work them.

 

Why bother with the ECO mode unless you like to block traffic? The difference between ECO mode and Power mode is very small. Personally I actually get less gas mileage in ECO mode because I am spending more time trying to accelerate. The car is dog slow with it, almost dangerous.

 

Sounds like ankle problems to me. Straighten it out more and thing go faster.

 

I don't think you need to worry too much about power mode significantly hurting your gas mileage, as long as you're a bit cautious about how you drive while using it.

Read the following link for more opinions on this:

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii.../65275-power-mode-gas-mileage.html#post902253

 

So then ... what you wanted was a car with the highest mpg in the u.s. AND you wanted it to burn rubber for what ... 100 feet? ... 200 feet? or maybe even better ... and maybe as you waste tread burning out ... you actually GAIN mpg AND longer tread life ... maybe improve road safety too ... all at the same time
Nope. There a certain laws in physics that the universe has to abide by, unfortunately.

 

+1 to that! :cheer2:

If you really have to drive like all the 'regular' people on the road, go ahead and put it in power mode and stomp on it. You'll still get better gas mileage than every other car on the road... even as your blowing their doors off! And when that gets old, play the 'how high can I get my mpg' game. Then the how long can I go without the ICE game. It really does make driving a lot more fun

 

Yeah - that's so true!

 

I'm enjoying the various modes, but I'm feeling stressed just trying to get a high mpg! And I'm only on my second tank of gas. My first tank averaged 51.5, all in ECO mode. Other folks talk about getting 58 and 59 so I thought I'd try really hard for a better "score" this time. I'm 85 miles into round II, but I'm only at 50 mpg and feeling like I'm failing at the Prius Game. Meanwhile my old car got 19 mpg so I should be ecstatic--not depressed--that I'm getting 50! Sometimes I wonder if I should just stop playing the Game and just have fun DRIVING!

 

Have fun driving!

Read, read, read. This site is full of stories on MPG. As you read more, you will find out how your driving style, your commute time/distance, comfort levels, tire pressure, etc etc etc play into your mileage. There is a "You won't get 50 mpg if you" thread in the fuel mileage section. That is a nice read (assuming you don't take it personally, it was meant to address typical "roadblocks" preventing people from attaining lofty MPG numbers.

To OP - many members feel that if you accelerate briskly (not slowly, but not flooring it either) and get up to speed relatively quickly (say as fast as cars around you) and then let off the accelerator, that you'll get better MPG than if you "baby" it up to speed. Try it.

 

That's also what I've herd. I'm going to try that out tomorrow to see how that works out.

 

In ECO mode you just have to press the gas pedal a bit more. Hardly qualifies as 'dangerous'. You apparently still have a lot to learn about your car.