Hey everyone, I'm a prius newbie. I picked up a silver/dark grey IV w/nav yesterday after trading in my old clunker right at the deadline. I travel a lot and had orchastrated the whole deal from San Franciso while on business. I never stepped foot into the dealership (yet), never met the sales agent but managed to aquire the car at MSRP. My wife took delivery of the vehicle yesterday. I'm still traveling and can't wait to get back to NJ to take my baby for a spin. I'm new to hybrids and was wondering if anyone has advice for how to drive the vehicle. Is it any different from a "regular" car? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Russ
:welcome: Russ, Welcome to the Prius Family As for learning how to drive the car, I would for the first few days, just try to drive it like a 'normal car'. Then, once you get the feel for it, and the way that it responds, you can try to start to get higher mileage. This is a 'game' that will not stop, as you will always want to better that last trip. The one tip that was given to me (Thanks, a priori), was to try to keep the HSI (Hybrid System Indicator) below 75% at all times is possible. When I do that regularly, I tend to get mileage above 60.also, try to 'coast' with no energy being displayed on that screen, as much as possible. You can search here for more tips, but I swear that when I do only these two things, I get much better mileage than if I try all the other tricks combined. Drive it for a few days, and come back for more tips.
Congratulations! You may want to spend some time in the Fuel Economy Forum for more details on driving techniques and a better understanding of how the Prius works. But I found that if I drive sensibily - just doing the things we've always been told will be gas-saving like no jack-rabbit starts, and long, slow braking - I see over 55 mpg on the dashboard readout regularly. It's fun to drive - enjoy and let us know what you think!
