2010: How do I make PWR mode default?

The only way to make pwr mode the default setting in your Prius is every time you start the Prius you push the power mode button then by default you will always be in power mode Glad I could help next question!

 

Yeah, this is one of those areas where you have to think is it worth the effort of taking everything apart to rewire stuff so the car automatically comes up in PWR mode? Or, is it easier to just press the button when you start the car? You press the buttons on the radio umteen times per commute...so what's one more push of a button?

At first, I hated ECO mode. I normally drove in Normal mode all the time. Then I made myself drive a full tank of gas on ECO only. My mpg's went up two or three miles per gallon. Part of that was due to the A/C modulation, and part comes from me being more in control of the throttle position. It's much easier to hold the pedal in a specific place to coast in ECO than it is in the other modes (at least for me). If I want to go faster, I depress the accelerator more.

PWR is fun on occasion though, but I prefer to save the extra gas and stay in ECO mode. I'm in no hurry to get to/from work...it's just more "me" time in the car. Would you rather be the tortoise, or the hare? I'm finding (after many years of driving) being the "tortoise" is actually more effective and efficient in getting from one place to the other, and I'm WAY less stressed out when I just take a chill pill and drive. As long as I stay with the flow of traffic, I'm cool. It's not a race.

On a sidenote, I got in my wife's car the other day to drive it to the car wash...she has a Kia Soul. It felt like a rocket because I was so used to ECO mode in the Guac. It was sort of fun for a little while...but driving like that on a regular basis would kill the mpg's on the Kia.

 

If you have fine enough motor skills, you can keep it on batteries without turning on the ICE in PWR mode just as easily as you can in ECO. Just depends how sensitive you can move your foot.

 

I've changed my attitude over the 5 years of driving my 3 prius's.
I now just drive them.. my Gen III stays in pwr mode but I have to press the button.... Even to go for a short jaunt, I still put it in pwr just because thats what I'm used to now and so I'm a better safer driver as my foot knows what to expect out of the gas pedal in that mode.

Its easy to become a slave to the gas mileage.
What I mean is... so I can save another 5 - 8 mpg if I pay attention right?
Yes, but at what cost?

While good gas saving driving habits are entrained in me now from what the instrumentation, I throw it all out the window for the most part and just enjoy my car..... same as I would if I were driving my motorcycle.

We are having a streak of over 100 degree days, most around 104 to 108.. the air is on "all" the time.. so in spite of going crazy, the mileage is still going to take a good hit.

IMO, extreme saving gas measures should only be considered if one is doing it for the sheer fun of it and the challenge... otherwise it drives the other drivers on the road crazy, and distracts from my time of contemplation, or listening to my favorite show, music, or informative radio.

While driving totally carefree and relaxed without regard for gas mileage, my prius still gets better gas mileage than most any motorcycle out there..... its doing its job.... I shouldn't have to!

 

Windstrings/Alan - this is why I wrote this:
Tips for "normal" driving a Prius

A saving of 0.2L/100km while risking a car accident does not save anybody's fuel. And at the end of the day, the only true way to save fuel is to walk, use a bike, take public transport.

I used to check the gauges all the time and "freak out" if the fuel consumption was not to my liking. Then after the first 6 months I got annoyed and tried not to use any of the gauges at all, but it was also annoying, I was still curious of what was going on. After all I bought a car to save fuel...
Right now I am simply training my foot on accelerating in city traffic, when possible, by using the electric motor up to 20km/h and then using the ICE by keeping the HSI bar slightly above the middle line, as I have found out for the type of traffic and routes I take everyday this makes me achieve very good fuel consumptions on a consistent basis (less than 4.5L/100km), when conditions are favourable.
During this I am keeping the HSI bar both in the head-up display and the MFD for better bar length resolution.

Once my foot is trained, I will probably stick to the "settings" screen or the 5-min consumption screen and keep only the ODO number on or even nothing at all. And keep the HSI bar in the head-up display as it is a good feedback to know if you are "overdoing" it...

 

Watching the guages and developing or "reteaching" driving habits allow you to do with your subconcious what others do with concentration and distraction.

At first, when you learn to drive a car.... every thing you do takes thought and attention.. later its all automatic.

How many times have I gone through an intersection just to ask "was that light red or green?".. then I see traffic behind me passing also indicating I looked but wasn't concious of the act.

I think its good to use all the tools the first couple of years and then you slowly use less and less attention to do the same thing.

But having said all that, I still throw it all to the wind if I want to blast to a nearby position or spot..... others would freak and say "but if I do that, I will blow my savings!"..

Similar to being on a 7 day diet and then passing up a free Rib-eye and baked potato because you don't want to lose all the hard work you gained.

I figure It all comes out in the wash, and my driving pleasure is my top priority.

The car is our slave.. we are the master... it serves us...... not the other way around.

If you get a ton of satisfaction to be able to show up at work and boast that you got 56 mpg on your way in.... .then its all worth it!

But I don't like having my tires sliced! LOL!

 

The default power setting behavior is the one most annoying things about my 2010 Prius. I had a 2004 before this one and enjoyed driving it more than this one just for that reason. The 2010 feels like a slug in any mode other than "PWR" and even in "PWR" mode is not as "frisky" as my 2004. I am able to get excellent mileage in any mode, but prefer "PWR" as it more closely duplicates the throttle response that most other cars have. Let it default to the last setting before power-off in ALL modes, I say!

 

Agreed

 

Good to see you back on here Alan. :rockon:

 

thanks and good morning Tom!

I've had lots of distractions... lots of hobbies, ..... lots of work.... Lots of play...

Anyway, I think one of the competitors is advertising now " no buttons to push... ".... it may be the mazda3 commercial with the skyactive engine that gets 40mph... I've heard by Ed Wallace "car commentator on KLIF 570AM here in FortWorth on Sat mornings" that he took it easy and got up to 47mph.... thats not hybrid... no battery!.... and plenty of pep!...

I haven't drove one myself....

But since it takes about about 5 years for an idea or real change to manifest itself and hit the market, I"m certainly hoping Toyota has some aces up their sleeve to trump this.

The skyactive engine with mazda will be the norm for all their future cars is the rumour since its so efficient.... not sure what it would do in a hybrid machine like the Prius???

But its getting quite interesting!
Seems the days of the Honda insight and throttling along at a snails pace to squeeze out 5 more mph is not in demand and none of the carmakers seem to be targeting that way either.. not even Toyota who makes the Camry hybrid to accent on power rather than gas mileage with the hybrid technology.

Then you have the Chevy Volt.. ah yes !.... a half baked premature project that shouldn't have been released yet IMO.. but they got so much government funding they released it anyway.... who cares if its functional right... as long as uncle sam forking over the bucks Chevy will release anything!
For anyone in the know, they aren't deceieved by the sales pitch that it has backup gas.... LOL! Who wants to pull over on the side of the road an lose all their time waiting for the gas engine to charge the batteries?
Only good for folks with very short round trips who have a very predictable schedule and don't mind being trapped by not having the latitude to change plans and run across town for dinner after work on a whim.

Then theres the Tesla... Hum!.... very promising if it didn't cost 70 grand!
At least thats with the extended battery!
Even then I would want some type of gas backup for long trips without access to power.....

We have to have an electric car thats more than just a commuter... if I'm gonna spend serious money, I can't afford two cars and neither does my driveway have the space for each of us to have two cars for work and one for all else.
Busy families don't do the "for all else" except every few months or maybe weekends..... thats a lot of depreciation sitting in the driveway as the months and years tick by while I'm barely using the car!
I need a car that does it all... except maybe pull my boat!

Now that I've completely distracted this thread.. LOL!.... suffice to say Toyota could have a very easy fix for the power button issue.

But since its so simple it must not be too much of an issue globally or I would see a mod out to override it on the forums.... maybe there is one?....

Now that I"m totally comfortable with the gas mileage software and how to drive a prius, I agree with the gentleman above who states he gets good mileage whether he's in power mode or economy mode.

To me its a choice of two:
1. I run in economy or normal mode and just punch the gas more to get the job done when needed. "while once it kicks, it kicks.. its too mushy compared to other cars".
2. Or run in power mode all the time and just get in the habit of being very sensitive on the throttle.

I prefer the sporty feel better than the mushy feel.

 

That'll be the day that a Mazda gets the MPG's that it advertises (or better) .... they're good cars, but they've always been the WORST at getting their advertised numbers. I think that guy warmed it up, then reset the trip odometer while he was coasting downhill for a mile if he says he saw 47 MPG with a Mazda 3 .... Skyactiv or not.

CR got 32 MPG overall with their Skyactiv 3, and barely eked out 40 MPG on pure highway running. Anything less than pure highway and you're in the mid-30's at best.

REV

 

Without power mode I would not enjoy driving the car. With it, the response is acceptable. The next generation should make Power Mode persistent.

 

So to see what all the fuss was about, I tried driving home with power mode and I didn't care for it. The power doesn't seem to come on very smoothly and the engine was just making noise constantly. She does drive quite differently with it on so I can see the attraction.

With my all city commute, I've learned that no matter how fast you go, there are too many lights that keep you from getting very far ahead so the added boost isn't too useful. And half the time, people are too busy facebooking at lights so you end up having to wait for them anyways.

It did seem to lend itself better to pulse and glide but I still don't really get how that works. I think it's because there aren't enough stretches where I'm only maintaining speed.

 

Install an aftermarket throttle controller (Apexi, Blitz, etc.), set the car into ECO mode and program the controller to the behaviour you like. This way you have the goodies from ECO mode (sooner switch off of the ICE and other power safers) but the responsives of the PWR mode.

 

Keep in mind to only difference in ECO, Normal, or Power modes is pedal mapping. The total amount of power available at full throttle is identical in all three modes. The only difference is the rate of response at different positions of the pedal.

Power mode gives you most of the power during the first half of pedal travel and not much change after that. This is how a lot cars are configured because when you first push the throttle a small amount you get a big change in power. This gives the impression that the car has a lot of power available.

ECO mode is just the opposite, the first half of the pedal is for very fine control and works good if you drive by the HSI.

Normal (one of the other two not selected) is between the two and a lot like the Gen2 Prius.

I think you can learn, fairly quickly, to adapt to any one of the three. New Prius owners, as well as some old ones, often prefer the Power mode because it feels a lot like what they are used to when driving non-hybrid cars.

 

Eco mode also does some work with the A/C compressor, cycling it less so that you can get better mileage.

 

I've noticed that some times the engine will cut out as soon as I come to a stop only to be started again very shortly when we move again. Is there a way to keep the engine from cycling too often over a very short period?

 

Engine short cycling is not a problem with the Prius - it's designed for it.

Eco mode will encourage engine shut down, so in that respect it may increase short cycling, but there is no need for worry. Use which ever mode suits you best.

Tom

 

No, definitely not only pedal mapping. There is definitely more. When in Normal or ECO mode the ICE shuts off below speeds of 74 km/h when decellerating. It stays on in PWR mode until the car stops. Also in traffic the ICE stays on for a longer time when moving slowly. Also I saw a difference in the AC behaviour last summer but I can't remember exactly what it was. At least I see a noticeable MPG difference in between the Normal and PWR modes.

 

Yes, I should have qualified my statement, I was referring to how the car drives and how the gas pedal position relates to power demand. I know the climate control system operates differently in ECO. I did not know about the differences in ICE shutdown, I have not experienced that because I seldom use the power mode. My car will not shut the ICE off when decelerating until it gets below 42 MPH (67 Km/h) in any of the three modes. Once it has shut down I can ease up to almost 48 MPH without it restarting if I keep the HSI to the left of center.