After a good night's rest I would like to report on yesterday's purchase in Buffalo and maiden voyage to Chicago. When I took delivery, I was pleased that there were no surprises with the deal. The salesman was very conscientious about transferring my insurance. He enjoyed getting me set up in the vehicle and getting my phone connected. He took the time and did not make me feel rushed. The only glitch was a misunderstanding about the tonneau cover. I could not "locate" the tonneau cover in the trunk, and the salesman incorrectly assumed the "black bag" was for the charging cable. It wasn't until I got home that I discovered the "black bag" actually contains a folded tonneau cover. In the finance office I was surprised to learn I have a credit score of 834. I was planning to take 0% APR with $750 cash back. It turned out I did better with 1.89% and $2,000 cash back. That was kind of cool. She tried to sell me a bunch of warranties, but I declined. For the first 100 miles I took U.S. Route 20 through western New York to Erie, Pennsylvania. After resetting my trip odometer and putting the vehicle in dedicated HV mode back at the dealership, I achieved a fuel economy of 60 MPG without even trying. This was in suburban/rural territory with speed limits ranging from 35-55 MPH. In one town near Lake Erie I encountered a steep hill allowing me to try out B-mode on the shifter. As much as I enjoyed the scenery, I estimated that the drive time was escalating, and I needed to get home for a family member's surgery this morning. So I switched to I-90 and took it across Ohio while staying in the right lane and varying my speed between 55-65 MPH. I spent the Ohio portion of the trip sequentially going through various menus. I was surprised at the amount of info in the navigation, such as upcoming exits and services. I also appreciated traffic alerts at rush hour in Cleveland and the ability to view Doppler radar to anticipate when I would come out of the blinding rain. At the Indiana border I rejoined U.S. 20 and took that most of the way toward Chicago. I did my refill in the town of Lagrange, Indiana (400 miles with one-quarter tank remaining), and even with 200+ miles of higher speeds on the Ohio Turnpike, my fuel economy settled at 55 MPG prior to refill. After sundown in the Indiana farmlands I discovered the beautiful white light of the LED headlights and the convenience of the automatic high beams--wow! The lighting in these dark rural areas was superior to my old headlights. From that point home, the majority of the drive was tollway, and on the new tank, I ended up at 59 MPG when I pulled into my driveway. So I feel confident that the official EPA estimate of 54 MPG is not an overreach. During the last leg I focused on audio controls and adjusted my local presets (12 per audio source). I was delighted that the system receives HD radio with text information and also supports multicasting, as I discovered with some NPR stations that have four sub-channels that I never even knew about. When I arrived home, I did my first charge. It was a pleasure getting into a fully charged vehicle this morning and driving to the hospital in pure EV mode while watching my fuel MPG increase and knowing that I was not burning petrol. In short, I am in Prime nirvana right now. And that's without even reading the manual, where I'm sure I will discover even more bells and whistles.
Amazingly coherent and succinct review, especially considering you must be sleep-deprived and in the thick of new car experience.
Yes, I am giddy from the whole experience! Surprisingly I don't feel tired even after all that driving. While I'm in the waiting room at the hospital I've been searching for recommendations about Softex protectants and exterior surface protectants after I wash the dirt off from all that rain!
These are just my thoughts, absolutely no evidence or publications to support it. I cannot help but to believe that Toyota has built in beak in mechanisms. The only thing it cannot handle well is user demand for extreme positive or negative acceleration. My thoughts are this : When ICE loading is small, the Prius runs the engine at a higher output that puts it into a more efficient range, and uses the excess energy to charge the battery. When ICE loading is high, the Prius runs the engine at a lower output that puts it into a more efficient range, and uses the battery to meat the demand. So we, as drivers don't have a really have much control of the ICE loading (except for extreme demands). So since the computer for the most part controls the output of the ICE, I cant help but believe that it would use the knowledge of the true use of the engine, and set it's operating point for best benefit. Especially as something as important as engine break in. Same goes for the battery. I would bet that the car takes ginger care of the battery in it infant stages. Think of the factory benefit. Burn and break things in the factory. Gigantic floor space, lots of equipment, maintenance .. Blah blah blah. Put some software in the car, and let the customer do it.... EOT (end of thought)
