What every newb should know

dwreed3rd... Bill down south of you in Macon. Yep, drive all over your part of Atl frequently - great hills. I've had my 2008 pkg 2 since Oct./Nov. last year - and found that B does not recharge the battery pack - well, not like using the brake pedal does. The regen display shows icons of cars in the yellow bar graph "5-minute increment" MPG averaging display... with each "car" being a certain amt (can't remember at the moment) of recharge/regen having been produced by using the disc brakes.

Therefore I assume that the nMh battery pack must still need to be recharged - therefore the ICE must do it in lieu of you/me having avoided the brake pedal in favor of using B to induce engine braking.

I looked back through the owner's manual and didn't find any cautionary working about this very topic - so others (than me, a raw newbie) jump in and save me with the real info here.

Thanks - hope you see your car soon. I'm down for two new 2009 Prius here at my local Toyota dealership in Macon (me and the wife) so I need to find a buyer for my current 2008 Pkg 2 red Prius with 25K miles as well as my wife's 2006 Accord EX-L 4-cyl Automatic with 46,000K... both like new - but we sure don't need 4 cars. Only two people live here !!! : )

 

Thank for the info! Good luck!

 

Sorry if this is a repeat post. I did not see the question/answer when I performed a search.

I have an 08 pkg 2. Anyway to display how many miles to empty?

 

Thanks Richard!

I think you also answered another question that I had. I am still on my first tank of gas. I went 150 miles on the first PIP. The next 50 miles depleted 2 PIPs. I am assuming this is due to the variable gas tank bladder.

BTW - thanks to all that are willing to help us newbies out.

 

That is why we call it the "guess gauge."

 

I'm sorry to seem like a newb but what exactly is a "pip"? Any other helpful advice?

 

The gas gauge is digital with small rectangular bars to indicate the fuel level (10 bars = full). Most people call each bar a "pip". You would think that each bar would represent 1/10 of the capacity of the tank. You would be wrong.

 

Oxo is back after a long absence!

Another thing every newbie should know is that you should make sure the doors are locked every night before you go to bed. This is because locking your doors will ensure that you haven't left a door slightly open and left interior light(s) on to run down your 12V battery.
If you click the key to lock the car the external lights will flash to confirm the car is locked.
In the first couple of weeks I had my Prius I not only left a door slightly open one night but also left the parking lights on. Result was a dead 12V battery in the morning and I couldn't start the car. The 12V battery is in the back of the car so I thought I would have to open the back door to get at it for a jump start. Couldn't open the back door without power. It was only later I found out that you can jump start from the front and I suggest newbs find out how to do this before your 12V battery lets you down.

 

I'm finding it quite odd than nobody in this forum has said anything about the interior lights automatically turning themselves off after about 25 minutes. I have tested my 08 several times and it works every time! So, just leaving a door ajar shouldn't run down your 12v battery. What WILL run down your battery is if you have your trunk light switch in the ON position and leave the trunk lid ajar. It is not part of the auto-off function. Neither are the front overhead map lights. Leave them on and your battery will surely die.

By the way, I found this feature by accident, working on the car's interior with the doors open and after a while the dome lights went out. So I tried it on purpose and, sure enough, Toyota had thought of another way to protect the 12v battery. I just wish they had included the trunk light in that feature.

 

I've read through this entire thread hopino be ready for our new arrival when it arrives. We rented a Prius for our vacation last week so I finally got my test drive. The one thing I found I was unprepared for was turning on the windshield wipers. We got caught in a summer thunderstorm on the expressway and it took me several minutes to find the trick while trying to see where I was going in the downpour. Dangerous. I think it's down rather than up but be sure you know before you pull away from the curb.

Loved my week in the Prius. It was everything we were hoping for. Now if ours will just get here.

 

Rcaine: Congratulations on your new Prius. I assume you also subscribe to one or more of the several "wait list" threads. May I suggest if you have not already done so, add a post over there also, and suggest that they read the "Prius User Guide" while waiting. I downloded it from somewhere, I think here on PC. Thanks for the post.

 

True, true, but part of the point of my post was that locking the car will NOT help if you have left the reading lights ON. So there!

 

I just got my 2008 prius a week ago. I have package # 5 and love it. I am somewhat dissapointed that the dealer did not explain more about the energy monitor. I am perplexed even after reading the manual about how to read it and what it means. Can you ever run the car off the electric motor alone ? Even at higher speeds ? Do the orange & yellow arrows always have to work together ? Or can you just work with yellow arrows and how do you make that happen to achieve good gas mileage ?
It really is not explained in the owners manual.

 

Here is a link to John's famous User's Guide: John's Stuff - Toyota Prius User-Guide

You won't be disappointed but you might wonder why Toyota doesn't just take it and include a copy in every car.

Cheers!

 

Thanks for the info on John's famous user guide. I will look at it and hopefully it will answer my questions. I don't know why toyota does not include a copy in every car instead of the manual which is not explicit.

 

Not a problem! John and others have contributed a wealth of information on PC and other parts of the web -- they more than make up for Toyota's small oversight.

Welcome to Priuschat and enjoy your Prius!