Posted by Janet Harriett on Apr.22, 2009

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In October 2000, I took delivery of one of the first Toyota Priuses available in the United States.  Nearly nine years of driving my Prius has seen me answer a lot of questions.

Do you really get better gas mileage? Yes.  My real-world mileage is 40-50 mpg.

Where do you plug it in? Nowhere.  There are currently no plug-in hybrids available in the U.S.  Some Prius owners retrofit their cars to be plug-in hybrids, but that costs several thousand dollars and voids the warranty.

Was it expensive? This is probably the most common question I get. The Prius is more expensive than a comparable non-hybrid car, but I think it was worth every penny, even when gas is $2 a gallon and especially when gas hits $4+. I save on gas and get some satisfaction that I’m doing what I can with the current level of available technology. More valuable than that, though, I’m doing my part to show that there is demand for alternatives to standard internal combustion engine cars.  Hybrids aren’t going to be the ultimate answer to air pollution–after all, they burn gas like any other car, just at a slower rate–but they do prove that people will line up to buy alternative fuel vehicles.  If enough people buy hybrids, we might eventually get widespread distribution of all-electric vehicles with solar charging arrays that we can mount on our garage roofs.

Until that happens, though (and believe me, I’ll be first in line for that, too), we have hybrids. I enthusiastically recommend hybrids to anyone looking for a new car, or even a used one as hybrid start coming onto the used car market. There are a few things that potential Prius owners should bear in mind while they shop for a new car. 

You’ll Learn to Love the Display

One of the first things you notice sitting in a Prius for the first time is that the instrument panel is missing. When designing the Prius, Toyota moved the instrument panel from behind the steering wheel to the center of the dashboard, way up by the windshield. Like a lot of the Prius’ quirks, this one takes a bit of getting used to.  Since getting our learner’s permits, we’ve all trained ourselves to look between our hands for the speedometer, but by moving the instrument panel, Toyota shaved fractions of a second off the time it takes the driver’s eyes to check speed and fuel level.  As a matter of fact, with the Prius’ configuration, drivers can actually see the instrument panel and the road at the same time. This is particularly useful for new drivers or the elderly, both of whom can benefit from having eyes on the road more.  I can’t stand driving other cars now.

Plan Ahead for Parts

One of the things that Toyota doesn’t mention much in the sales is that the Prius’ design is actually quite radical in some non-obvious ways, in addition to the obvious ones like the hybrid synergy drive and the center dashboard display.  While the hidden engineering decreases the environmental impact, it also means that a lot of the basic parts are not so basic. The tires are an odd size that most shops don’t routinely carry, so be prepared to drive on the doughnut for a few days while the shop orders one in.

The 12v battery that starts the engine–no, it doesn’t crank from the hybrid battery pack–is mounted behind the left rear wheel well–placement which, while efficient, makes jump starting a car from the Prius awkward, since there is no good way to climb into your trunk wearing a skirt. The small space necessitated a smaller size battery than is used in most compact cars, so the Prius uses a 12v battery that is more common in high-end two-seater sports cars. Most big box auto supply stores don’t stock them.  One of the bright sides to the odd battery is that, since they are usually used in upmarket vehicles, the batteries last longer than your average sedan. I finally had to replace my original battery after 8 years of daily driving.  Pruises are reliable vehicles, though, and parts are rarely a problem.  In nearly 9 years, the only reason the car has ever gone into the shop other than for scheduled maintenance is to fix a faulty oxygen sensor–a problem I experienced with other cars–and to get a new glove box installed when a technician accidentally broke the door off while replacing the cabin air filter.

Forget about 3,000 Mile Scheduled Maintenance

This actually is something my Toyota dealer did tell me.  Because the gas engine in the Prius isn’t running constantly like it is in a standard gas-powered car, it can go longer between oil changes. The official scheduled maintenance schedule still calls for service every 3,000 miles, but, according to my service department, Priuses can easily go 5,000 between checkups.

Your Mileage May Vary…with the Weather

The cabin heater for the car works the same as a standard fuel vehicle, by venting heat from the engine into the passenger compartment.  To supply cabin heat in the winter, the gas engine turns on more in cold weather than it would driven under the same conditions in warm weather.  The electric motor is also less efficient in cold weather than in warm.  My own real-world mileage goes from 50 mpg in the summer to 40 in winter.  Even during the coldest parts of winter, though, my fuel economy rarely falls below 38 mpg.  As with any car, the actual miles per gallon may or may not bear any resemblance to the window sticker EPA mileage.  As the Toyota salesperson explained when I was first looking at the Prius, the EPA mileage is not so much a promise of performance as it is a standard to compare one vehicle to another.  The Prius’ 50 mpg rating doesn’t necessarily mean that you will get 50 miles per gallon every time, but that it is a lot more fuel efficient than a car rated at 28 mpg.

On the Subject of Mileage…Don’t Trust the Gas Gauge

One of the measures Toyota implemented to make the Prius more eco-friendly was a redesigned fuel tank that includes a flexible bladder within the tank to reduce evaporation and release of gas vapors.  This had two unintended consequences that lead veteran Prius owners to refer to their fuel meters as the “Guess Gauge.”  The material that the bladder is made of expands less in cool weather than in warm, effectively reducing the gas tank’s capacity in the winter.  The official tank capacity in the specs is 10 gallons, but a winter fill-up may only accept 7 gallons.  That still gets you  320 miles with the reduced winter fuel economy.  The digital gas gauge on the console is somewhat unreliable.  A better estimate of when to stop at a gas station is resetting the trip odometer with each fill-up and searching out a gas station every 350 miles or so in the summer, and every 280 miles in the winter

You’ll Forget You’re Driving a Hybrid

Now that hybrids no longer turn heads on the road, you’ll forget you’re even driving a Prius.  The engine cutting out at stoplights gets to be normal, as unnoticed as an other car’s idling. Getting the most of the improved mileage requires some slight adjustments to your driving skills, but those adjustments, like gradually increasing and decreasing speed, are ones that can improve mileage in any vehicle and quickly become second nature after a few weeks with the instant feedback of the real-time mileage display.

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Posted under GDM Lifestyle, Living.