Diary of a Noobie Prius Owner (Part 2)

Part 1 here.

When I first came up with this diary idea, I thought I'd have enough material for several posts. But, as it turns out, the Prius isn't a whole lot different from any other car. So I think this'll probably be the only sequel...

I've now owned the Prius for 2 months and I'm still loving it. My mpg around town varies between 50 and 58 depending on traffic conditions. The average is probably around 53,5. About double my old car. That means I can probably go about 2 months between visits to the petrol station.

The driving experience is great. It's quiet, smooth, has surprising acceleration when I need it (thanks to help from the electric side of the engine), and there's no mucking about with gears (It's an automatic). I seem to have become a lot calmer driver as a result of all this. An unexpected bonus!

I also like all the storage space, the Satnav, the reversing camera, and cruise control. All very useful. There's also the 'Parking Assist' feature which can park the car automatically. Not tried it yet, but I suspect it would take so long to set up, you'd just annoy your fellow road users as you blocked the road or car park.

Energy Monitor

Something I've been curious about is what the colour coding on the Energy Monitor screen means. You'll notice on the picture opposite that there's a box labelled 'Battery' and it's green. Most of the time it's blue. Occasionally it will be pink.

Basically it's an indicator of the battery's charge level. Green = highest, Blue = middle, Pink = lowest. There's no ideal colour because the Prius manages the charge itself, keeping the battery at an optimum level to extend it's life for as long as possible. It aims to ensure the battery's never fully charged or discharged: Switching to the electric motor when the charge is high; and using the engine to recharge the battery when it's low. Toyota's own tests indicate that the battery should get to over 180,000 miles with no appreciable loss of efficiency. No wonder the warranty lasts for 8 years. More detail here.

Part 3 here.