New Car - A Couple Of Questions

[Bike Nut]

Hello again, done around 600 miles in the T4 so far, both pleasure and work. and I have some questions for the longer term owners of the Gen 3 Prius. I am really enjoying the car so far.

-I have been on call this morning from 3am with the high winds and heavy rain & I have used the car for around 160miles in normal mode with heating at 21C, I have had to use the front demist every 10mins or so, keeping to speed limits and up to 60mph on dual carriageways. The car is showing 54mpg, does this sound reasonable?

-When you have finished a journey and the Battery is around 3/4 full, is it normal to see this level drop by 2 to 3 bars when you come to use it in a few hours or the next morning?

-My windows are misting up all round, particularly with the wet weather this morning. I have adjusted the vents/fan for the screen but it will not clear the screen fully until I press the front demist button. I need to do this every 10mins or so to keep the screen clear. Any tips on how to keep the windows from misting up?

-The fuel gauge seemed to stay on full for around 100miles then dropped very quickly over the next 150miles to below half does this happen to any other owners?

-The speedo appears to read around 4-5mph above the speed indicated on my tom-tom, have any other owners found this? Is this a ploy by Toyota so we Prius owners drive slower to keep the MPG up? Also to annoy the tail-gaters who seem to want to over take all the time.

Thanks in advance.

[Chris Dance]

I am not a Gen 3 owner but in my last Toyota Avensis and my current Gen 2 Prius I have always had to put air conditioner on to clear misting of the screen and windows.

My fuel gauge stays full for a long time but then drops fairly quickly.

I think when your car is fully run in your fuel consumption will improve. Cold outside air temps increase fuel consumption.

I have read on these forums about speedometers on the Prius not being 100% accurate.

Hope this helps. I expect some Gen 3 owners will reply to your queries shortly.

Chris.

[Bike Nut]

Thanks for the reply, I have used the AC to clear a misted up windscreen in previous cars, inc my other car (XC90) but this morning the car continually misted up for the whole 5 hrs I was out and about. I accept that it was very wet outside and I occasionally had to get back in the car with damp clothes, but my previous cars once de misted with the AC did not re mist with the AC off. Its not too much of an issue to turn on/off the front screen demist/AC, just wondered if other users had the same experience and had a solution.

Cheers.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Hello again, done around 600 miles in the T4 so far, both pleasure and work. and I have some questions for the longer term owners of the Gen 3 Prius. I am really enjoying the car so far.

-I have been on call this morning from 3am with the high winds and heavy rain & I have used the car for around 160miles in normal mode with heating at 21C, I have had to use the front demist every 10mins or so, keeping to speed limits and up to 60mph on dual carriageways. The car is showing 54mpg, does this sound reasonable?

-When you have finished a journey and the battery is around 3/4 full, is it normal to see this level drop by 2 to 3 bars when you come to use it in a few hours or the next morning?

-My windows are misting up all round, particularly with the wet weather this morning. I have adjusted the vents/fan for the screen but it will not clear the screen fully until I press the front demist button. I need to do this every 10mins or so to keep the screen clear. Any tips on how to keep the windows from misting up?

-The fuel gauge seemed to stay on full for around 100miles then dropped very quickly over the next 150miles to below half does this happen to any other owners?

-The speedo appears to read around 4-5mph above the speed indicated on my tom-tom, have any other owners found this? Is this a ploy by Toyota so we Prius owners drive slower to keep the MPG up? Also to annoy the tail-gaters who seem to want to over take all the time.

Thanks in advance.

You will find the car steams up quite easily for the first couple of weeks or so. Don't know why it does this but some on the US Prius site think its just things venting off, maybe the Battery? Don't worry bout it, it eventually clears by itself.

The fuel gauge does this and I guess it's normal. Many other cars I've had do this too - not just Toyotas.

The speedo does read about 5 mph over the correct speed. Other cars do this and it's not a Toyota ploy but some ruling from the EU and the United Nations! Or so I've read. The US cars have correct reading speedos. My old Jeep would always read 3 mph over. Check the following link under 'International Agreements' for details - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedometer

Hope this helps.

[johalareewi]

Hello again, done around 600 miles in the T4 so far, both pleasure and work. and I have some questions for the longer term owners of the Gen 3 Prius. I am really enjoying the car so far.

-I have been on call this morning from 3am with the high winds and heavy rain & I have used the car for around 160miles in normal mode with heating at 21C, I have had to use the front demist every 10mins or so, keeping to speed limits and up to 60mph on dual carriageways. The car is showing 54mpg, does this sound reasonable?

Yes. Heavy rain slows down the car so mpg will drop and having the heating at 21C at 3am will cause the cabin heating to come on so more reduced mpg. 54mpg sounds OK.

-When you have finished a journey and the battery is around 3/4 full, is it normal to see this level drop by 2 to 3 bars when you come to use it in a few hours or the next morning?

I notice this with my gen3. Don't give it a 2nd thought now.

-My windows are misting up all round, particularly with the wet weather this morning. I have adjusted the vents/fan for the screen but it will not clear the screen fully until I press the front demist button. I need to do this every 10mins or so to keep the screen clear. Any tips on how to keep the windows from misting up?

Prius windows do mist up easily so a blast with the demisters is often needed. I try to help by trying to keep the glass as clean as possible to prevent build up of muck.

-The fuel gauge seemed to stay on full for around 100miles then dropped very quickly over the next 150miles to below half does this happen to any other owners?

Yup. It also goes up and down a lot too.

-The speedo appears to read around 4-5mph above the speed indicated on my tom-tom, have any other owners found this? Is this a ploy by Toyota so we Prius owners drive slower to keep the MPG up? Also to annoy the tail-gaters who seem to want to over take all the time.

The speedo reads about 7% over on my gen3 (70mph actual = 75mph Prius). As GC says, all speedos do this (not just Prius). It's just that now we all have GPS devices, we can see it!

[Doesn'tExist]

Only à recent owner but here we go.

I just leave the climate control and aircon on all the time. Doesn't mist up like that at all. That is why there is climate control.

All my cars and boat seem to use petrol slower at the full level of the gauge. However on my boat I can also see the fuel flow rate (have to at 20 gallons per hour) and that remains the same. I take any gauge with a pinch of salt.

All speedometers over read unless you put seriously wrong tyres on a car.

Other vehicles on your bumper does seem to be a prius treat. I have the same experience which we don't had in other vehicles. They'll get over it.

[RNS]

i notice alot of these things in my car to..... worse thing is the parcel cover its CRAP. ;)

[Doesn'tExist]

It is not a parcel shelf it is a cover for the boot? Why do you find it crap?

[Dave R.]

Hello again, done around 600 miles in the T4 so far, both pleasure and work. and I have some questions for the longer term owners of the Gen 3 Prius. I am really enjoying the car so far.

-I have been on call this morning from 3am with the high winds and heavy rain & I have used the car for around 160miles in normal mode with heating at 21C, I have had to use the front demist every 10mins or so, keeping to speed limits and up to 60mph on dual carriageways. The car is showing 54mpg, does this sound reasonable?

-When you have finished a journey and the battery is around 3/4 full, is it normal to see this level drop by 2 to 3 bars when you come to use it in a few hours or the next morning?

-My windows are misting up all round, particularly with the wet weather this morning. I have adjusted the vents/fan for the screen but it will not clear the screen fully until I press the front demist button. I need to do this every 10mins or so to keep the screen clear. Any tips on how to keep the windows from misting up?

-The fuel gauge seemed to stay on full for around 100miles then dropped very quickly over the next 150miles to below half does this happen to any other owners?

-The speedo appears to read around 4-5mph above the speed indicated on my tom-tom, have any other owners found this? Is this a ploy by Toyota so we Prius owners drive slower to keep the MPG up? Also to annoy the tail-gaters who seem to want to over take all the time.

Thanks in advance.

All seems pretty normal to me. If you are concerned about fuel consumption, take a look at the Prius stats in www.fuelly.com (but make sure you are using UK gallons!)

Re the windows steaming up - check also if you have the heater set to recirculate air or take in fresh air from outside.... This week I found the car steaming up a lot, and then noticed I was on "recirculate". Switch over to "fresh from outside" and a lot of the problem disappeared (then again,the weather dried up a lot too! :) )

[DrCez]

-My windows are misting up all round, particularly with the wet weather this morning. I have adjusted the vents/fan for the screen but it will not clear the screen fully until I press the front demist button. I need to do this every 10mins or so to keep the screen clear. Any tips on how to keep the windows from misting up?

As well as the helpful suggestions and tips above, if you get a chance (and haven't done so already) on a warm, sunny day open all the doors to let any moisture hanging about in the cabin and boot out. I don't think it needs to be long but I'm convinced it helped with my car when it was new. At this time of year I don't have much trouble with the windows steaming up - wet clothes (and passengers) make things much worse. The a/c dries out the air so switching that on may help rather than going for the full demist setting.

[FourFourTwo]

The a/c dries out the air so switching that on may help rather than going for the full demist setting.

Yeah, this is a good tip. Even here in chilly Norway, I use A/C all year round whenever I need to demist the windows. It clears them up in seconds.

[Bike Nut]

Thanks for all the replies and tips, I have been driving over the last two days with the windows open to help the air circulation and the windows have not misted up once, I also give them a good cleaning inside to clear any deposits of grime.

I have driven for 34 miles over the last two days with an average journey of 1 to 2 mile between stops, my previous car would be returning around 30mpg absolute max in these conditions but the Prius has returned 52.7 mpg (on the display). Very happy indeed.

I am really enjoying the car, the ease to drive, quietness, fuel consumption. I have managed to get all my usual work equipment in with some space to spare. Its just dirty inside and out but that's what happens with a work car. It will get a good clean over the weekend.

Has any one managed to get a set of rubber mats that fit the Prius which hook into the mounting clips?

Cheers, Bike nut

[Grumpy Cabbie]

The main dealers do a set for about £50. There are two mounting holes which are ever so slightly off from the carpet mat holes. You can get a set of pegs/clips to mount the mats from the dealers too, but I believe you have to pay for them - they're not included.

[johalareewi]

carmats4you also do rubber overmats with the holes.

Handy if you already have carpet mats with hooks.

http://www.carmats4u.com/Toyota-Prius-2009-Onwards/cid,2178293,index.html