High Speed Prius Trip

About the "geeks in their Prius" comment: Are you suggesting that all Prius drivers are geeks, or just the ones who want to understand the car better by actually checking the display info it provides. Or, is it that anyone who's a bit different, based on the car they drive, qualifies as a geek? Usually it's the name caller who has the real issues ... not the person he's calling names. It's geek to me. For some folks I know, "geek" is a term of endearment, not an insult. :) BlueDog

No, it's the ones who claim that the only way to drive a Prius is by learning the difference between "normalfoot and priusfoot". That's all crap. The car knows what to do.

Anyone who cared about saving gas did the same things to maximize mileage before. Use a gentle foot. That's what the Prius is programmed for to maximize mileage. If you don't use a gentle foot, you get average Prius mileage. Just like you got on your previous cars. Good mileage and average mileage--for that car.

The freakos are responding to the dashboard video game and are playing their little footsie games in traffic without any regard to the world around them.

It's like the dashboard video game somehow makes driving different, and they want everyone else to do the "normalfoot vs priusfoot" thing.

Who cares what they drive? Are they behaving in traffic, going with the flow, or not? And why would a dashboard display suddenly give them religion on how to drive to save gas? And why do they insist on evangelizing their newfound religion to the world as if it's a fact and must be done?

We have been through this already. We can drive it normally and get better mileage than a regular car. That is fine and not in dispute at all. What is actively being ignored is that one can take it even further by taking advantage of the features that this car has which other cars do not. To take advantage of these extra features, one needs to use a different footing technique. If you wish to not take advantage of the extra stuff fine. Those that do do not need the ridicule. For this I forgive you.

Those that want to know how to drive this better will get the answers for which they seek. Tomes

Those that do, get another few percent out of the car by using extreme driving techniques.

But not only that, they promote those driving techniques as REQUIREMENTS for driving the car. That's ridiculous.

I tried the Priusfoot techniques you described, and my MPG improved. On today's commute I gor 53.6 MPG, based on the info screen. That's the best I've achieved so far in my two weeks as a Prius owner/driver. It's also bit warmer today, and that probably helped.

Prius buyers pay a premium for a hybrid vehicle that promises high MPG. It only makes sense to try to get the most efficiency possible. And yes, obsession with the info display can be a bad thing when the driver doesn't watch the road. No argument there, but I think it is possible to watch the instrumentation carefully and still drive safely. Lots of things can divert attention: cell phones, playing with the car audio, watching the nav map display, eating, drinking, smoking, daydreaming, and the list goes on. BD

Yay, glad to hear it. IT does take a while to fully get used to it and make it so you don't even know that you are doing it.

Keep us posted on how it goes, Tomes