[orange4boy]

We took it for a drive on the driveway last night which is long and steep and it did fine although too slow and bumpy for a good feel for the car. Today we got the tags so I got to drive it around a bit on the island.

Fun car to dive and very quiet. Handles very well. You can't tell if the ICE is running unless you are accelerating at a good clip. In the van, I can coast almost all the way into town except for three short bursts of the ICE. I'm hoping to do the same or better in the Prius but I will need a tach or a light to show when the engine is running. I noticed you can trick it into shutting off if you tap on the brakes enough to regen for a second then lightly back on the throttle.

Interesting but strange sometimes when it decides to run the engine. It runs when you have the fan/heat on probably to keep the heater core full of hot coolant. Or is it to run the A/C for fast defrost? Or both? At first I thought it was for the 12v but that would come from the DC-DC.

Weirdly, the ICE starts when I put it in park after stopping while on electric only. It may be charging the battery but I have waited long enough for the MFD delay to pass. Will have to check that out.

I got a first MFD mileage of 5.4 L/100Km - 43.5 mpg. Not bad for Bowen where the van gets about 10.5 L/100Km - 22mpg. It will be a bit lower for Honey's commute because it will be cold at each end.

It definitely will need a grille block and some more engine bay blocking to stay warm as it cools off in just a few minutes at 10˚C. Finally, a chance to use some of the Soundown acoustic / thermal insulation I got at a thrift shop. A block heater,and two sump heaters are also on the menu.

Now I have to clean up the chaos in my garage...