Update!
1) I put insurance on the car about a month ago and have put a couple of hundred kilometers on it since then. Piloting Toyota's hybrid system is as geeky-fun as I remember it. I have to say
I'm really, really enjoying the car.
2) Except for the fact that
on day one, the exhaust broke right before the muffler. I was going to fix it, but you know what? It's a very mellow sound -- not harsh, not very loud. I've had several people in the car who didn't even notice it.
3) Another modification: I added the EV switch so I can take manual control over when the ICE runs. EG: from my driveway, I typically go down hill less than a block to the first stop, and now I always do this in EV mode. I wait to fire up the ICE until it can make some useful contribution to forward progress, rather than idling along for the ride, getting terrible MPG. It's like taxiing efficiently to the runway before firing up the big jets.
4) This car is really cold blooded! It takes a long time to warm up. I've primarily been using it on fairly short (<16 km / 10 mi.) local sub/urban trips (fetching building supplies etc.), and have only gotten it up to full operating temperature maybe twice in the last month.
5) Fortunately, I discovered
the EV switch works like a kill switch in a conventional car. Otherwise the engine would run non-stop until it gets to a predetermined minimum coolant temp, which I'm never going to get to anyway on a typical local trip.
6) MPG so far: 50 mpg US / 4.7 L/100 km for 95% short-haul, sub/urban trips. That's acceptable, all things considered. The Firefly would be good for ~70 MPG in similar use; last winter's
'07 Civic beater would have been low 40's, using ICE-off coasting at every chance in both cars.