Some more updates on the Prius:
Replaced the 12v battery with a yellow top Optima at the end of November. Kind of a tight squeeze, the Optima is a bit taller and the plastic handle keeps the floor/cover piece from sitting completely flat. Car wouldn't start with the headlights on (started after I turned them off), checked the battery and the resting voltage was low.
Complete grill block works great around town and highway trips below 25-30F. Above 30-35F on the highway, I have to remove half of top slit's foam (so 1/4th of the upper block). I think it's at about 50F that the rest of the top slit has the be open for highway speeds. I'll probably remove the rest of the upper block in another month or two for the summer.
I finally installed an EV mode button after running the wire last year. Drilled a hole in the blank spot next to the cluster dimmer and glued in a long button tact switch I salvaged from something long ago. I highly recommend adding an EV mode button in the Gen2 Prius. Using it at the wrong times can hurt your mileage, but it's super handy to be able to move around the driveway without the ICE kicking on or to do manual P&G if it isn't warm enough to go into full hybrid mode.
