Statement Regarding 2010 Model Year Toyota Prius Inconsistent Brake Feeling

I like gadgets.

In fact, I make no attempts to hide the fact that I like gadgets. Today, it seems everyone does, inlcuding the people who think they don't.

For instance, how many folks have a remote control for their television? I do. Don't you? Today it would be more challenging to find a TV without a remote (though still not always easy to find the remote for your TV). A few decades ago, a TV remote was a fanciful gadget. Gadget proponents thought it was pointless to use some device just to save having to walk a few steps. They were probably correct, of course, but today, the thought of having to actually walk across the room to change the channel seems pointless. Time, it seems, has a way of making fanciful gadgets become commonplace.

When I purchased my first Prius in 2005, I opted for the fully loaded (i.e. gadget loaded) package. I added things like a GPS navigation system and hands-free cell phone hookup. I wanted to talk a bit about these two items, and how the adoption of one may predict the future of the other.

My first GPS system was actually a gadget that plugged up by a serial cable to a laptop Windows computer. Back around 1996 I actually used such a system, and would strap my laptop in to the passenger seat and take it with me on road trips. I remember being stopped in a parking lot after dark, waiting for a phone call from a friend, and a police officer drove up to investigate what I was doing there. He was so intrigued by the map system my computer was displaying that we ended up having a half our demo of just what GPS was and how it could be used. He'd never heard of GPS!

Ten years later, GPS is so common, I even see it referenced in a billboard ad for beer! (It said something like "So smooth you won't even need a GPS to find it.")

Navigation systems are slowly becoming non-gadgets as they get more common thanks to the availability of cheap $150 portable units like the TomTom Go. Sure, at that price, they don't offer a huge display screen like the one built in to the Prius, or voice control, or text-to-speech (where it can read out street names), but it's a start. Within a decade, perhaps navigation systems will be as common in cars as remote controls are for TV sets. It certainly seems the price of the technology is getting cheap enough, though for now, the nice "deluxe" systems with huge screens probably will remain limited to higher end vehicles.

So to me, GPS technology is clearly becoming mainstream. Can hands-free cell phone systems, also currently found mostly in luxury vehicles, be that far behind? If anything, this technology serves a greater purpose than just keeping you from getting lost. It's a safety feature.

Obviously, it's unsafe to be fumbling with a cell phone while driving through traffic. In some states, it is even illegal to be talking on your cell phone while driving. To comply with safety laws, these areas require you to use some form of hands-free system. Some cell phones have a speaker phone built in to them, but the usual solution is to plug up a little earpiece connected by a cable. This offers a low-tech solution to the problem.

In recent years, wireless technology called Bluetooth has become more common. It lets the little earpiece not need a cable to attach it to the phone. Cell phones with Bluetooth can wireless talk to little battery operated earpieces, meaning you no longer have to have a cable dangling around to use them. (I'm sure we've all seen those "loons" walking around public places seemingly talking to themselves while a little Borg-like blinking gadget sticks out of their ear.) This same technology can be used to talk to speaker phone systems in cars.

My Prius has such a system and it works with many phones that support Bluetooth. To use it, you have to go to a special screen in the cell phone, and a special screen in the Prius, and let them connect to each other. (The Bluetooth term for this is "pairing.") Once this is done, using a secret code to prevent outsiders from being able to wirelessly make calls from your phone if they are nearby, the Prius and Bluetooth phones will automatically recognize each other and connect every time they are nearby and both turned on.

Now when I get in to my car and turn it on, my Apple iPhone is automatically connected to the hands-free speakerphone of the Prius. If a call comes in, I can answer it right from the steering wheel and have a conversation. To make a call, I can then dial numbers from the Prius computer screen, or even use the Prius voice recognition technology to dail by voice. For instance, I can press the "speech" button on the steering wheel then say:

"Dial by Number". (wait for Prius response) Then read the number: "1 - 8 0 0 - 5 5 5 - 1 2 1 2"

And now the Prius is dailing 800-555-1212 on my cell phone, and then I can talk hands-free without ever having to dig the phone out of my pocket, or plug some Borg-headset in to my ear and hope it's charged. If  a hands-free law went in to affect in my state tomorrow, I'd already be set. I wouldn't have to buy a $99 Bluetooth headset, or remember to keep it with me and have it charged, or anything. I just get in my car and can make and receive calls through the speakerphone, all automatically (once it is set up, that is).

The Prius even lets me assign several numbers to big buttons on the display, so I can choose numbers while driving (you are not allowed to use the on-screen keyboard when the car is in motion), and once I have numbers assigned, I can even program in a voice command specifically for them.  This lets me train the Prius to recognize what number to dial when I say certain things. Then I can do something like this:

"Dial by Name" (wait for Prius response) "Toll Free Directory Service"

Then, as long as I have trained the Prius to understand that me saying "Toll Free Directory Service" means to dial the number programmed in to a specific button on the screen, I can call that number hands-free without ever pressing anything other than a "speech" button on the steering wheel.

It's a very nice convienience, and I use it daily. Previously, I had one of those wired earpiece things, and I left it dangling around the rear-view mirror in case I needed to make call. The problem is, invetibaly someone would call me while I was driving then I would find myself fumlbing to get out my cell phone, grab the earpiece and plug it all in (which is probably more dangerous than just talking on the phone in the first place). And now, thanks to the "gadget" of the Prius, those days are gone, and I look back on them as quaintly as I look back on walking across the livingroom to change the TV channel.

As more and more states require handsfree operation of cell phones when driving, and as more and more cheap cell phones start getting Bluetooth support, is there any doubt that, within ten years, this type of technology will be commonplace?

But for now, it's a gadget.

And I like gadgets.

ONE MILLIONTH HYBRID VEHICLE HITS THE AMERICAN ROAD

In December 2007, an auto dealership employee somewhere in America handed a new owner the keys to the one millionthhybrid vehicle sold in this country. In that month, industry sales of 30,892 hybrids brought the cumulative total to 1,012,442 units.

This event occurred a month after Toyota recorded the sale of its 500,000th hybrid in the United States, and only a few months after Toyota Motor Corporation reached the one-million-unit mark in global production of hybrid vehicles.

U.S. hybrid sales began with the delivery of 17 Honda Insight cars -- a model now discontinued -- in December 1999. Toyota's first-generation Prius, model year 2001, entered the U.S. market with 841 sales in July 2000.

The 2008 model Prius is out now, and has been for a bit, which means my 2007 model is now “obsolete.”  Or at least it would if we were talking about consumer electronics. Instead, my “last year’s model” Prius runs just as good as it did one year ago when I first drove it off the dealer’s lot. In fact, it actually drives a bit better since, at 15000 miles, the engine is starting to break in.

So what is new for 2008?  A new color choice, perhaps. A lower priced base model, for certain. But nothing that makes me want to rush out and trade in my ’07 for an ’08. Though, I guess, if I had the money, maybe I would just so I could say I had the “latest and greatest”...

Of course, if I really had money maybe I could buy one of those racing model Toyota hybrids. Have you heard of it? The Le Mans 24 hour race has featured Toyotas in the past, but this year Toyota is entering a new race model hybrid. No word on whether or not this hybrid hot rod will ever make it to production (I’d doubt that), but some of the research to create it probably will.  (For what it’s worth, Toyota placed second in 1999.)

And speaking of brakes, did you hear the one about the Prius driver who had 100,000 miles on his car, and was still on the original brakes?  Neither had I, but South Tier Business News in New York mentioned him. A few years ago, while researching the Prius, I found much speculation that the brakes should last longer than traditional vehicles simply because there was less braking being done. At slower speeds, slowing down was done by sending the wheel energy in to the electric motor to act as a generator.   It seems there may be something to this theory and I look forward to testing it myself.

So there you go. A new model for 2008, and an older high milage model still on original brakes.  What do they have in common?  Happy drivers ;-)

There ain't no cure for the Winter-time gas milage blues. At least, until Toyota makes a car that runs on cold.

I've really been spoiled getting 51 miles per gallon on my 2007 Toyota Prius, but now that winter is here and temperatures are dropping, so is my milage! My last few tankfuls have shown only 41 miles per gallon. The worst part is that none of my friends or co-workers will put up with me complaining about getting "only" 41 miles per gallon when their vehicles would be lucky to get that kind of milage on a good day while being pushed downhill.

Well, regardless, I still don’t like it.  My Prius has spoiled me! After driving a Prius for almost two and a half years, I’m now so used to the hybrid system that anything else seems weird and different. When I travel and end up in a rental car, I’m surprised that the engine doesn’t shut off while stopped at a red light. I’m stunned that the car makes noise when driving slowly through a hotel parking lot, rather than moving solely on a silent electric motor.

It makes me wonder how long it will be before these kinds of technologies take over and are “normal,” and anything else is out of the ordinary? A recent report I read said that overall auto sales were down the first nine months of 2007, but hybrid sales were up 38%. That’s amazing, but maybe not surprising considering the average price of a gallon of gas is now nearly a dollar higher than it was at this time last year. Want proof? AAA has been tracking it:

http://www.fuelgaugereport.com/

Keep checking this blog, as I have some fun news articles to share soon.

LA Times columnist Martin Zimmerman is a Prius owner. He recently made a trip to Tokyo to check out a prototype plug-in Toyota Prius. Few details are available on just what this type of Prius might be capable of, but the article is still a fun read. It offers some evidence that Toyota is indeed working on plug-in hybrids.

Toyota announced it sold 2.34 million vehicles between July and September 2007. GM sold 2.38 million in that same timespan. Are we really this close to Toyota becoming the #1 seller of autos? Stay tuned...

Does it come in any color other than GREEN?

The Environmental Protection Agency publishes a list of the "greenest" vehicles each year. By green, they mean fuel efficient and low emissions. For 2008, the most fuel efficient vehicle on the road is the Toyota Prius, rated at 48 mpg city and 45 on the highway. The next closest is the Honda Civic hybrid, at 40/45. The surprising part is that in third place you find a large SUV-like Ford Escape! The hybrid model, of course. When Ford made the leap in to hybrid vehicles, there was some kind of licensing deal between Ford and Toyota meaning those Escorts were effectively using Toyota's technology for the hybrid system. It's still amazing that the third most fuel efficient vehicle sold today is something as large as Ford Escape!  Even more amazing, to a Prius owner such as myself, is that third place is only 30 miles per gallon on the highway - a full 15 miles per gallon less than the Prius!

When it comes to the emission of Greenhouse Gasses, the EPA rates on a scale of 10, with 10 being the best (as in, least Greenhouse Gasses). In my state, not surprisingly, the Toyota Prius is in the number one spot again, followed by the Honda Civic hybrid and the Ford Escape hybrid. Notice a pattern?  Fourth place is the Toyota Camry hybrid, followed by the Toyota Yaris automatic and the Toyota Yaris manual. It looks like Toyota is leading the pack here in non-hybrids, too. I guess if a new model Prius does even better than the current technology, the EPA will have to go to 11 (with apologies to Spinal Tap).

When you sort by Air Pollution, though, the lineup changes. No car makes a perfect 10, but the Honda Accord and a series of Volkswagens come in with 9s. The Prius shows up much farther down the list in position 23! I just must not understand the meaning of this list, since it's hard to imagine a gas-only vehicle having less pollution than a gas-electric hybrid like the Prius.

The EPA.gov site sheds some light on this:

"The Air Pollution Score is based on the government emission standards for which the vehicle was certified to comply with and reflects vehicle tailpipe emissions that contribute to local and regional air pollution, creating problems such as haze, and health issues. (Note: see About the Ratings for more information)."

Local and regional air pollution may be important, since I sorted the list based on a location in the Midwest. If you generate the same list again, choosing California instead, you  see the Volkswagens mostly disappear from the top positions. I'm not quite sure what to make of all of this, and I realize you may be saying "You had me at 'most fuel efficient'" so I'll just post a link so you can go play with this on your own.  Enjoy!

http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles

Mobile Magazine reports that someone hacked together two Prius to make a 6-seater stretch "limosine" type hybrid. There is no mention on what type of gas milage it gets, but it most certainly voids the warranty. Photo and article here:

http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/354/C13634/

I have a few news searches set up to alert me of various keywords, one of which is "prius." Recently, it flagged an article by a site called www.autospies.com (neat name, if nothing else), and their article began as follows:

"Of course most people know a Toyota Prius when they see one since it is the most awkward looking car on the road and because it is the world's best-selling hybrid."

Well, depending on what you think of the Prius' looks (I call it a spacecar, for a variety of reasons), it may or may not be awkward, but it certainly stands out. The article discusses that the Prius may be selling so much better than other hybrids *because* of how much it stands out. As if, folks driving them want the world to know they are in the new tech, or are saving the earth, or whatever. I guess I kinda liked mine because of all the gadgets (and the fuel savings), so all that extra environmentally friendly stuff is just a happy bonus. Anyway, it's a fun short read, here:

http://www.egmcartech.com/2007/10/15/toyota-to-unify-hybrid-design/

There's also a link to an article about the 1/X concept car I mentioned in the current Priuscast podcast episode. Fun stuff.

I wonder what will be in tomorrow's inbox about the Prius?

Okay, I missed out on getting a podcast episode (or blog post) in September. I was busy. Sorry about that.  New episode coming soon.

Meanwhile, did you hear the one about the guy who got 127 miles per gallon in a stock Prius?  His name in Wayne Gernes and he is one of the "hypermilers" that are going out of their way to figure out the most efficient way to drive cars. Earlier this year, a four-mile city route was set up for seeing who could get the highest MPG.  A reporter was able to get 24 MPG on his Honda Civic, then Wayne took over, adjusting the tires to proper inflation and making sure oil wasn't overfilled and he drove the same care through the same route and managed 47 MPG. Now do you want to check your tire pressure?  (Well, sure, that was just a small part of it, but every little bit helps at $3.00/gallon, right?)

This Wayne guy (he runs www.cleanMPG.com) did the same route in a Prius and got 127 MPG. Just amazing! None of us will ever see this unless we decide to become hypermilers, but it's a fun thing to read about.

And speaking of reading about, Toyota is supposed to be showing off a Prius concept car at the Tokyo Motor Show which will use half as much gas or, in other words, double the MPG of a current Prius which can get around 50. They do this by using a carbon fiber frame which is a third the weight, running on ethanol mix fuel, and ... plugging it in! In addition to running like a normal Prius, so you never have to plug it in, they are expanding the battery pack and allowing you to charge the car up overnight and use much more efficiently produced electricity than having to run the small less-efficient gas engine.

Will we ever see this in production? Who knows, but it's nice to know Toyota is checking out the next generation.  Imagine -- combining corn made ethanol fuel, high tech carbon fiber construction, hybrid gas/electric systems, AND plug-in -- all in one vehicle.

How much longer before Toyota dominates all car production? How do you compete with that?

Just amazing.

More later...

"In the News..."

I'm not one to really pay much attention to anything. Just ask my gradeschool teachers. But, to at least stay somewhat in the loop when it comes to the Prius, I have my Yahoo! account set up to e-mail me daily summaries of when articles appear talking about the Prius.  Each day, dozens and dozens of such articles hit newspapers and blogs around the world.

Recently, an article talking about a "plug-in Prius" caught my eye.  I assumed it was talking about some of the after-market (and warranty-voiding) modifications that allow expanding the battery pack so the Prius can drive further without having to turn on the gas engine. As it turns out, this latest batch of headline grabbing news was actually talking about Toyota and their plans for a future plug-in hybrid.

It seems Toyota Japan is in the process (or just got, depending on which article you read) of getting clearance to test some form of plug-in hybrid on the roads of Japan. Some articles say it's a customized Prius, and others just refer to it as a "plug-in hybrid." Regardless, it shows Toyota is at least open to the idea of the concept.  The benefit would simply be that shorter commutes (like errands down to the grocery store) could be made completely on electricity without burning a drop of gas. By most accounts I've read, the cost of "fueling up" by plugging in at home is less than burning gas. (And when you think about it, should it be any surprise that a large scale generator like a power plant is more efficient than a bunch of tiny ones? If it wasn't, every house would have it's own generator instead of being on the grid. But I digress...)

Anyway, here's the article:

http://www.egmcartech.com/2007/08/08/plug-in-toyota-prius-coming-to-japan-in-2-years/

My take: I'm eager to see what the future has to offer for this technology, but right now, what we have is pretty spiffy. I have a car that I know I can drive 800 miles if I want, and that solves the major issue with electric-only vehicles. Ultimately, their batteries run down and the car has to be recharged. By combining the benefits of a longer distance electric drive with the flexibility of a gas engine (for longer trips), it sounds like the perfect "hybrid" of technology. It's a dream to coast through a slow moving bank line or cruise a parking lot looking for a spot completely silent on an electric motor. Being able to drive further than that will just be extra icing on the hybrid cake. (It should be noted that this technology is still years away from reaching our dealers.)

And if that's too techgeek for you, the Prius was declared the "World's Greenest Auto" by the Swiss Government:

http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=407261

Funny.  Mine is more blue than green.  Or, rather, Seaside Pearl.

And lastly, as cars seem to get a bit more expensive every year, Toyota is going to try to reverse that, somewhat, with next year's Prius. A cost-reduced model is coming to a dealer near you (maybe even sometimes this month):

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Jul/31/bz/hawaii707310333.html

Don't you love the internet?  An article from Hawaii, Australia and ... a gadget blog.

I wonder what tomorrow's news will be...

I had forgotten what the new car smell was like.

For fourteen years, I drove the same car. That’s a long time. Long enough, in fact, to forget what it’s like to actually drive a new car. Sure, I was occasionally in a rental here or there but they were never the types of new cars I would have personally bought for myself. When I decided it was time to buy a new car rather than continue maintaining my old one, I ended up choosing a brand new 2005 Toyota Prius. My reasons for doing this have been documented here in my Priuscast podcast, but the end result was me rediscovering just what that “new car smell” was. I liked it.

I thought I’d drive this Prius for as long as I could and, perhaps, see if it’s true that the battery pack is expected to last the life of the car. Regardless, the money I would be saving long-term on gas (especially now at $3 a gallon) would only increase the longer I drove it. In my mind I even played some numbers games trying to figure out how much I would have to drive it before I could completely pay for the car in gas savings alone. (In case you wondered, it’s quite a long time, but far less than you might think if comparing it to the milage of driving a big pickup truck or SUV.) But I digress.

So there I was, with a happy new 2005 that still had it’s new car smell. The 2006 model Prius was introduced with some minor updates, such as an enhanced navigation system. The 2007 model was introduced with a few more minor updates. No big deal - I could resist. I was expecting to not even considering trading up until the next generation Prius was introduced, but somehow I found myself down at a local Toyota dealer just to see what the new navigation system was like. Long story short: it was nice. And so was the backup camera. And the leather seats. And the tire air pressure indicator. And the MP3 player input jack. And the new voice recognition features. And ... well, you get the idea.

Just for fun, I had my sales guy, Dave, run the numbers to see what kind of down payment I would need if I wanted to trade my 2005 in and drive off the lot with a similarly equipped 2007. As it turned out, they were willing to offer me more than what the Kelly Blue Book value was, which was also more than what I owed on the car. And since I knew that all cars depreciate (my ’92 is worth about $500), I figured the longer I waited, the less my trade in would be worth. (We’ll ignore the fact that used Priuses, as recently as two years ago, were often selling for more than a new one to folks who didn’t want to wait six or more months for one.)

I ended up turning in my Super White loaded Prius and a down payment then driving away in a 2007 Seaside Pearl (the color I originally wanted in 2005) with slightly lower payments than I had been making - including the extended warranty and auto armor coating.

So far, it’s been highly worth it. Being able to plug up my iPod without using a noisy cassette adapter, and the fancier navigation system (two items I use daily) combined with the leather seats makes this seem like a much fancier car than even my previous fancy new car was.

I’m happy I did it. Check out my podcast for more on what else I’ve learned about the new model. (And be aware that these Toyota dealers often seem to take trade ins that aren’t 2005 Priuses. Go figure.)

I’ll never get tired of the new car smell.

Buying a new Prius is a great motivator for making new episodes of a Prius podcast... Stay tuned!

A few posts ago (2/2/2007) I wrote a bit about those EPA mileage numbers and how "your mileage may vary." Over the past few weeks I've learned a bit more about why you shouldn't expect to get the same mileage you see on the window sticker.

As it turns out, the Environmental Protection Agency created some testing standards for vehicle gas mileage way back in 1972. 

Automobiles (and driving conditions) were quite a bit different then, and the highway mileage test was done to simulate Los Angeles "rush hour" driving of the day using speeds ranging from 48 miles per hour to 60 mph. Because of this, highway mileage you see on a new car, such as the Toyota Prius at 51 mph, will be much higher than what you'll actually get driving on today's Interstates at 75 or 80 mph. Indeed, driving slower uses less fuel and thus test results at lower speeds will show higher mileage than "real world" driving at higher speeds.

While that makes sense to me, I kept wondering why they still test like that. Very few things from 1972 thrive in our modern culture (Disco resurgence not withstanding), yet we still accept this "ancient" testing as fact when shopping for a new car. Unless, of course, we know how those numbers are calculated. Knowledge is power, after all.

As it turns out, 2008 may be a rather interesting year for car shoppers. The EPA is going to redo the testing procedure to make it somewhat more compatible with the current century. The end result will be more realistic mileage numbers on those friendly window stickers. This means the numbers will appear lower (sometimes substantially lower) than what you'd find on the same vehicle in 2007. The end result is an appearance that, starting next year, cars are going to take a step backwards in fuel efficiency.

The truth, of course, is that only testing is going to be changed. I suppose it would be like an "I'll eat anything" food critic who always gives out high marks to restaurants being replaced by someone who actually knows something about quality food. Same restaurant, same menu, lower food ratings.

In case you wondered, it is predicted that city mileage estimates will drop by as much as 20% on non-hybrid cards, and highway numbers reduced by up to 15%. Hybrid vehicles like the Prius should see a drop of 5 to 15%. What this means is today's Prius EPA estimate, marked at 51 highway mpg, may change into something between 43.5 and

48.45 mpg. This certainly would be closer to the actual lifetime mileage of 47 mpg I've seeing in my 2005 Prius over the past 17 months.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, you might want to buy today's "higher mileage" version of the Prius before next year's "reduced mileage" version comes out. Even if they are actually the same "real world" mileage.

Numbers can be fun.

And I predict that, once the dust settles, people will still be amazed at the revised EPA Prius mileage ratings, and will probably be even less impressed by the revised non-hybrid mileage numbers. Think about this: Today's 20 mpg gas guzzler might have to admit it's actually closer to 16 mpg. For someone who drives 12,000 miles per year, calculating "cost of ownership" at 16 versus 20 on gas at 2.25 a gallon is an extra $337 in fuel costs. Of course, nothing in the vehicle is really changing other than the buyer now having more accurate information to make these calculations.  As I said, numbers can be fun.

Let's just hope we continue to see advances in fuel efficiency to compensate somewhat for this upcoming more accurate "EPA mileage sticker shock."

Your mileage may still vary in 2008, but hopefully it won't vary very (or as) much as today.

Being male, I pride myself on not having to ask for directions. And, ultimately, I end up where I am trying to go...eventually. It's not that I'm bad at navigation, mind you. I do quite well as long as I'm familiar with the area or have a map to refer to. Turn by turn directions are also helpful so I'll pause in a moment of thanks to the great Internet map sites like MapQuest, MapBlast, Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps and a zillion other map sites that each provide slightly different ways to get to the same destination.

After embracing the Interweb back in 1995, exposure to the early mapping services made me finally stop unfolding those "quaint" paper maps. Instead, I'd travel with a nice color printout of the route along with detailed turn by turn directions. It worked well for me, even on 1600 mile cross country journeys. The problem was always those unplanned things like missing a turn or exit. Even locally, where I know the general city somewhat, I can easily get lost downtown if I'm not in the correct lane at the right time.

So, although I'm an adequate vehicular navigator, I eventually got tired of the rare (really!), "pulling off to a gas station to consult a map and find out just where the heck I am" moments.  I decided to invest in a small, portable GPS mapping gadget.

It wasn't convenient. I had to hook it up to my computer and slowly upload maps to it anytime I left the local area. It wasn't fast.  

Miss a turn in town, and by the time it had calculated a new route you'd already missed it and it had to recalculate that again. It wasn't easy to see. Glancing over to a small screen sitting on the dashboard of my old car trying to figure out what the little "beep" meant while cruising at 55 mph probably isn't very safe.

But it got the job done, mostly.  And, it also made me realize I should have spent double the money for something larger, more colorful, and that could talk.  Fortunately, instead of blowing $800 on the portable GPS I wanted, I found out that the Prius had a built in GPS Navigation System as an option.

Before I learned of the "wonders of GPS," I would have never imagined such an investment was worthwhile.  But even my tiny "toy" GPS was so useful that I wondered why everyone didn't have them, flaws and all.  

Fortunately, the system in the Prius is much more capable.

First, it has a large, colorful display screen that is easy to see and use. No tiny buttons to press and manipulate. You just press icons on the touch screen. Easy.

Second, it talks (like most decent ones do) so you don't even have to look at while driving. "Make a legal U-Turn" it might say. Oddly, it says that quite often to me. Did you hear it? If not, press a button right on the steering wheel and it will say it again. Simple.

Third, you don't have to upload maps. They are all contained on a DVD in the car which has not only map information, but a lot of phone numbers and searchable addresses for finding places. Find by address, intersection, type of business, interstate exit number, and even GPS coordinates. Flexible.

And fourth, it does something no portable GPS can claim to do: provide more accurate navigation on overcast and cloudy days. Amazing.

Amazing? Allow me to explain. A typical GPS device has an antenna on it that is used to track signals from satellites.  If the sky is too cloudy, it will have trouble picking up these signals.  The GPS system built in the Prius has a similar antenna (it's on the dashboard near the front edge of the windshield, in case you wondered) but it also tracks the motion of the car. There's some kind of gyroscopic motion sensing magic under the hood (maybe quite literally) that is able to use the direction and motion of the car to augment the GPS display even when the system is unable to lock in on satellites.

This was the biggest surprise to me. My old system was fine on clear days, but sometimes it would take a few minutes to "lock on" to a signal and start providing me useful information. The Prius system tries it's best to figure out where I am even when it doesn't really have a clue.  If it knows what road you are likely to be on, it can figure out approximately where you probably are by the direction and speed of the car.  It's not perfect, and I doubt there's a way it could be, but it's one of those little things that made having this system so much better than one of those portable models. I now realize just buying a fancy portable unit and sticking it on my dash wouldn't have been anywhere close to having one integrated and built in.

I'm not saying those portable ones aren't of use.  I still have my old one, and I take it with me when I travel (provided I remember to load it up with map data for the area I am visiting). But I am saying they don't hold a candle to how nice it is having a faster, larger and more capable unit built right in to the car. Plus, not only does it talk to me, but I can talk to it. While driving, I can press a button on the steering wheel and simply say "Go Home" and the car will guide me back. Assuming, that is, that I've somehow forgotten where I live.

I guess what I'm saying is: I really, really like the GPS navigation system in my Prius. I like not having to pull off the road to look at a map or directions. I like knowing that, during a traffic jam I can take any exit and have the car find me an alternate route to my destination. I like knowing I won't be late to appointments because I got lost after missing a turn. And most of all, I like knowing that a significant other won't have to ask me that nagging question:

"Why don't you just stop and ask for directions?"

When I started looking in to the Toyota Prius in 2005, they were pretty elusive. One local dealer had a nine month waiting list. The next closest dealer claimed about six months. Fortunately, I think I only had to wait about three months for my "exact match" to arrive but I know others who bought cars around the same time who simply could not imagine waiting that long for their new car.

On one hand it was great for Toyota dealers that demand exceeded supply. After all, what better way to actually make some money on a vehicle instead of cutting prices to "dealer invoice" or below just to close the deal? It even benefited existing Prius owners who put their car on the market since a used ones were actually selling for more than new ones to buyers who didn't want to wait. A rare thing indeed.

But on the other hand, there was no doubt frustration caused when potential Prius owners found out there was often no way to find a Prius to even test drive, let alone buy without months of waiting. So imagine my surprise when I walked in to a local shopping mall the other day and saw a brand new 2007 model white Prius sitting there on display.

Could it be? Did the local dealer have enough Prius inventory to let one just sit on display next to the smoothie stand and Apple store? I had to find out.

I contacted my dealer and asked about this. I was surprised to find out that, yes, they did indeed have Priuses on the lot ready for immediate purchase. Not only that, there was even special financing offers available, including a 0% offer! On a Prius. Amazing.

In the days that followed, I even saw a few Toyota TV commercials promoting the same Prius availability and financing. It looked like, at last, the major obstacle to buying a Prius -- actually finding one to buy -- had been eliminated.

So, in case you, like me, hadn't heard, apparently it's time to check your local Toyota dealer again. Apparently there's a chance you can actually find a Prius to check out and even buy with special financing.

Good luck!

Ever think about the mileage numbers you see on the window sticker at a dealer, or in car ads? Those numbers come from testing done by the Environmental Protection Agency. Most of us would be very surprised to see how different our actual mileage is from those numbers. Do you know your actual mileage?

Whatever type of car you drive, try this simple experiment. The next time you stop for gas, fill up your tank until the gas pump stops automatically. Don't "top off" the tank or anything - just go until the pump thinks you are full. If your car has a trip odometer that you can reset, reset it to zero before you leave the gas station.  If it doesn't, write down your current odometer mileage and stash it somewhere you can find it later.

Now you have a full tank of gas, and have a way to tell how many miles you are going to drive before you fill up again. Drive as you normally would, then the next time you fill up, make a note of how many gallons of gas you put in the car, and check how many miles you drove since the last fill up. If you can, try to fill back up at the same station and pump, since gas station pumps are not calibrated the same. (This little fact probably costs us a lot more money than we realize since stations can still be "legally" within spec and not giving us as much gas as we are being charged for. It's a minor thing, but it adds up over the life of a vehicle. But I digress...)

After this next fill up, you can divide the miles you drove by the gallons of gas it took.  For instance, if your trip odometer says 225 miles and you put in 9.56 gallons of gas, you just want to divide 225 by 9.56. (That would be 23.5 miles per gallon.)

Since one tank of gas isn't really enough to get an accurate idea of what type of mileage you are really getting, do this for the next few tanks of gas.   If you are using a trip odometer, the easiest things to do is just get a gas station receipt from the gas pump each time you fill up, write down the odometer miles on it, then stash that somewhere. If your gas station doesn't print receipts, or you don't have a trip odometer, just remember to keep a notepad and pen handy in your car. Be sure to reset your trip odometer (or note you mileage) before you leave on this second tank of gas.

After a few fill ups, you can add up the total number of galls of gas you bought, and the total number of miles you drove, and divide those out to get a more accurate estimate of your car's actual mileage. Now see if you can find what the EPA said your car did in their tests.  If you actual mileage is better, congratulations! If it's worse, no worries - those EPA tests are just for reference and they can't possibly reflect how any of us actually drive our car.

To explain, the EPA uses a very strict method of testing cars. It involves certain speeds, acceleration and all kinds of other factors to give a general idea of how the car consumes fuel overall. However, none of us will ever actually drive like this so it's important to realize these numbers are just for reference.

Because of how the Hybrid Synergy Drive system in the Prius works, these tests actually make the Prius look even more amazing. For instance, my Prius is EPA rated at 51 miles per gallon on the highway. Amazing!  But have you ever seen a car with better city mileage than highway? The EPA rates my Prius at 60 mpg in the city. More amazing! This defies normal logic, but the truth is the Prius isn't a normal car. When driving in the city at slower speeds with many stops, the car is able to run more on electric power and recharge the battery more often (from slowing down and braking, which happens far less when cruising on the interstate). Getting back energy that would normally be lost is the heart of the Prius' hybrid system. Think of it as free energy or, rather, "found" energy that would have already been wasted. It's like someone dropping extra gas in your tank all the time.

Although the EPA numbers aren't reflective of real world driving, my real world experience has certainly shown that I do get better mileage in the city (about 46 mpg) than I do on the highway (about 42 mpg). But, depending on how you drive and where you drive, your mileage may be much better (or worse) than that.  On a six-hour high speed Interstate trip to St. Louis, for instance, I got 42 mpg. Driving back on more rural highways (with a lower speed limit), I got 50 mpg. This more direct route was actually a bit shorter and thus took about as much time. I would never have thought there'd be such a big difference, but now I know and, all things similar, I'll often take a slower route and reap the mileage rewards.

And I'll never understand why people ask me "how much does it cost to fill up?" when discussing my car. What does that tell you other than how large of a gas tank it has? A better question is "how far can you drive on one tank of gas?" That one I can answer. Even though I never seem to squeeze more than 10 gallons of gas in to my Prius on a fill up, I often get about 475 miles before the "Add Fuel" light comes on again...in the summer! (That's 47.5 mpg for those without a calculator.) In the winter, though, my mileage may drop to 35 or so due to a change in driving conditions and the car just taking longer to warm up for peak performance.

So speed, temperature and driving styles can really impact actual mileage. Keep that in mind when checking those EPA numbers next time.  Research your own vehicle first, and see how it compared. That might give you an idea at how close your next car will be mileage-wise based on how you drive.

But even knowing this, I still can't get over the fact that my car, a Prius, gets better mileage in the city than out on the highway. And the EPA even agrees, but...

Your mileage may vary.

I'm not a car guy.

Sure, I occasionally see something drive by that makes me say "wow, look at that," but as much as the New Beetle or PT Cruiser may have caught my attention in past years, I continued to drive the same two door hatchback for 14 years and 185,000 miles. As long as it did the job and kept running, I kept driving it. My small car actually gave me more usable room for hauling stuff around (more than the backseat and trunk of a midsize would) while still offering good gas mileage, so why change if I was content?

As the years progressed, rust spots started to appear and "scheduled maintenance" got more and more expensive as more and more things needed to be replaced. The fact that I've done virtually all maintenance (including oil changes) at a dealer may explain the expense, but it should also explain why I had a 14 year old car still running strong...as long as I paid to keep it that way.

After sitting down one day and looking at how much I'd spent on maintenance over a 12 month period (over $200 per month), I decided maybe it was time to look for a new car. I figured maintenance costs would only increase, so perhaps a new car payment expense would be better than an old car maintenance expense. It would certainly be more fun.

I had been spoiled on fuel efficiency and not having to gas up all the time. It looked like another compact was still my best (and only) option. 

Then I remembered a conversation I had with some friends a few years earlier. They were telling me about a new Toyota car with great gas mileage. It was called a Prius and it offered the room of a larger midsize type car with gas mileage that actually exceeded what most compacts were capable of. It also had a neat little computer screen on the dashboard. And it was a hybrid, whatever that meant.

In the years since, I'd heard more and more about hybrids, and even had a coworker who drove a new hatchback model Toyota Prius. I asked her about it, and sure enough, her actual mileage was more than what I was getting with my compact. Her car had all kinds of features, too, and with four doors it was far more roomy and convenient. Could this be the solution to my "logical" impossibility of finding a nicer, larger car without giving up gas mileage?

As it turns out, it was. Over the next few months I absorbed everything I could find about the Prius. I searched web pages, joined mailing lists and read owner opinions. I learned that the Toyota Hybrid Synergy Drive system was quite different (and seemingly superior) to other types of hybrid systems. I learned that there was such a demand for this car that dealers had waiting lists many months long, and that used ones were selling for more than a new one simply because of demand. I learned that I really, really wanted one.

Long story short (too late), I ended up getting a fully loaded white Toyota Prius which I have been driving over the past year. I've gotten to experience the automatic climate control in the hot summer months. I've gotten to experience the VSC (vehicle stability control) system while driving through mud or ice in the wet and cold months. And I've gotten to experience what it's like to get 50 miles per gallon on a road trip, all while knowing I was spewing out far less pollution than all the cars around me. Every month seemed to offer some new pleasurable discovery.

So watch this space for various ramblings on just what I have learned about this amazing vehicle, whether it be interesting dash board lights or the under the hood magic that makes it possible to drive through a slow fast food car line without the engine running.

I'm not a car guy, but today I am certainly a Prius guy.