Tech with a twist of lime! & FLHybrid Club.

I found this article on Wikipedia, for all those people who ask you for a quick rundown of what a hybrid vehicle is, how they work, and a brief history.  Its a nice article and will be a nice read for everyone looking for a bit of explanation into the inner workings of hybrids some historical background.  The work to the site is still ongoing so please bear with us.

A hybrid vehicle is a vehicle using an on-board rechargeable energy storage system (RESS) and a fueled propulsion power source for vehicle propulsion. They are low-polluting and low-petroleum consuming cars. The different propulsion power systems may have common subsystems or components. The term most commonly refers to petroleum-electric hybrid vehicles, also called Hybrid-electric vehicle (HEV) which use gasoline (petrol) or diesel to power internal-combustion engines (ICEs), and electric batteries to power electric motors...

    The Plural of Prius is, Prius as in (ex. one Prius, two Prius, a fleet of Prius) Prius is derived from Latin and it means "to go before"   Prius was Toyota's first hybrid, it was the first in a long line of hybrids to come, by 2010 all Toyota vehicles are slated to have hybrid powertrains at least as an option, each time a vehicle is redesigned it will receive the hybrid powerplant or drivetrain as an option.  The 2007 Camry Hybrid was the first vehicle to come from this program.  The 2006 Highlander Hybrid (HH) was not a part of this program and it is a performance hybrid rather than an economy hybrid like Prius and Camry.  It is rumored that the Highlander Hybrid was actually designed as two models a performance hybrid and an economy hybrid, the economy Highlander hybrid seems to have died in the marketing department, but it has not been ruled out yet. It will be nice if the 2007 Highlander hybrid has an economy button like the Camry does to switch modes.

Priuses, and Prii are incorrect, Toyota itself only uses Prius as both singular and Plural in their press releases. 

I don't understand why Texas is constantly beating us to the punch with ways to encourage fuel conservation.  They already have synchronized traffic lights and their governments did it to save time during rush hour rather than to save fuel but, less stops also means less fuel consumption.  Synchronizing traffic lights is when the local transportation authority sets the traffic lights to a more efficient timing, the lights also communicate with each other increasing the efficiency of the system and giving the name synchronized.  Anyway what brought this up is...

"Seat doesn't go back far enough"

I've heard this complaint about almost every type of new car I've been in.  Today I spoke with a taller gentleman and decided to see what I could find as a solution other than taking the vehicle to a custom shop.  Tundrasolutions.com was way ahead of me on this one. (see link)

Kacey Green
GRLT.com
"Tech with a twist of lime!"

Hello, my name is Jason, and I am a newbie Prius driver. Kacey kindly took part of his day off today to show me how to really drive my new Prius. When I told my roommate he asked me "What the heck do you need lessons for?". I couldn't answer his question; I didn't know myself.

Well, now I have an idea. Don't know how to drive with no bars, dead bars, or pure electric? You need lessons. Have no idea what I'm talking about? You need lessons. It's okay, not embarrassing, because hybrids really do drive a little differently. You have to get used to that extra rumble when the gas engine kicks in, and teasing the gas to get no bars or dead bars is not only tricky, but changes with the terrain. In some terrain, it's downright difficult. Kacey showed me the techniques in about an hour, and the rest was all practice.

My first day with the Prius, I had an average 31 MPG, stop-and-go driving. With what Kacey showed me during the lessons, I had an average of 51 MPG in stop-and-go, and average 45.5 MPG on the highway. That's some results right there - and on the first day, too.  So, I hereby recommend Kacey's hybrid driving lessons to any new hybrid driver. Because, after all, you have to learn it somewhere, right?

-Jason