Hi xcel, ericbecky and others from the event,

I tried the "stop and go" vs. "stop, restart and go" mentioned last Sunday and described in detail in this thread:

http://greenhybrid.com/discuss/cold-...-tip.2828.html

...but I found no significant difference in the first 5-minute bar. See my results here:

http://www.greenhybrid.com/share/bro...imageuser=1607

Here is my full method:

1. Drive 15-20 minutes to make sure ICE is completely warm.
2. Stop and put in park (do not power off).
3. Wait until next 5-minute bar appears (this was ~2 minutes).
4. Drive a 10 minute loop. (See last 2 bars in first image. First bar of those is ~75 MPG.)
5. Stop, put in park, and this time power off. Wait ~2 minutes.
6. Power on, drive the exact same 10 minute loop (see second image - again, first bar is ~75 MPG).

So... what gives? The original post on this topic and discussions on Sunday made it seem as though the first bar after the full power off would take a large hit (perhaps be below 50).

At any rate, my "assignment" was to see if it was possible to leave the Prius in ready mode without having the smart key, not to test it out (although I hope someone can shed light on this ). Here's what I found:

- The fob is locked in the ignition for as long as the Prius is in any state except off.
- Using a second fob, the Prius refused to lock from outside.
- Using the mechanical key, the Prius would lock from outside, and remain in "ready" mode.

Having the second fob be able to lock while the first is in the ignition would be great, but I have not found a way around that yet... and I will keep trying, if it is worth it... anyone get different results from trying this?