Hello there all and thank you for the welcomes.

First off thanks for moving this over to the introductions. You'd think I would have noticed that sub-forum but oh well.

Thanks for checking out sustainability research. I'm glad you found it interesting. As it is at this point a side project for me I am slow to add new material.

I was very excited to read about what the partial zero emission implied. So yes that is most definitely exciting.

Wayne, the roughness I'm talking about is when the gas motor shuts off. I talked about it in another post over in the Prius General Forum and I would be very interested in anything you have to say.

Now on to my driving.

I inflate the tires to 42 psi front 40 psi back this helps a little with instability of the drive of the car I noticed when I first got it. It also did improve mileage a little. I also check it regularly so the inflation is still approximately that.

I just ran out an checked the oil and it is actually about 1/4 " above the top dipstick mark. I had it changed by the Toyota dealer around 5k miles so I don't know if this is normal or not. It's raining right now but I'll check for foaming under the cap when it stops. I guess I should have checked the oil when I picked the car up.

Wayne, should the oil be AT 1/2 way between the marks or ABOVE half way?

I've also been experimenting with various driving techniques like accelerating at half capacity and feathering the peddle and keeping a constant speed. I think the real problem is the trip shortness generally I drive about 4 miles in the morning ( about 20 min round trip) and then again in the evening. Other short trips on the couple of mile then shut off, do errands, run for another couple of miles. That being said, the car is usually driven at highway speeds for 10-20 minutes several times a week which (I think) should clean out the emission control stuff which will impede performance, though I don't have a clear understanding of how that all works.

I'm hoping to get the mileage up so I would welcome any suggestions.

Thanks again
Christian