I would be happy to drink to that . . . you're cool!!!

I have long suspected that "CNW Marketing" made a unique study of just one or two drivers who live in retirement and possibly an undergraduate student or two. In their "Dust-to-Dust" report they went out of their way to identify these as typical Prius drivers. As a sample set limited to a narrow group of people, their conclusions would make sense. But I drive through our local college campus and retirement areas and they are not 'thick with Prius.'

Now some of the retirees have rightfully identified gas as an expense they would like to minimize. What is also true is the higher resale value of their Prius considerably changes the life-cycle cost. This is something "CNW Marketing" and just about every other faux analysis ignores.

You folks are fine. It is just "CNW Marketing" who would take your Prius usage as the 'norm' when in fact there are more folks than just you and the occasional student, like Jason. "CNW Marketing" is the nut-case who seems to have no concept of statistics or sampling.

For grins, we can take the GreenHybrid.com database and cut and paste the entries for any vehicle into a spreadsheet. With a little bit of code, we could easily measure how many miles per year the poster is getting, in fact, the rate for anyone who made just couple of posts.

You see one reason "CNW Marketing" doesn't make sense is they claim higher mileage for the non-hybrid equivalent. So image you had a gas-only Ford Escape and a hybrid Ford Escape in the driveway. According to "CNW Marketing" you would drive the gas-only Escape even though it is cheaper to drive the hybrid.

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

Yes how true. All the faux analsyes ( good term for future reference ) omit this key variable. The proper hybrid / non-hybrid comparo for a Prius today is the Matrix. They are similar in size and both are 5 door hatches with similar equipment, except the SKS.

In comparing older Prius' and older Matrix's trade-ins and resales one finds that the original 'hybrid premium' of about $4000-$5000 is mostly still present even after 3-6 yrs of use and normal mileage. At 6 yrs and 90000 miles the Prius brings about $3000 more in resale than the Matrix.

The other consistent error in these faux analyses is that every single one of them estimates that fuel will remain the same price forever. 'Using the cost of fuel @ $2.85 / gallon.....' Hello, real world to 'analyst' this is obviously highly unlikely. A more realistic scenario is ecalating the price of fuel by some standard amount each year. Myself I use $.50 a gal annually which is probably too low. An increase of 8%-15% annually is probably realistic.

I know you posted this a while ago, but I travel to Paris and Germany for work, and frequently leave my TCH alone for two-three weeks at a time with no issue upon return.

I've had so many back-to-back trips that from January 13th until about three weeks ago I had left my car the entire time - almost three months; it started just fine with no issue.

This was with no trickle charger or other accessory. I'm assuming the car reduces it's drain on power significantly when it's been off for a while. My previous car, a Volvo S80 would do something similar when it hadn't been used or accessed for a few days.

Speaking of which, for long trips I began parking my Volvo at a car-park because after a couple weeks it would always be dead. I would rely on the car park company to charge jumpstart my car when I'd arrive back because it became such a hassle to do it on my own. I'm quite surprised to see how there was zero problem after almost three months with my hybrid - I'd assume you should be fine. Don't many car dealerships have hybrids that have been on the lot for months?

_________
"It's not easy being green..." - Kermit the Frog

It's common to see a Prius that has "been on the lot for months" with a dead 12V battery. In fact, if they have one in the showroom, you will often see a charger connected up to it. The car in the showroom has all sorts of current draw on it (doors open, etc) as they don't dare disconnect the battery like they normally do for other "normal" cars in the showroom. (my observations from shopping around at various Toyota dealers).

The SKS will shut down after a few days of non-use. So your thought the draw drops with time is correct. One thing that has tripped up a few people is they keep the FOB too close to the car (attached garage). If you do this, the car can "think" you want to go soon so it "preps" the systems continuously. This can drain the 12V battery much more quickly. Try this yourself. Get in the car but don't touch the brake pedal or other controls. Sit and listen. You'll hear things "getting ready" more than if you do this without the FOB in your pocket. BTW, this is in the owners manual, but as we all know, reading that is a last resort for most people.

Pearl is a
2007 Driftwood Pearl Prius
Package "B" (everything but leather, nav, and rear camera)

We returned from our trip, oh boy, ain't I glad to be home and sweet home...

First time started Woody after our return, he sounded a bit "angry" and "coughing" like sounds. It got better after couple days, but after 2 weeks, he is still a bit "coughing" in the morning start.

Not sure what and why is happening.

I will get him checked up on his next physical.... ( i.e. scheduled maintenance )

And we were shocked, the gas price raised a full dollar after we returned...

See if they'll clean the throttle plate. You may have a little sticky throttle plate.

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

I will ask them to do so. Thanks a lot !