I'm sure many think having a tach in an automatic is pointless but it really isn't. I'm just curious why Toyota felt the need to leave this gauge out for the Prius.

Why do you think it should have one?

I recently started using a mini-scanner on my 03 Prius. My feeling is the MFD should have an 'engineering' display that shows:

1) vehicle kinetic energy and graphical change
2) total ICE energy and graphical change
3) total battery energy and graphical change
4) vehicle potential energy and graphical change (if it has a GPS receiver)

For good measure, I would also like a USB memory stick socket to record engineering data from each trip. Of course this is a little beyond just a tachometer.

http://hiwaay.net/~bzwilson/prius/pri_power.html

Bob Wilson

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I think most people have no clue what a tach is used for... so they left it out. A tach with a CVT does have some odd (but correct) behavior... for instance you can accelerate, while the tach remains at fixed point.... or you can be cruising at 65mph and notice a dip in rpms if you enter in a truck's draft.

A tach is valuable in telling you when you might damage the ICE and telling you when the ICE is actually off (when not moving ofcourse). It also lets you know if you idle speed is set correctly.

It's hard to damage the ICE with a CVT and drive by wire. The computer won't let you.

But again, a tach provides valuable information other than if you are going to damage the engine. Even if one isn't shown on the instrument cluster, Toyota could have provided it in a display you could bring up in the LCD screen. That would have actually been cheaper than a physical gauge.

I agree, a tach is nice, and it comes with the HCH... it helps me figure out if the CVT is maximized or not.

Have you ever seen/heard any Prius engine was dameged because of lack of tachometer?

Ken@Japan

I'm not saying the engine will get damaged if a vehicle doesn't have one. I am saying a tach provides driver feedback about the engine. When you are used to having a tach, you really miss that information when you don't have it.