I was told at a Dealer that the FEH "Will go about 50 miles off battery if you run out of gas."

I WISH!!!
( this was after they had been out for 5 months or so )

Real distance is 2 miles... on a good day....

Ops... this is supposed to be for dumb questions... not dumb dealers...

I went through two Ford dealerships and their sales reps until I found a sales rep I felt comfortable with at the third.

The first two gave me the usual party line about 1) the hybrid components will add $3K to $5K over the cost of the nonhybrid counterpart and 2) city mileage 36, highway mileage 31. Beyond that, they didn't know didley-squat but tried to act as if they did.

The third looked me in the eye and said, "I suppose you already know about the additional cost and performance?"

I nodded.

He said, "I don't know much about hybrids beyond that, but I'll look up any questions you have about them."

Guess who made a sale?

Actually, I do have some sympathy for the sales reps. As a teacher, I get asked many questions by my students. I don't know all of the answers. My response to these is to tell the student I'll check it out and get back.

If only it were as easy for sales reps to do the same thing/

'06 FEH 2WD "Sainte Marie"

04' # 5, W/leather & JBL omitted.
"Prius, Just ask the person that drives one"
04' Tundra, 18mpg city & 22mpg hwy.
04' Prius, 60mpg city & 53mpg hwy.

Kenstyle NHW20 AERO Kit

'00 Insight "Wazabi" -75,000+ miles
'03 Toyota Matrix - 81,000+ miles
'03 HCH-CVT-OSBM-41,000+ miles (retired 04-10-06)
"I'm very secure with my little Insight, no Prius envy here."

"What size batteries does it use?" When I answered, as dead pan as possible: "AAs", he replied: "Really? I bet you are spending a fortune on them"

fernando_g that's a good one.

I mainly get the typical plug question. My friends know I've had it for a couple of years and sometimes they'll ask how many miles I have.
I tell them 60,000 and they seem suprised that my car starts/runs/goes just the same as when it was new.

Efficient drivers do it better.
1003 miles a tank personal record. 74MPG calculated. HCH1 CVT

somehow, i envision a bumper-sticker coming out of that one... ROTFLOL!

maybe somthing like "55 mpg on only 6,000 AA batteries!" or something like that...

+af
Northwest Raleigh, NC, USA
'04 Silver opt.BC/9; 24,000+ miles so far
http://www.plusaf.com/prius/prius.htm
http://www.plusaf.com/coast/coast1.htm
My Prius without the trailer:

My Prius with the trailer:

Like most of us, I frequently get asked the "Where do you plug it in?" question.

I respond that every couple of miles I get out and hand crank the battery up to full power. Some people actually believe me when I say that and ask where the crank is.

I've also been known to respond that the battery is recharged by forcing compressed air through a turbine. And, yes, upon further inquiry, I admit that the engine compresses the air. No one has yet to carry this one step further - that the battery drives the engine making a completely closed system - perpetual motion.

More serious questioners ask how can a car gain efficiency when the process of storing it in a battery before using it represents an energy loss by the second law of thermodynamics (the entropy law). This is a nice lead-in to an explanation of optimizing system efficiency even at the expense of some local inefficiencies.

'06 FEH 2WD "Sainte Marie"

I have yet to get any "out there" questions. By far, the number one question I get is something like "How do you like it?"

I tell them I love it, tell them my mpg and how much better it is than my old car (Audi A4 w/ a V-6). I then explain that I have changed the way I drive (~speed limit on highway instead of ~80 miles per hour). I don't delve into any other techniques to achieve higher mpg.

The next question, if there is one, is usually related to whether or not it has enough pick-up / power / acceleration. I reply that it obviously is a turtle compared to the V-6 A4, but that I have had no trouble accelerating to merge into traffic or to pass when necessary.

(This sequence of questions happened to me {again} yesterday evening, and this thread came to mind.)