For better mpg you want ONLY low rolling resistance tires. I shall stand by my Yokohamas any time. I had originally Yoko 580, that were discontinued and now have whatever is the new 580 equivalent. total with install by Disc-t Tire was $470.
Listen to Haroldo. he knows his stuff.

 

lol!!!!!

 

You do. I learned a lot from your posts.

 

LOL, Ukrkoz, if you have Yoko's on your car, you would be standing by them, more than likely, they're flat.

 

Translate please? Why would they be flat?

stand by something to continue to have a particular belief or opinion, even though other people have doubts about it or disagree with you

 

Well I'm a little drunk. I haven't been driving, I promise. But I did drive it earlier when I was sober and I think I figured it out - I kept going for instant gratification on the MPG, and instead I tried driving it like any other car. It seemed to respond better to that. I got the same MPG but with a different method of that. I have been dabbling with the display settings where it tells me what is doing what - and it never told me the gas engine was simultaneously empowering the tires with the hybrid system before, but these last few times it did. That would explain why the vibration was intermittent like it was before, is that right?

Also, it seems activating the defrost will also activate the gas engine. I would imagine the same applies to listening to music in the car, since both draw similar energy from electricity?

 

Look, I told you, it'd have been much faster for you to spend an hour or so with me and I could explain and show a lot about your car. I sort of know it. People are strange, they lost ability of helping each other. Watch too much movies read too much news, all afraid of rapists and gangsters. It's FREE HELP, Marik.
Anyhow. Yes, until system is well warmed up, turning heat on will turn engine on.
Yes, ICE and EM, or MG, can run together, or independently. It's whatever computer tells it to do at the moment.
Some will tell you to "just drive like regular car". No, that is not the case. Your job is to do 2 things.
1. glide, or coast, as much and as long as possible
2. keep traction battery charged as long and as much as possible.
So it really depends on terrain you driving on and length of your trips, as short trips only you have NO electric benefit. Takes 15-20 minutes right now here in WA for the system to warm up. less summer time, that's why summer mpg goes up.
Some will suggest the so called pulse and glide driving technique. I tried it and it is not really working well. Maybe in Wyoming or Oklahoma or anywhere else where roads are long stretches of flat. Here, where you have hills and valleys, you simply do not have where to glide. Unless you are in East WA in areas where it is rather flat. Not on the ocean side. Besides, it consumes so much gas doing pulse, that I do not see it recovering all that during glide.
So I stay with simply modest accelerations, coasting or cruising as much as environment permits, planned B braking and very sensitive right foot. It hit 34 yesterday am and I still have 39.9 average mpg long term.

 

I benefit from the pulse and glide method here in PA, I've been averaging 39.8 mpg every tank no matter the type of driving. You'll get to know what will call ine ICE on, therefore you'll get a run for it and take advantage of the flats and downhills. Monitor your left gauge and keep it in EV as long as you can, learn to back off when above the trip point, and learn to push the EV right up to where it will start the ICE. Being in the ECO band doesn't hurt your mileage much, it seems at that point the ICE is only running like a pony motor and keeping the battery charged. I put my mode in ECO when I bought the car and only took it out once to see the difference. I'm doing a 300 mile round trip this week, I'll be curious to see what mileage I get, but I'm thinking I'll still be at my 39.8 average.

 

I get it dude. Auburn is not exactly close to me though. That will likely take an hour drive to and from. Not easy when you have a family and work a lot. I'd like to if you can meet somewhere in the middle though like Tacoma or something.

Anyways, is it normal to get a noise when braking (different than the normal regenerative braking noise) it's hard to describe but it's like a whaling noise or something. Somewhat high pitched, almost a squeal or squeak. I know it's hard to describe this stuff on the internet.

The vibration has cut back a bit. It comes and goes but I think I've figured out a lot of stuff. The car is smooth as hell when I drive it that way, although that doesn't seem to be the best way to get MPG sometimes.

 

I need to agree with kudos to HarroldO for his explanations of how the hybrid works. When we bought our '09 TCH in Jan of '09 I was really disappointed to have an electric car that rarely used the electric mode so I researched on the internet and found this forum with harroldO's explanation. That gave me an idea of what to expect and how to drive the car to get results. That was the start of my love for Toyota hybrids, now I have a '16 Avalon hybrid and my wife has a '15 Prius. My hats off to HarroldO!
About the tires - look at the Pireli P7's. Many have praised these tires on the Toyota Nation site, and swear by them for a smooth quiet ride plus they are less expensive than Michelin.