Comments by "flagmichael" (@flagmichael) on "Dont do this to your Toyota Hybrid" video.

Set the display to show the battery charge state, and do not enter a car wash if the battery is very low. It is not an issue for that length of time - I do it several times a week - if the hybrid battery is in good shape.
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@TheCarCareNut They are not all in one place, either. A card with the "what you need to know" would be very helpful. Small changes in operating behavior make a huge difference.
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@michelgarciag It won't necessarily run more, but the system is extremely intolerant of a weak 12V battery - I believe ripple from the inverter on the 12V line is responsible. It can show up as low fuel economy or as all sorts of misbehaviors, then one day the system doesn't go ready and the dome light is very dim.... I feel the 12V battery should be checked annually because there is very little warning of it failing. In my 18 years of Prius experience the 12V battery is by far the most common failure. BTW, our 2014 is giving us an average of right around 50 mpg, closer to 60 mpg in our hilly town. Hilly terrain really brings out the best in Toyota hybrids.
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It is possible, but not straightforward to give another car a jump start, The critical thing is to not have another car connected to the Prius battery when the system is in "ready." It is possible to get a decent amount of charge in a good battery of another car by connecting the two in parallel with both cars off, and let the two equalize. Disconnect the two, start the Prius for a few minutes to be sure there is enough juice for another start, and see if the recipient has enough juice to crank. If not, time to get somebody there who can help.
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@TheCarCareNut I look forward to it! Most of the maintenance is easier than conventional cars; brakes need a lot less attention. There are a few items such as these that are different and, while simple, are important. We switched in 2002 for fuel efficiency and stayed because of the phenomenal reliability. In nearly 50 years we have never had a car that needed less repair in a year than our Prius have in 100,000 miles. (Sadly our 2010 seemed to have become magnetized, being hit in the sides three times over a 6 month period before it was totaled.)
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As an 18 year Prius owner (we have bought and wanted nothing else in that time) I thought this was the most useful information I have seen so far. There are others that go into more detail for individual things but this tells us how to avoid mistreating them. BTW, in all this time I have had to do one repair to our Priuses besides 12V batteries, tires, wiper blades, and windshields: the inverter pump died in our 2002 a couple of years ago, just short of 200K miles. It is a common problem in gen 1 and gen 2 Prius. It cost me $150 and a couple hours of my very slow labor, mostly wrestling with rusted hardware. I do my own routine maintenance. One thing I would add to this video's list: do not blow off the spark plug replacement at the 100K mile intervals. The system will run okay enough, but fuel economy will drop and the transaxle will make knocking sounds (intermittent at first) that sound like rod knock. Just follow the schedule and life will be good. EDIT - I forgot: ALWAYS use the recommended oil, and always synthetic. (0W-20 oil only comes in synthetic.) Especially in 2010 - 2014 engines, the wrong oil can block the piston oil drain holes with coke. I also recommend top tier gasoline brands (see https://www.toptiergas.com/licensed-brands/). The Atkinson engine burps soot into the intake; top tier gasolines reduce but do not eliminate that. Throttle body cleaning is not a bad idea, but actually trying to do it makes me wonder if it is worth the trouble. DO NOT spray throttle body cleaner in the intake, the engine hates that and is quite noisy about it.
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Honda hybrids are very different. Your best bet is to find some Honda Hybrid forums and see who the experts there are.
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It is the number 1 complaint about Prius drivers - driving too fast. Foolish drivers drive anything.
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@yggdrasil9039 That behavior is essentially mandated by the hybrid system design. It has never been a problem for us - we sit with our foot on the brake or we put it in park if we are going to be there a while. Trains (an everyday fact of life in Flagstaff) can go either way. If the train was passing when I got there I leave it in drive; if the gates stopped me as I approached I generally put it in park. No worries.
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From the beginning Prius have had low precision gas gauges; in the first gen Prius it was frequently called a "guess gauge." We had two 2002 Prius; one would hang at three bars for days, then nosedive. The other would behave sensibly. One important feature, designed to stabilize the information, is that adding less than about 3 gallons of gas generally makes no difference to the display or miles to go. Toyota apparently decided they didn't want the display increasing when going up or down hills more than they wanted to display the most optimistic miles to go. In addition, the system appears to use information from the previous fill to decide how many miles the new, conservative reading is. Filling the tank completely when it is below half a tank and avoiding adding gas when above 2/3 tank will stop most of that nonsense, but sometimes we gotta do what we gotta do.
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