For Goodness' Sake

I am now the proud owner of a red 2007 Prius, like the one pictured in my last post. Thursday evening I went to my chiropractor, and then to Toyota of Kirkland. Got my back straightened out, then my transportation.

I chose the cars I would consider at based on an ethics driven personal choice. It is an added bonus to find I keep enjoying the car more and more as I drive. It is the first time I've bought a brand new car. The closest was my '89 pickup, which was about 3 years old when I got it in June of '91. It was also the most recently manufactured, so I've jumped 18 years in automotive technology. And from crappy american quality, to a Toyota. Wow, what a difference.

Short vent... I remember as a kid when it was the other way around -- "Made In USA" meant quality, not arrogantly shoddy. Now the instant gratification culture promoted by the american MBA mentality has us striving to be nearly acceptable in most pursuits as long as you can dupe enough suckers to make a profit, while the long term business plans of Japan's culture has shown to be a more admirable with respect to the initial quality and durability of consumer goods.

I get a kick out of the displays for power paths, and instantaneous and cumulative MPG readings. It is a fun way to train yourself to drive with more fuel efficiency. I think there may be a happy medium between the very gradual accelerations I've been doing and really tromping on it. I accelerated to get in front of a dump truck, still pretty moderate, just enough to get comfortably ahead of him before the merge. Having driven a truck I never cut right in front of a big rig. It gives the driver heart palpitations, and increases your personal risk of highway decapitation. Well, I actually got the same or better efficiency with that acceleration than I've been getting, so I'll have to do some testing.

Here is what I think of as the cumulative display, which is showing 52.1 mpg. I currently 48.1, which includes the time it was running while they detailed it and such. It is still climbing and I expect it to be a bit higher when I reset it when I fill the gas tank later this week. The bar graph on the right is at zero, which indicates that car was stationary when this picture was taken -- these images come from a magazine or dealer site.


And here is what I think of as the instantaneous display. In this case the instantaneous mileage is 20.6mpg, which means they are probably going uphill or accelerating. (Looks like it was pretty cold too.) Right now the engine is providing power to the wheels and battery. Lots of combinations pop up. Both the battery and engine providing power to the wheels. Just one providing power to the wheels. Or my favorite when slowing or coasting, the wheels charging the battery. (The electric motor/generator of comes between the battery, and the gas motor and wheels/tranny.) I like this display the best, and wish it showed the cumulative mpg.


I'm enjoying the car for it's own sake, though reducing my carbon footprint and (involuntary) financial support for starting wars in the middle east drove my choice. Thumbing my nose at the mind-numbing dumbing down of American industry and consumerism is just an added bonus.

I've avoided driving for it's own sake, which is hard with a brand new car. I had an errand which was a 120 mile round trip for my financial advisor on Saturday, so that worked out nicely. After class on Sunday it was still around 87 degrees so I took a longer loop home for the sake of driving with the a/c set to a nice 75.