zinzindorff9 said:
Mike,I totally agree but I've discovered that most of Prius purchasers will disagree with your assumptions. I can't believe there isn't a "after-market Tach and set of temp guages available or that Toyota failed to add it to the "info" screen. Seems as though most Prius buyers are content to drive their cars until a red light appears on the dash and then call and have it towed to a dealer.
I don't think that's really true for most Prius owners, there's just not a good option available at the moment.
There are after-market Tachs available that will work with the Prius. They pick up the spark plug signal, so might not work during fuel cut above 42 MPH (engine spinning, but no fuel). Is spark also cut?
For the rest of the instrumentation, there is a group of people working on decoding signals on the 'CAN' bus. Hopefully, they will be successful soon and announce something. For older 2001-03 Prius, there's Graham's miniscanner (normally available from
Ecros tech, but they're currently out of stock).
zinzindorff9 said:
The engine is another factor since it is not a normal internal combustion engine and could not operate the car by itself without the aid of the two electric motors.
You make it sound like a big deal, yet there is no mass market car available with an engine that can operate the car without the aid of a transmission. The Prius has an unusual transmission with two large motor/generators, but it's still a transmission.
zinzindorff9 said:
It is an "atkinson" cycle engine and although rated for 80 hp only puts out 45 hp and relies on the electrics for the additional torque nesessary and is limited to 4500 rpm.
Rated for, and puts out 76 HP at 5000 rpm. Power from the battery adds to this.
zinzindorff9 said:
It is a mechanical marvel but since the rpm has little to do with power output the tach isn't all that necessary since all you would be using it for is indication that engine is running.
RPM is highly correlated with power output. Unlike traditional cars, it's not particularly correlated with vehicle speed.
zinzindorff9 said:
The thing has to spin up to 1,000 rpm by the smaller of the two electric motors before fuel is supplied to two of the four cylinders for "every" start. There is an aftermarket "light" modification somewhere that will give you this info. The Prius screen will not do this and only shows engine operation when it is supplying some sort of power, whether it is to run car or charge battery. Sometimes, it just "runs". (To heat catalytic converter, heat engine coolant etc

I hate this lack of instrumentation but have found replies to this question by owners that either they never looked at them in their previous cars or that their previous Japanese cars did not have them and they weren't missed. I think there is a different type of buyer for the Prius and not the Corvette or sportscar owner of the past.
Again, there are quite a few owners interested in instrumentation of their Prius. It's not currently available, but stay tuned...
zinzindorff9 said:
These things are years ahead of the industry and I just wish buyers were a little more demanding.
Sadly, it's tough to be demanding when supply is very limited and competition is close to non-existent. Hopefully, things will improve as supply problems ease and more manufacturers offer products.
zinzindorff9 said:
As far as I know, in the northeast there has never been a demonstrator on the floor of any dealer since the 2004's hit the street. My dealer knew very little about the car or how "it worked" and could only give me a test drive in a new Camry as he said they drove identically. The dealers just don't get enough to take an interest unless they are part of the few who insist on sinfully high "markups. Those guys all have a lot of "demonstrators" There is a lot of info out there but not at a dealer. You have to dig for it and even with it's shortcomings it is a fantastic machine. Toyota priced it at market value and to keep it there had to dispense with a lot of things you would probably like in your car to make it perfect. As long as you "play the game" and get your car at MSRP from a reputable dealer you are getting your moneys worth and more. I think if you foolishly pay more than list you'll be kicking yourself in the butt at this time next year when the supply has caught up!
I hope you're right. Hard to predict though.
zinzindorff9 said:
About oil pressure dropping off when "coasting" A tachometer would indicate why, and an engine operating light would be indicating off. If you are any way mechanically aware all this info would be of much more value than variable fuel present consumption figures displayed on a graph. And as far as temp. The Prius has two separate cooling systems. One for the "ICE" and the other for cooling the electrical inverter. Both critical and a loss of any coolant in these systems would first become obvious by a rise in temp guage well before the red light and steam from under the hood.
If they implemented the red light properly, it should shine at least as soon as you would detect the problem on a temperature gauge. Both well before steam. By the way, the temperature gauge on the 2001-03 miniscanner tends to be boringly steady at 83-85 deg. C once the engine warms up, unless you do a lot of stealth.
zinzindorff9 said:
And by the way Mike, I don't think you would be at all happy with the Civic. The internal combustion engine in it is a four cylinder, eight valve engine vs the Prius all aluminum block four, with double overhead camshafts and 16 valves.
I haven't tried the HCH, but Honda has a good reputation with engines.