No such thing as a stupid question - I hope. So, what do the yellow bar graphs mean that say minutes in the lower left hand corner, and read 30, 25, 20, 15, 10, and 5. I get the one on the far right and love it. And where, or how (other than the gas guage) can you find out how many miles you might have left before it runs out of gas? Obviously a first time Prius owner. So far, so good. Mrkr
The yellow bar graphs move to the left each 5 minutes to show the average mileage for the last 5, 10, 15 etc. minutes. There is no way that I know of to know the estimated miles to empty, other than the fuel gauge.
I know on the GenIII prius you just cycle thru pressing the "trip" button; one of the displays is "miles to empty".
Correct. And because you have a GenII Prius, DO NOT PLAY CHICKEN WITH THE GAS GAUGE!!! When it gets to 1 or 2 bars, find a gas station. When it starts blinking, go directly to the nearest station or get ready to be stranded on the side of the road. The Prius does not have a tank like a normal car where you can fill it up and be done with it. It has a bladder system that has folds and creases and lays ontop itself sometimes so you never get the same amount of gas in. When it says it is empty, it is empty. Not "you have another 2-3 gallons left" like some cars. That was added for the GenIII. The GenII has no such critter.
True enough, if by mileage is meant MPG, but... Not all that meaningful. Extreme case example: Lets say the ICE, etc, is warmed up and in S4. At beginning of a 5 min segment you have 5 blue HV battery bars and are in a "no-arrows- glide," the ICE is not running and the MFD is showing 99.9 MPGs which could actually be any number over 100... even 1000+. While in the no-arrows glide you roll for ~100 yds, up to a stop light... and BAM there's an accident which prevents you from moving for the remainder of the 5 min interval. For this 5 min period, when you moved all of 100 yds, and you get 99.9 MPGs. Wonderful, but... Without any connection to the distance travelled, it is nearly meaningless. If in the next 5 min interval you travel 3.7 miles and get 47 MPG, there is no way to quickly integrate the two MPGs into a meaningful 10 min average. Even moreso across six, 5 min intervals of random distance covered. IMHO, the yellow bars are useful only for their entertainment value for any passengers.
