Batteries

my steeering is pretty centered as far as i can tell and as far as the battery level goes, what you see is pretty normal. realize that your Prius strives to be at around 5-6 bars.

 

After a lot of regenerative driving (long downhill runs), it's common for my battery to have all but one bar, and they turn from blue to green. I have yet to see all the bars lit.

As for the steering wheel being askew, he's blowing smoke. Ask him why to wheel is designed to be a little bit off to the right. It can be corrected by basically doing a front end alignment, but it sounds like he just doesn't want to do it. How far off to the right is it (in degrees)? Maybe the technician thinks that you're being too particular, and being slightly off center won't effect the steering.

 

I do a lot of driving in the mountains of western North Carolina and often have a full screen of green bars - all the way to the top when going down a long hill. Of course I have also seen pink bars when going up a long hill but find the car compensates by running the engine and recharging the batteries til there in the blue.

Steering wheel should be centered - no excuse for this. Sounds like a lazy dealer.

 

off to the right eh??

oh let me guess, in England the steering wheel will be a little off to the left right?

is this supposed to be some sort of subtle hint as to what side of the road you are supposed to be driving on?

 

Your battery is normal.

Your steering wheel is not. The steeting wheel has those places where it's comfortable to place your hands at 8 o'clock / 4 o'clock. Those should be symmetrical, not skewed. Demand that they fix it.

The car is designed to keep the battery within a central range. Only extreme conditions will get it to either extreme.

 

I drive 45 km (30 mi) each way each work day. I see an "all green but one bar" battery at the end of every drive. The secret is "feathering the accelerator," and taking advantage of Prius engineering. Anticipating stop light cycles and duration or looking ahead to a stop sign and taking advantage of regenerative coasting goes a long way.

There is an optimum "sweet spot" for using both the ICE and regeneration to your battery's advantage. Try using cruise control at various speeds on fairly level roadways, where there is a positive charge to the battery for most of the way. You will notice a change in your driving habits such as 1) less acceleration toward red lights, 2) anticipation of stop signs, 3) use of cruise control, 4) taking advantage of even slight downhill slopes, even in parking lots and 5) less substituting of oil for knowledge.

Prius is a thinking person's vehicle.

 

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As others have said - it depends on your driving conditions. I often have green, missing only the upper bar, when I get home from work. The key is that it is generally down hill. It is 1 mile from the (1.5 mile 55 mph) interstate exit to my house and the road before that is 40 mph. I can frequently stealth or deadband the last 1/2 mile on the 40 mph road but the short interstate trip brings the battery up. If there is NO traffic I can sometimes stealth almost the entire mile home. If there is traffic I end up green since I'm acellerating faster and the last quarter mile is a steeper hill so it is regen all the way. The only time I saw all green was coming down a steep mountain road in 'B'. Generally speaking, the range I normally see is all blue down to 1 bar missing below the 1/2 mark.

The other time I see green is going to the rink. The road is up, down, up, down paralleling the lake so on average, it is pretty flat. The car is cold to start, the engine runs, even on the down hill parts of the 1st half of the trip. It is a 30 MPH road so the engine isn't working to propel the car, it fills the battery instead.
So, yes, seeing only blue is pretty normal.

I agree with the others, you need a new dealer ;-)