I would like to see a video that explains in detail all of the indicators & displays of the Gen 2 2008 Prius or even a PDF on the subject. Is there a way for me to see exactly how many miles I can drive with the remaining fuel I have in the car based off the history of driving I have over the last 30 minutes. The Key part of my Question is how far can I go with what fuel I have?.. Not can I track how far I have gone. I mention the history because that is where the car would get its estimations from. That is what I want an estimation of how far I can go with what I have in fuel at any given time. Is that possible with the Gen 2 or only with later models.? I purchased my Prius used so there is no owners manual. Feel free to post a link to one as I still have not seen one. This is my 1st Prius & I just want to understand it.
welcome and congrats! the newer generation, 2010 and on, has a distance to empty readout. what you can do is reset your average mpg gauge when you fill up, and use your running average divided into miles traveled to see how many gallons you have used. all the best!
With the rubber bladder in the gas tank, the car can never really know exactly how much gas it has left, so it could never provide a super accurate miles to empty anyway. I just look at the mileage for the tank on the MFD and the distance traveled so far, and assuming there's 10 gallons available at full (to be safe), guesstimate range remaining from there. Why do you want an exact number? There are many reasons you don't want to run a car super low regularly and you can screw up your hybrid battery if you run out and don't stop before draining the battery. Much safer to just refuel at 2 pips remaining.
Google "Toyota techinfo", click on manuals tab and you should be able to download your Owners Manual. Regarding miles-to-empty: I wouldn't push the tank too far, it's pointless. Worst case scenario: you run out of gas, continue some distance on the battery only, and run it's charge right down. The 2nd gen will allow this.
There are 2 big unknowns: the first pip and how far you want to drive on the last pip. The first pip can last up to 150-160 miles at 50 MPG depending on how far the tank fills up. The next pips go away much faster, somewhere around 35 miles on average assuming 50 MPG. So that's somewhere around 475 miles per tank to flashing pip at 50 MPG, assuming good fill-up. Probably still a couple gallons left but not recommended to push it as Mendel said above, except he forgot to mention your HV batt could be permanently dead if you discharge it on an empty gaso tank.
I didn't want to be completely doom-and-gloom but yes, as Jesse was want to say in Breaking Bad: "There's that...".
