Thursday, 27 August 2009

Has the world changed?

If you buy a new Sony ebook reader, you can get a million or more books free for it. Is this the ipod moment? I love the idea of having all classics (and other books) available to read in bed, and making space by getting rid of physical copies.

Two things I hate about the Prius

I lied, there's nothing I hate about the Prius. But there are two irritants that aren't good enough.

1) The rear windscreen wiper is on the wrong side. Because of the shape of the window a single wiper can't cover the whole screen. So it covers only one side. The passenger side. In the US, the wiper is on the same side which is (you guessed it) the driver side. In some conditions this does affect rear visibility and thus safety, and they should have switched it over.

2) You can't have the radio on without the key in. If I'm in the car that's ok, but I might want to leave the car for a couple of minutes and give the kids something to entertain them, without leaving the keys in the car for a friendly thief to take.

Thursday, 13 August 2009

Finally, 60mpg

I have finally worked out how to drive the Prius. For 18 months I've been averaging about 50mpg (imperial), which is not a joke since that includes short trips, winter starts, etc. It's been a bit under 50 in winter and a bit over in summer.

Despite reading about pulse and glide and all sorts of tricks, I've finally cracked it. The secret is (gasp) slow acceleration. There is an occasional sweet spot that comes up, where you can be travelling at say 50mph, uphill, accelerating very slowly, and getting about 50mpg. Once you've got to cruising speed you can do much better than mpg. Finding the sweet spot isn't easy though.

So my latest mpg calculation for my most recent tank is 60.03 mpg (imperial) 49.99 mpg (US).

For my next trip, I will pay some attention to the road. The new Prius has a heads up display which would make life safer.