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I think the use of the word safely, implies that to not wait for this warm up cycle to finish is unsafe, which it is not. There is nothing intrinsically unsafe in just driving off once the car is READY, as Cliff does. However, there is benefit to waiting for the ICE to stop and while it seems like it runs for several minutes, it is actually in the region of 50 secs. (You can see this in the video; the engine starts at ~ 0:41 and shuts down at ~1:31.) This warm up cycle is actually the first of 5 stages of hybrid operation. You can read about the 5 stages of hybrid operation in this link. If you have a minute or two of flat terrain and you can run at no more than 25 mph you can do this warm up cycle on the run, but you will use a significant portion of the HV battery as propulsion is all EV. If you request power in this stage, it will skip to stage 2 to provide the power requested. If you have to climb a significant up-hill or need to get onto a high(er) speed roadway within the first minute of starting, then it would be beneficial to wait for the warm up. As always, none of this advice is compulsory. It is your car, and you can drive it as you see fit. Hope that helps.

Hi, It cost me £970 and with 174k on the clock doesnt really owe me much. Anyway noticed a strange noise at 1500-2000 revs that after the engine had warmed up would disappear. Read a few forums and then read the horrible stories of blocked oil pickups in the sump due to leaky injector seals. I had no oil pressure warning lights so may have caught it in time. Dropped the sump and sure enough an oil pickup coverered in carbon deposits with about 75% blocked. Used carb cleaner and a wire brush to clean it up. Sump was free of any metal deposits so hopefully caught in the nick of time. The true tell tale sign is to get under the car and listen to the sump while someone revs the engine to the point the noise is generated, If you have it you can clearly hear it vibrating and making the weird noise it does. Enjot the pics and let me know if you have gone though the same to the point of turbo or complete engine failure. Chris

Yes very cheap, mileage is 59,000. I'm looking for a quick sale, its priced too cheap and people keep thinking somethings wrong with it. Its an amazing nippy little car :)

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/accessories-tyres/93097/winter-tyres-test-20152016-reviews-and-uk-prices

The 100% is set by the best performance of the test tyres. A score of over 100% for one of the reference tyres means that it did better in that test than the best of the test tyres.

Only if you don't press the pedal harder to make up for it (although the changes to H&V might still help a bit) :D

NORMAL Mode? What is NORMAL Mode? Compared to which? EV? ECO? If you're in ECO mode and press the ECO button again (or you're in PWR and press PWR) no mode lights are on and you're in NORMAL mode. In this mode the accelerator response is linear and there's no adjustment to heating and ventilation. In ECO mode, the accelerator response is much reduced in the first half of its travel and then builds up more rapidly to full power on the second half (but apparently not on the plugin). It's also useful in slippery conditions to give better control. In PWR mode the throttle comes on strong very early in it's travel range, and gives something like 75% power at the halfway point. EV mode can be selected in any of the three above modes provided the other conditions are right (speed, battery level, temperature etc).

That's a good point, as when the heat is on, the ICE will run longer to warm up to a higher temp, so after the ~50 sec when it moves to stage 2 then ICE remains running. Also when the OAT is 10℃ or less, you could wait 50 or so seconds (say you need to clear the windscreen/rear window, e. g.) but other than that, there is not much to be gained by waiting longer. In Cliff's case, his hybrid is a working vehicle, so time being money, waiting around is not the best idea, so he would be just as well to get the car READY and drive off. If you get to base and the ICE (internal combustion engine) is still running and there is no good reason to leave the car running switch it off. Hope that helps. What is OAT? Outside Air Temp I believe.

Not in my experience. Even then with modern cars (anything in the last 30+ years) and oils you're talking seconds for oil to be up to pressure, and you can drive them instantly.

Yes, for standard cars, but the hybrid is a little different. To be clear, it is not necessary to do the warm up, otherwise it would be in the owner's manual. In older cars the purpose of warming up was to get the oil pressure up and circulating so the engine was well lubricated before loading it up. The purpose of allowing the first stage warm in a hybrid is preservation of the HV battery. It is simply that allowing the warm up reduces the battery cycles by eliminating the need to drive solely in EV until the car moves to stage 2. While it may seem that letting the ICE run while stationary for 50 secs is wasting petrol, it recoups that by getting to a more efficient state sooner and while it is sitting there running the ICE it is putting a little charge into the HV battery to be used later. Another option of course would be to drive off and give the go pedal a bit of welly to force the car to stage 2. Notwithstanding, the HSD has been designed to be driven just like any conventional car, so you are not going to do any harm by driving it just like any conventional car. Once again, none of this advice is compulsory. It is your car, and you can drive it as you see fit.

To be honest As long as I am not in a rush (drive away fast) - Then I just start, READY, then drive away immediately. It's a modern car. It will be fine. Same as if ice'd over, (as long as screen is defrosted for safety), Then just drive away immediately. Just my 2 pence...

Yes, but they are both motor/generators.During normal operation, one will be a motor and the other a generator. Lots of information on the web about how the Toyota hybrid drive works. Such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_Synergy_Drive

Well having had the car in for the head gasket and having previously had problems with the DVD which had stopped working, partly my fault for getting a little bit if lens cleaning tissue stuck in there... don't ask.... The car came back with the radio out of action as they had disconnected the battery to do the head work..... So, it was time to strip the centre of the dash and take the unit out. Out it came, not as hard as expected, and a strip down and removal of the DVD player to extract the paper sliver and clean the laser optics.... Having managed to rebuild it, twice, due to not quite seating one of the ribbon cables correctly the first time, the system now works better than it has since I got the car. So much so I have sourced an OEM disc set for the car and when they are back in stock will be spending another £75 to get them..... This is not a job for the faint hearted... I have some experience of stripping car dashboards out to fit systems in Police cars and am also a Toshiba laptop warranty repair tech and have plenty of experience with this sort of stuff.... so none of it has phased me at all, but could scare the pants off most folk... It's just as well I like this car as I have spent a fortune on it.... but it is going well and hopefully will last another couple of years.

That's been exactly my experience...