There's the 'electric mode' button (found on European and Japanese cars, but interestingly not available in the US short of wiring hacks), which bypasses the gas engine entirely - but only for speeds under 35 mph. There are crazy analyses of exotic driving styles (and slightly more common-sense driving techniques), including discussions of if/when to use the mysterious 'B' driving mode. Other folks focus on turning the Prius into a plug-in hybrid (PHEV), where you can use the power grid to drive your first x miles of the day (and if x is less than your roundtrip commute, gas-free). And of course throughout it all, everyone is trying to find more powerful battery supplement/replacement options.The principal problem with most of these (short of having to tear apart your car and potentially voiding parts of its warranty) is the crazy expense; plug-in solutions look to be $10K and up. But it's still fun to read and see nutty pictures of folks doing everything short of mounting a flux capacitor and electric hook system to their cars. (Hmm, now that I mention it, that's not a half bad idea... And apparently you can even order Flux Capacitors and Hover Conversions at DeLorean's website.)
My personal favorite is someone who figured out how to use their Prius as a backup home generator - we definitely could've used that when we lost power for 10+ days in this past winter's wind storm.
The only 'free' hack I've seen is to turn off the audible beeping noise (heard only inside the car) when in reverse. The directions sound like something out of a video game cheats website; I'm half expecting to have to plug an Xbox controller in somewhere to make it work, or at least for the car's screen to let you play Pac Man when the steps are completed.
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