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ozpont
Joined: 07 Apr 2006 Posts: 60
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Larry Site Admin
Joined: 01 Jun 2006 Posts: 4773
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Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 2:53 pm Post subject: "Green" Car?! |
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I wonder if Al Gore knows about this.... but then again I guess it wouldn't be politically correct to mention it now that he is part of the Hollywood set! |
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50scars
Joined: 30 Mar 2006 Posts: 106 Location: Oakley, Ill
1951 Chieftain
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Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:19 pm Post subject: Inconvienent facts |
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Toyota Prius is a wonderful car, if you drive it exactly like they designed it to be driven. However, if you live somewhere that requires getting on the freeway and running for your life, the Prius will do it, but you will not get anything like the mileage they claim. Unless you have to charge the batteries manually every now and again, because you don't drive enough on the gas engine to charge them, you will never save the extra cost of the car in gas mileage. And if you keep it long enough, you will have to replace the battery pack, which is NOT JUST $98. |
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Nomadac
Joined: 30 Jul 2007 Posts: 25 Location: Columbus, IN.
1963 Grand Prix
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Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 11:30 am Post subject: Re: Inconvienent facts |
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50scars wrote: |
Toyota Prius is a wonderful car, if you drive it exactly like they designed it to be driven. However, if you live somewhere that requires getting on the freeway and running for your life, the Prius will do it, but you will not get anything like the mileage they claim. Unless you have to charge the batteries manually every now and again, because you don't drive enough on the gas engine to charge them, you will never save the extra cost of the car in gas mileage. And if you keep it long enough, you will have to replace the battery pack, which is NOT JUST $98. |
I tend to disagree with your observations as I know 3-4 people that own and drive Prius's and do get excellent mileage 40-50 mpg and having driven one of the car's on the Interstate it runs very well. Batteries stay charged and I do not know any of these people that have a problem with keeping the batteries charged. Yes the battery pack is expensive, but have not heard of anyone having to replace them at this time. Having retired from TMS, my feedback is very accurate vs. hearsay. |
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50scars
Joined: 30 Mar 2006 Posts: 106 Location: Oakley, Ill
1951 Chieftain
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Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 8:34 pm Post subject: Toyota Prius |
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I have a friend who is a college professor. He owns a Toyota Prius. One of the early ones with the rear skirts. He lives in a Subdivision that is off a state highway, with a supposed speedlimit of 55; you know what that means. So he drives maybe 500 feet at 20 MPH, then has to get out and run with traffic for about 2 miles. Then he gets on the Interstate, where the limit is 65; again, you know what that means. He drives about 20 miles on that, then gets off at the exit about 500 feet from the entrance to campus, where he drives about 20 MPH for less than a mile. He constantly complains that the Corolla he traded in got better mileage than his Prius does. I guess it is 4 or 5 years old. He does get great mileage in town, but we are noticing that we are having to charge the battery pack if he drives a lot in slow or stop and start traffic, and if he lets the car sit for a couple weeks, like when he flies to California to visit relatives, it will be totally dead when he returns. Believe me, it takes a while to recharge the battery pack, you don't just slap your 10 amp charger on overnight. |
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Nomadac
Joined: 30 Jul 2007 Posts: 25 Location: Columbus, IN.
1963 Grand Prix
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Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 3:50 pm Post subject: Re: Toyota Prius |
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50scars wrote: |
I have a friend who is a college professor. |
Based on your friends driving habits he should have kept his Corolla or bought a new one since they get approx. 40 mpg and there are other Toyota's that get excellent mileage. Prius are not for everyone and of the individuals that I know their driving is more conducive to excellent mileage and keeping their batteries charged. A real good friend with his commuting got in the high 40's to 50 mpg and never had any battery charging problems but it was a newer model then you mention your friend has. Mileage is like anything different drivers will get different performance driving the same model vehicle, as I used to do mileage tests with owners cars that complained about poor mileage. With a 1/10th of a gallon tester on the car and the owner in the back seat, they were amazed what mileage I could get and said they didn't drive like I did during the test which explained why I got better mileage and demonstrated the vehicle was capable of good mileage if the owner did their part. |
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50scars
Joined: 30 Mar 2006 Posts: 106 Location: Oakley, Ill
1951 Chieftain
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 5:30 pm Post subject: prius |
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Like I said in my first post, you have to drive the car in the way it was designed to be driven if you are going to get the mileage as advertised.
On a flat level Illinois Freeway with no head wind, I have gotten over 35 MPG on the instant mileage of more than a few Crown Victorias. I am not about to try to tell you that they will deliver that all the time. I do know that over the 200,000 miles they tended to be around here, the dashboard display average MPG was around 23 on all of them. |
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