Just drive it. No other car is going to match the mpg of your Prius no matter how careful you drive it.
In Knoxville we went over $5 pg because the pipeline that feeds the storage farm here went dry and they were trucking it in. Last fill-up it was $3.60 pg (approx).
$80 in maintenance (other then oil changes) to drive 180,000kms, ya I can say I'm happy I bought a Prius. Never mind the fuel economy.
Oh yea. Just filled up my wife's Corolla and got the cheapest station around (4.12). It's going up about 6 cents a week...
I'm on my 2nd Prius. 75 K on the first one before some idiot took it out while parked. About 35K on the Gen 3 V model. No question, it's the best car made today. I would buy either Prius again.
This summer you will see a lot of Prius vehicles on vacation. Even with gas at $5.00 per gallon we can afford to go on vacation. The neighbor with a road mammoth can not. I believe that gas demand will drop the more the price goes ups. Drove by the Local Toyota Dealer and saw a lot full of gas guzzlers. It seems nobody's buying them. Only one Prius was on the lot and that is probably gone. al
It might be my biased impression, but everybody here in Munich was driving less faster than usual yesterday and today. Fine by me as I can drive and accelerate as I wish. Is it that maybe gas at 8-9$/gal is starting to impact heavily or at least visibly somebody's pocket? It has been already said that the oil price might go down as demand will go down as well. I haven't seen that yet. I think a psychological barrier has been broken by the oil companies in their thirst of profits, in the direction of "enough is enough" - at least here in Europe... And since oil is not expensive because it is finished, rather due to a *lot* of excessive speculation...
From some link I found: That must be for about one zillionth of a second. I've certainly been in many cars with far less torque that feel, and are, much quicker off the line.
Agreed. While I feel the Prius has more than enough power for daily driving, it is definitely a slug off the line. I've ran my GenII at the track and my 0-60 ft. times were horrific. An average car should post 2.0-2.5 60' times with stock tires. A performance car should be in the 1.7-1.9 60ft. range. Interestingly the MPH was good enough for a 16secon 1/4mile but there was just not enough torque to get a good enough 60ft. time to make it happen. Best Run: Reaction Time: .071 60': 2.678 1/4 ET: 17.645 1/4 MPH: 78.91 http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-main-forum/23047-took-prius-drag-racing.html
The electric motor is not "directly" connected to the wheels - there is a secondary planetary gearset with a reduction gear ratio that connects it to the wheel - so 0-1200rpm is actually from 0 to xxxrpms which is far less than one would think - I need somebody to do the math for me here, since I don't remember the ratios. So lots of torque but for a very limited speed range - essentially to move the car from 0rpm in a very efficient way and to avoid the use of the ICE. Too bad we don't know the torque between 1,200-1,540 RPM. Note: the MG2 can spin up to 13.000rpm - there it has practically no torque - the torque is coming completely from the ICE at that speed.
Boy I really do not understand criticism of the cars "off the line" performance. If that is the priority ... buy a Mustang. It also comes with a terrific exhaust sound. When buying a chocolate ice cream cone, is the complaint ... I love the purchase, everything is terrific, but it does not taste like strawberry?
Off the line is not a qualitative state. It's not like those who don't buy a Mustang automatically no longer care about it, they just care about it less, but it's still relevant.
I'm not complaining. I didn't buy the car to race it. The car fits my needs and I love it. I was just quantifying the other complaints with numbers.
My only regret is that I didn't take advantage of the $1K incentive last year. Remember that? That was back when Toyota was getting a ton of bad publicity for the freaky brakes and gas prices were at least a dollar lower. I thought the incentive would still be there a month later, it wasn't. Ate the mistake and bought. Very pleased. Weather is perfect for good mileage and almost had a personal best. Not only pleased, I would have to say I'm happy.