Yeah, they get great mileage. Yeah, alot of us drive speed limit and try to do the right thing to achieve this mpg reward. BUT!.....how fast have you gone in your Prius? Car's reaction to that speed? Be honest and tell us what it was like at what YOU thought was pretty fast.
The Prius is speed limited at around 100 MPH. -I- wouldn't ever try to achieve that kind of speed as there is no purpose in doing so. Unless you like spending the night in jail. As I've never pushed it I can't tell you how it handles at those kinds of speeds. Ask the Europeans. Some of their roads have high limits.
I pulled out to pass a harvester on a US highway, only to find 5 harvesters in a row, I was doing 95 at the end of the pass.
I've done ~80mph on a Vespa. I'm sure a 30k+ car has no problems driving safely at those speeds or higher. There's a hwy out here they just changed to an 85mph speed limit and I can just imagine the speed people will actually be traveling.
100mph while testing wide open throttle emergency shut down techniques like pressing the park button and neutral shift. This was in my GenII. In the GenIII I have only gone to 90mph. To me this is not fast. I was a drag racer for nearly 2 decades. With 15" tires the car was a bit twitchy. With 17" tires is was much more stable.
101mph for a second on a closed track. Anything above 70 you can feel the car start to sway and the tires can't handle that speed. I wouldn't recommend it. Fastest I've gone in a car was 191 in a Corvette ZR1 at El Toro..Fastest in dirt is 70mph in a purpose built Lancer Evo X MR with Speedline Corse 2118 wheels and aggressive tires.
I've gone at least 85 on the interstate outside of Chicago, more than a few times! I didn't notice any handling issues at all.
In my 2005, 85mph from Fargo Nd. to Glendive Mt. 105 degrees out and into a 25mph wind with air cond. on high no problem also averaged 35mpg! speed does kill mpg! and heat I suppose.
I went 85 on the demo drive before I bought mine, the salesman wanted me to see how well it handled a little speed. I have probably gone a little faster in mine.
yeah lenjack - below is quick cut paste from some rag with web blog wow, the blue ones are fast! Gore, 24, was pulled over south of Los Angeles in a blue Toyota Prius around 2:15 a.m. July 4 for allegedly driving more than 100 mph.
On the LA freeways I've caught myself at about 85, keeping up with a fast flow, didn't notice any handling quirks, but really don't do that very often, lately I just pick a slower lane and cruise at around 70-75.
I'm not really a speedster and usually set my cruise at 55, but I had my 2010 going 110 on Saturday with 4 large adults in it, and decided to err on the side of caution and let off. My guess is that it would go 120+ with little trouble, not that I'll ever surpass 75 again I'm sure. But it was pretty fun
I thought the 2010 were governed to about 107mph and the 2012 were governed at about 112mph. You did really well!
A Mazda zipped past being tailgated by a small Caddy and a hundred yards back, another Mazda. So I decided to get their license plate numbers. Bob Wilson