High Speed Driving In a "C"

It's not the same as when you mash on the gas to get up to speed to merge onto the freeways where you actually hear the car working to deliver. I drive 70'ish on the freeways, and do quite a bit of freeway driving. The car is not pushing the limits and I've seen 50+ mpg at a steady 75 for 10+ miles. The marketing for the car is city, but given real world needs I think Toyota has done a decent job of delivering for freeway speeds. I would be more concerned with handling above 80 mph before I was worried about rpm.

 

If the freeway you're on is crowded you really shouldn't be going 15 to 20 MPH slower than the rest of the traffic. That's a recipe of a rear ender or worse. At the least it, contributes to the number of one finger salutes a Prius driver may get. These little C's will take high speed driving with no ill effect and still get remarkable gas mileage.

 

Why not drive 75-80 if thats the flow of traffic around you ? Here at shift change times if you drive 20 mph slower than the traffic flow you're about to get 'rammed' by a giant pickup truck. (another reason to have better rear wipers), As for driving at speeds greater than 75-80 take a good look at videos on youtube of Prius C driving 100 mph. (At 4700 rpm, it ain't no hipo engine)
Remember, the point is getting much better than average mpg; a C will get in excess of 30 mpg on track driving as fast as possible - and getting passed by everything - and a Z06 vette will be lucky to get 5 mpg and I can verify that. Course, lap times will be equally different say 2:15 vs 3:00. But the you get to enjoy the use of driving skills much longer. anyone believing that can sit down. But can be just as rewarding to maximize a C as it is a Z06 - and perhaps harder to do.
As for handling the C responds to the same setups as any showroom stock racer and equipped with good tires is as good as any of the rinky-dinks out there. . No it will not challenge amini or a Mazda2 but an old vw,yes.
This past weekend my Prissy had the pleasure of driving very fast on very slick and wet conditions; on the pace car lap the pace car and I arrived at the end of the long back straight with nary a Corvette i sight. In fact we were well in the pit lane before one even showed up. Lots of power and big wide tires aren't always winners. In most corners I was drifting the Prius c in both directions so the Prius c can do a 4 wheel drift ! The outside camera has no image worth seeing; the inside camera leaves the viewer wondering which way the road is going. The driver was laughing all the way.

 

Because some times you just need to get to your destination faster...
From my experience you can still get 50+ mpg going 70-75 and you can get 47+ going about 80ish..
Going 80 is not a problem, getting from 30 (ramp) to 80 (especially with a full car) is good deal slower than most.

 

On my recent 5,000 + vacation trip through western USA I was surprised to see that, on one leg of my trip I got 47 mpg while driving at 75 to 80. I don't generally drive that fast but I had to go with the flow.

 

I only drive at around 70 mph because our speed limits here are 110 km/h at best, but cruising at this speed is no issue for this car. It is not struggling or pushing it at all. It may be 1.5 L, but remember it is an Atkinson cycle engine and more efficient. I cannot understand why you would self-limit down to 60 mph.

 

Well that's fine if you're saying you're making a personal choice... that's a bit different to your initial post. The Prius c has no problems at all driving at freeway speeds. If you choose to drive at lower speeds for your own reasons, so be it.

My c spends 90-95% of its life never going above 80 km/h (50 mph). I'm not going to maintain a spare car for the odd times I take it on freeways up to 110 km/h, especially when the c can already do that just fine.

 

I'm sorry but there's just no basis for that claim. This car can be driven at 80 mph and it's not "bad for it".

 

If it was bad for it Toyota wouldn't allow it to go that fast in the first place. They do limit speed on vehicles because they determine they aren't safe above that given speed. Anything below that is "A-OK" in my book.

Was the car designed to be a speed demon? No. Will it go fast enough to wrap you around a tree pretty good? Yes.

 

Think about it. The Prius and Prius c are very aerodynamically designed. Unless you get a super low-profile vehicle you're rarely going to find 40+ mpg going 80 mph. RPMs go to maybe 1700 to maintain those speeds on a flat, level road with Prius C.
About 1/4 of the Prius drivers I encounter on the road drive their hybrids like a "yeah whatever" regular car.

 

i drive over 400 miles a week, plenty of time going 80 mph or faster; i am not concerned. (averaging 50-55 mph)

i cringe when i see any car traveling significantly slower than the flow of traffic, i feel like they should have their hazard lights on if they're going to do that. but it really hurts when that car is a prius; it helps us live up to our bad reputation.

 

If going the speed limit hurts our reputation then the other drivers on the road need to rethink their idea of a "good rep."

 

? I'm not what you are saying. so if I drive 65 instead of 80 for 30 miles that makes about 5 min difference. so I agree

then you say several things. going faster could be more wear on car and could get a ticket. I don't agree more likely to get in accident and make other drivers angry. I never seem to make anyone angry for driving to fast. unless I impatently tail gate. I dont think prius have a bad rap for tailgateing others.

Drive with traffic is probably safest. if the roads are empty the slower you go the safer. IMO

 

I drive the speed limit and just let them pass me by. I stay in the slow lane and when I get home and see the 60+ MPG I know it was well worth it. Drive fast and Die young. Speed limits are for safety and make good sense to me, having been an Auto Insurance Casualty Claims rep for most of my life. Cars don't kill people, Speeding people do.

 

I paid for it, I'll drive it like I want.

The C was built to use less fuel than most other vehicles and to do that up to 106mph. Congratulations to you if you never drive over 60 in yours, congratulations to me for using my C as I wish.

YMMV.

 

I don't know about the Prius C but in the 2010 Prius with my scan gauge II the RPM at 60 MPH
on level ground is about 1,600 RPM.