Consumer Reports Names Prius "2014 Top Pick Green Car"

I've seen stats that say 20%+ of frontal crashes are of the kind this test is designed to replicate. And given that you have both body deformation and airbag contact area issues, seems the tests are informative to me and I own one.

 

So Mike are you going to trade it in because CR says its not safe. The accident statistics didn't rise from last year. Is it the press release that scares you.

 

Their combined happens to get close to Fuelly reports, but they aren't in line with the sticker. CR reports getting a 55mpg on the highway, and 35mpg for their city. Has low city mpg and higher highway mpg been your experience with the Prius? If so, by such a large gap?

The issue with their test is that they don't control for variables which makes the results between models incomparable. How can a person use their car reviews to narrow down car choice when the test results can't be used to compare between models?

 

A problem with this approach is that it introduces a huge number of uncontrollable variables, and it is not a repeatable test. For example, a Porsche or Ferrari probably has a much higher rate of injuries per mile than a minivan. How much of that is due to how it is driven and how much is due to the vehicle itself being less safe? Or compare a GTI to a Golf TDI. One is a hot hatch and the other is an economy car. Crash wise they should be identical but I expect accident statistics will show the GTI as being far less safe.

 

if you have the GPS coordinates of the CR Vehicle Test Track you can use a Bicyclist Elevation/Hill Route Mapper to tell you the change in elevation/altitude of the test track. If you race the Prius too hard into a tight curve the vehicle stability system is going to mechanically slow down the Prius to prevent it from tipping over or losing road traction - this will lead to a loss in fuel efficiency for safety's sake. My guess is that CR might be driving the Prius too fast over tight curve and this would lowers the Prius' MPG. The Prius fuel efficiency also depends on how long the CR Fuel Efficiency Test, cross winds, on how smooth the road is, what is the average speed CR is testing the Prius at, when an ethanol mix fuel is used, are and what the driving temperatures are. When the Prius is run for less than 30 minutes, when the Prius is driven against strong cross winds (>25 mph), when the Prius is driven over rough roads, when the Prius is driven faster than 55 mph, when the Prius is running on a ethanol mix gas, and when driving temperatures drop below40 F degrees - the Prius has a much harder time (but not impossible) meeting or getting above its EPA rating.

 

Agree. Insurance rates are different in some countries, eg. GTIs fared higher in Germany.

 

Minivans like the sienna are some of the safest vehicles. But your A6 and E class awd luxury cars also are the safest. These are often driven fast. The A6 did bad in the IIHS test like the prius, but that didn't seem to affect the death stats.
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These are often tabulated on fatalities per year not per mile, as those statistics are not available to the NHTSA (they don't record mileage in accidents. This means ferraris that are garaged most of the time don't make the top of the list, but cars like the yaris and nissan z fail. The fatality statisitcs did have the accord much lower than the prius and camry before the new test, but prius and camry are better than average in their class with or without the shouting headlines from Consumer reports that suddenly they became less safe and are not recomended. Now that toyota has "braced" these cars I doubt fatalitis will go down, but consumer reports likes them again.

We do get differences based on driver self selection. Consumer reports sometimes reports some cars as less reliable than others because of a part, even if the identical part is in a more reliable car. This simply comes from flaws in their survesys and CR not putting the data together.

 

At first this would seem reasonable until you actually see the details in the accident records. For example, the FAR records include driver age, which is a good first order determinant of the likely driving style. If some cars tend to be operated badly, it is also the car that attracted that type of driver.

Bob Wilson

 

I used Google Earth for the same effect. But the problem is the track does not tell us the speeds and accelerations used.

A GPS log, typically 1 second interval, would be perfect and answer my questions. In an ideal world, two identical, battery operated GPS loggers with one fixed at the starting point and the other in the car. Both would be started at the same time and allowed 15 minutes to stabilize. Then we would do a differences and get a very accurate metric of what happens during their runs.

Bob Wilson

 

I agree, Bob.