Hills

any car will do the same if the hill is steep enough

 

Yes, and since the Prius actually engages the electric motor to simulate the slight forward motion of a gas engine when the brake is released...it is actually using energy to maintain its position on the hill (go to the arrows screen and you can see it).

So, keeping your foot on the brake is not only safer, but it saves energy too.

 

It's normal, Stringer.

 

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Studebaker had the same feature back in the 30s.

I just keep my foot on the brake pedal. I can go from that to the accelerator pedal pretty quickly.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Mar 28 2006, 09:10 AM) [snapback]231382[/snapback]</div>

American Sign Language? For the voice-activated NAV perhaps?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Mar 26 2006, 10:50 AM) [snapback]230463[/snapback]</div>

We had this on our manual transmission Legacy. It held the brake on until one released the clutch. Worked like a charm. I don't think it's on the automatics.

 

if i got my foot on brakes, i get arrows too.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DaveinOlyWA @ Apr 24 2006, 06:08 PM) [snapback]244611[/snapback]</div>

If you squish the brakes harder, Dave, the arrows will go away. If they do not, one might like to know why that is.

 

I talked to a guy who was a mail person & he said before I buy a Prius I should check into the hill speed of the Prius.

How dose the Prius do on gradient uphills?

There is one between Phoenix & the Sedona area on 17 north that he said the prius is a gutless wonder and it slows way down. That stretch of highway is 75 MPH, he said sometimes it drops to below 45 MPH.

Is this true for most?

 

Well I don't know the hill you're talking about, but so far I haven't had any problems maintaining speed (or accelerating) on hills, and I've driven some pretty hilly highways here on the east coast.

 

To use this advanced feature the operator must push on the break pedal until the "hill-hold" feature activates and stops the car from going backwards. If you weren't fortunate enough to buy a car with this feature as standard then you will have to use the alternate method of pushing on the break pedal until the car stops rolling backwards.

As a side note, it costs upwards of $300 to run diagnostics on the hill-hold system so use it sparingly.

 

All fun aside, there are numerous posts describing no difficulty with hills of all types. In particular are a few recent posts from someone driving in the mountain passes in Colorado with no difficulty.

 

I read auto magazine accounts of hill-climb limitations, but they were testing the very early model Prius that was only sold in Japan. If you ran flat-out up a long mountain grade, eventually you deplete all the assist the battery can give and the car has to slow down to a rate that can be supported by the ICE alone. They reported that under this condition, a turtle icon appeared on the MFD. This probably wasn't a problem so much in Japan because highway speeds are kept lower there.

Toyota knew that they would have to make the Prius more powerful to sell it in the US (and beef up the air conditioning!) and they did so before selling it here. They added power to that model before starting US sales, and they added more power again with the introduction of the 2004 model. I've not heard of any hill-climb limitations in US-spec Prius.

Now what might be is that this person isn't willing to push the accelerator hard enough that the engine has to rev to do the job. Like most any 4-cylinder car, if you want to climb a large grade at high speed you are going to have to rev the engine. These capabilities are designed in, though. Vehicle manufacturers know that there are places in the southwestern US where there are very long grades, very high temperatures, and very high average vehicle speeds!

 

This is almost always true. The exception is when the battery is VERY full. If I just barely get to 8 green bars, the arrows go away when I hold the brake pedal firmly at a stop. But if I get to 8 green bars and continue regen-braking, then stop, Prius starts looking for ways to waste energy so the battery doesn't overcharge. In that condition, it doesn't care how hard I push on the brake pedal, the arrows stay. And sometimes it will also pull that trick that has been described here by others where it will repeatedly start up and shut down the ICE, just to give the motors something else to do that will use some more energy.

These are probably both normally very rare events but there is a hill I go down every day that is almost perfect for this. You exit the Interstate at high speed, go down a long downhill off-ramp, and have to sit at the bottom while waiting for the traffic light to change. If I am at 7 bars when I exit the Interstate, I can usually get enough energy from the regen to see this behavior once I stop at the bottom of the hill.

 

No, we haven't all wimped out getting a car with an automatic transmission - Prius doesn't have a transmission - at least not one that shifts gears - way smarter than automatic, manual, cone & belt - etc. etc. - the planetary power-split device is pure genius:whoo: