Re: 2018 Prius 1 or 2, on the highway, how is overall comfort and noise?

Welcome to PriusChat.

Sounds like you need to go drive one - I find it's great, good mileage, good around town or on the highway. It's quieter than my previous small FORD - but if you're comparing it with, say a Jaguar - it's noisier.

 

welcome!

agree on the test drive^^^ (your son, not you) and make it a long highway one.

prius is not a great highway car for some people, and likely not as quiet and smooth as a new civic.

also, the drivers seat can be problematic for some, but a younger person with a strong back may not have issues.

all the best!

 

I use mine for commuting on I-5. Doing 80 mph I get 45 mpg. As far as comfort... It's no Benz but it's light years better than my Sti.

 

I find my 2018 Prius Two very quiet, smooth, and economical on the freeway cruising at 65 to 70 MPH. I typically get around the low 50s MPG range at that speed in the winter and upper 50s when the outside climate is warm enough to not need the heater. More than 70 MPH, I have no significant experience to help you with that!

 

Gas Mizer said he was doing 80MPH - which isn't what the official MPG assessments are based on. Speed makes a difference to any car. Speed limits near where I live are 62.5MPH - and I do about 60% motorway, 40% urban, and my average is about 57US MPG - but on a longer run, I'll get in the 60-65US MPG range - but sticking to the 62.5 MPH. [the police are stupidly savage here - even a couple over will cost $100s]

A Bugatti Veyron will empty it's fuel tank in 12 minutes at TOP Speed - but it's official rating is almost 10MPG.

With the seat - I'm relatively happy with it - there is no perfect seat which will suit 100% of drivers, there are some better but more in prestige cars. Best idea, as with any car, is for him to check he can get comfortable.

 

I wonder at what speed it switches from MPG to GPM

 

Don't think it goes quite fast enough. I forgot there's a new model - the CHIRON - and it'll empty it in 9 mins according to Top Gear. I think it's 2.6 MPG was my rough mental arithmetic - almost gallons per mile.

I'm almost £1.9m short to pay the £1.9m price-tag.

 

some people develop back and leg pain on longer trips. i can't give you numbers but there are threads and posts here. it's hard to test drive long enough to know.
if he is comfortable in most any car, it probably won't be an issue. but i hope he is going to test before buying

 

50mpg is a nominal figure from an epa test, and only to be used when comparing cars.
YMMV = your mileage may vary.

 

Seating comfort and perceived noise are incredibly subjective. There is absolutely no way to satisfy these without a test drive.

Regenerative braking begins (very subtly) by just removing your foot from the accelerator pedal. It gets ramped up when you hit the brake pedal. Coasting is incredibly simple- just lift your foot most of the way, but not all the way off the pedal. It's completely organic and takes no thought. If it feels like you're doing it right, you are.

Toyota did an exceptionally good job of making these cars deliver good MPG when you just get in, buckle up and drive. You can eke out impressive gains beyond the norms by adopting weird driving techniques, but at a certain point you're diverting a lot of attention away from traffic and putting people and property at risk- so there is a limit.

But just like every other car on the road today- keep it under 60 miles per hour for stellar MPG, expect poor results above 75 and learn to live with the scale in the middle.

 

It's probably better not to think of regenerative braking as an energy gain, it's really more of a feature that cuts your losses when braking. You put energy in when you accelerate. When you step on the brakes in a regular car you lose all of that energy to friction. However with regenerative braking you can reclaim up to about two-thirds of that energy which goes back into the battery. That's a big part of why hybrids are so energy efficient.

However that's the glass half full viewpoint, it's also sort of a glass half empty situation as you need to remember the 30% or more that you are losing to friction every time you brake.

Stop and go driving can be pretty efficient, but a big part of that is that your average speed is much slower, like 35 mph or less and thus greatly reduced wind resistance. A regular car gets the wind resistance benefit also during stop and go driving but that is more than offset by energy lost through braking. Whereas a hybrid loses much less energy from braking, so overall it makes for efficient stop and go driving. When the traffic clears and you speed up to 65 mph wind resistance takes its toll and can in some cases lower your mpg compared to stop and go driving. But the Prius is very efficient even at those speeds so nothing to really worry about there either.

That's somewhat oversimplified as there are other variables such as engine efficiency at different power levels, driving in hills, etc. but the best approach is to just drive it normally at first, then later start experimenting to find ways that you can make minor adjustments to improve mpg.

 

Wind resistance. I think the sweet spot for this car is between 45 - 60.

 

city driving can be a real killer. getting this thing moving from zero takes a lot of energy, and there's not enough regeneration to make up the losses

 

Again, it depends very much on how you drive. I move off the mark reasonably quickly if there is traffic behind, then up to the speed limit more carefully. I'll often have someone in the lane next to me in their truck or whatever make a jack-rabbit start - and they'll be sitting beside me at the next light. And I've used ¼ the fuel they did.