Disappointed in Prius ('08) waiting for '10

do you do a lot of rally racing to need awd?

 

All-wheel-drive is definetly a must in South California, with all the snow you get there.

 

I drive often enough in rain and wind and I am not doing 50. Prius felt very unstable with standard rubber, better with AquaTred, but with better rubber and 16" wheels mileage went to 34-36mpg. Show performance sucked, esp when driving uphill. It could not climb my own driveway until snow cleared.

Besides, you don't need AWD for racing, quite the opposite - look at most sports cars, they are RWD. And I am not in SoCal.

As I said: I am well past driving Corolla type cars. I want 20 ways adjustable seat. And I am happy to pay for the privilege.

 

Here, here! I'm hoping for a lot more competition in the next year in the prius market. If nothing else, it might prod Toyota to upscale the driver's seat. ray:

 

Hey Zack
I live in Mississauga and just bought a 06 and my uncle just bought a 08.
We just took the car on our first long drive (3 hours on the highway), even sitting at 120km/h we got 5L/100kms.
My uncles is 2 weeks old and he's averaging 4.7L/100kms.
We average between 4.3 and 4.5 in the city and as I said, 5 on the highway.
My other car is a 07 Impreza and I get about 9L/100kms
As for "a lead foot" I also have 2 high power cars, one at 800hp and another at 500hp. So you can adjust, just need to practice when/if you buy a Prius.
Both my uncle and myself are VERY happy with the Prius, he also has a Highlander Hybrid that he just bought and loves it to.
Brian.

 

ZACK you are not going to get blasted by me!!! That has been my dream here for the Prius since 2005. I saw the "handwriting" on the wall here in the USA, Texas!! When I first pulled up at the school where I work, they were all laughing at me... not anymore!! The one thing this forum has failed to do is look at this car from a performance standpoint and strength. While the mileage claims and what have you are somewhat questionable, most in this forum from what I see and this is an OPINION, use the car more as a status symbol or little hobby, to prove to the world how environmental they are. I go one step further, and look at the car from a real practical stand point. Being GREEN is good, good for the world and this planet, but also strategic and the way to modern evolution. We have to get off the DYNO fuel, and this is a bridge. The one way to continue is a PHEV feature, and looking at posts here, I see complaints about creature comforts, etc..and a lack of true NOISE for a good feature, that would save GAS, MONEY and help the world. Like I said, been there since 2005, I know all about the 3rd party suppliers too., the AUTOMAKERS are the ones that CAN make it happen, and WON'T, Toyota included. Keep on, and that is why I do not check in often, that is because it is always the same "RECORDING" HERE, you could take the dates off and it would seem this forum is just like the one in 2005!! (You are the exception) KUDOS TO YOU.

 

I can't help but wonder why anyone feels the need to speak for others in their motivations or intentions. Whether 'most' here use the car as an environmental status symbol or not is a dubious opinion to hold at best, and totally irrelevant in any case, because whatever reason any of us have to buy and use a Prius, it's our own personal motive. The car remains the same whatever those individual motives might be.

There is of course nothing wrong with caring about the environment and wanting to make the least possible impact on it, and that is certainly a perfectly valid reason to buy a Prius if that's the angle that floats your boat. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with wanting something far more simple and direct - to cut fuel costs. For that a Prius is also, in the US market at least, one of the very few genuine options.

Of course for whatever it is worth, the Prius is far from perfect. It is very fussy on driving styles and road conditions, and suffers the same kind of proportional hit to fuel economy if driven hard that any other car would. It's just that while a 15 mpg SUV might loose 20% economy being driven hard, the result is that it will only drop from 15 to 12 mpg in the process. If a Prius drops 20% fuel efficiency in the same circumstance, it will go from 50 mpg to 40 - which is far more noticeable. That's why, I suspect, we see so much variation in what fuel figures individuals get.

That said, many of the claims to great economy we see posted here are substantiated by lots of data, so they can't be dismissed merely as claims. The Prius is capable of what is, in the US market, quite remarkable fuel efficiency, despite the fact that many owners never seem able to achieve the same kind of figures. I can attest to the fact one does not need to drive slowly or sedately to get those kind of numbers - my Prius returned 51.5 mpg on a 900 mile round trip to Savannah, GA last weekend, 850 miles of which was interstate driving at 70+ mpg. The tank before that returned 62.1 mpg over a month of commuting, and the car is now showing 64.3 mpg on the current tank for the last 60 miles of the return journey and the (so far) 3.5 days of daily commute.

Of course, the Prius suits me almost perfectly. It's highly maneuverable, big enough for what I need, very comfortable to drive, highly responsive in traffic and remarkably easy to drive for best economy, while also being quick when it needs to be. Given I bought it to help control my fuel costs, I clearly drive it for best economy rather than speed. For others with different needs, the Prius may not be the ideal vehicle, or even one for which it is sensible to compromise.

As a Brit now living in the US, I find it regrettable that US car makers and the US car market barked so loudly and so long up the wrong tree that it is hard to import or market fuel efficient vehicles here. In Europe, the sort of fuel economy I get from my Prius would not be all that hard to approach with non-hybrids. If the American love affair with SUVs and trucks had not been so well established that manufacturers can claim cars that get 32 mpg are 'fuel efficient', Toyota would have had far more competition, and perhaps the current Prius model would already be achieving what the 2010 model is purported to be capable of. Still, what we have currently is a great first step for those who want to take it, and a good way to practice fuel efficient driving for those who want to do so.

It is, however, not much more than that, any more than the 2010 model will be regarded as anything remarkable by 2020!

To the OP, I would say it's not hard to understand why the Prius disappointed, yet also not not hard to see its potential. We each have to make our choices based on the trade-offs between what we gain or lose by driving any vehicle, and that means the Prius is never going to be entirely ideal. Thus for some it is simply a bad choice. For me, however, I'd much rather drive a Prius hard and get maybe 40 mpg out of it, than an SUV that would get me 12 instead. At least that way I'd have the choice to drive more economically and reap considerable cost-saving benefit in the process without having to buy myself another car to do so!

 

We just received delivery of the 2008 package 5 and I am having fun learning a better way to drive which I will use with all my vehicles. the only thing that torks me is the navigation was loaded with 2006 software , my neighborhood hasbeen there 3 yrs. I am working with the toyota dealership on updating.

 

ZA_Andy: Excellent post

 

Zak,

I know as to why your "rental Prius" did not meet your MPG expectation.
Even here at my Toyota dealers TRAC= Toyota rental cars, the tire pressure are all about 30 lbs way _under inflated_ thus tremendous resistant for the wheels to rotate. If rental car company and including TRAC pays more attention and inflate the tires as we the Prius drivers
do let say: 42F/40R then you will get in the threshold of 50 mpg plus minus a few. Why don't you Rent it again and inflate the tires to a little
below "Safe Max Tire Pressure" posted in the side-wall of a given Prius tire manufacturer, permissible inflation.
You will see that your MPG will dramatically increases. Guaranteed 50 plus mpg at 70~75 mph. I get that every tankfull...

 

As others have said, kudos for actually trying out the Prius before commenting, Zack.
It isn't a perfect vehicle, but it's close enough. It replaces a 99 Chevy S-10 extended pickup. Going from around 14 mpg to 53.0 mpg makes a big difference (the 53.0 mpg is a "lifetime" figure- all 1400 miles of it!) in your lifestyle. The Prius is just as good in the acceleration department, but it isn't so easy to floor it when you see what you're doing to your wallet.
Is the Prius a good idea for everyone? No, it's not really the Model T. But it's good enough until better things come along, especially if you need a new vehicle and you can more than triple your mileage.
As for the mileage figure, I was taught how to drive in the early 70s, and then got to experience the Arab oil embargo. We were taught the safer of the hypermiling techniques from day one. Don't come to a complete halt unless you have no choice... start rolling before the light turns green (just a little)... watch the signals... don't push the speed too high...
I used to watch the speedometer. Now I obsess over the mpg figure. I still get where I'm going but I probably accelerate at a more leisurely pace (not that either a Blazer or an S-10 pickup accelerate at a sportscar pace!).
And it is not a statement of environmental concern for everyone. I am, but mainly I'm just fed up with gas prices. I could afford my $250 a month gas bill, but I don't want to spend the money. I don't love banks either, but they need my help more than Conoco Phillips!

 

I would not try to convince a person to buy a Prius, especially after that person had tried it and found it lacking. Some people wouldn't buy a BMW for their own reasons. We Prii owners just have to smile and think about what they are missing. And be thankful we have one in the garage.

 

i am 32 and drive a Honda Civic sedan get approximately 33 mpg all city / stop start driving which i have had for 18 or so months and i am considering getting a second hand prius 2005-2006 model, (cause new ones are too expensive in Australia $40,000 Australian dollars) do you think i should change and get the prius, i love the technology the car offers, (although it looks kinda ugly) also i only drive about 7000 miles a year, do you think i should trade my civic and get the prius, what you think?

 

i am from europe and i can tell you for a fact that IRL the only petrol cars that get the same mpg are cars smaller then half of the prius with not more then a 1 liter 3 cyl engine ( performance wise nothing compared to the prius ) and not al the comfort options like climate control and cruise control and automatic gear ...and a lot more.
and i don't compare a diesel to a petrol hybrid.

 

7000 miles per year
Civic = 7000 / 33 = 212 gallons / year
Prius = 7000 / 48 = 145 gallons / year

67 gallons saved. At 5 USD/gallon = 335 USD saved.

If you're doing it for saving money, probably not.
If you're doing it for the lower emissions and you say you like the technology, then yep.

By the way, your info says you are in Canada, why are you stating Australian cost?

 

why do you say in in Canada, im in sunny Brisbane, Australia.

 

I'll get my eyes adjusted. Must have looked in the wrong place.

 

I have had my 2008 Prius for 6 months. I drive about 100 miles per day, on LA freeways. I normally average about 52 MPG using Chevron regular gas. I keep the tires at 42f/40r and use Mobil 1 5w-30. My best MPG was on a trip from LA to Mesa AZ, where I kept behind a FedEx truck going 65MPH for most of the trip; my MGP for that 380 mile trip was 64MPG.

I have run into a problem this week, that my traction battery seem to only reach the "Blue" charge level and never "Green". This has brought my MPG down to 42MPG. I am checking with Toyota on this problem and will post an update later.

 

Imagine the potential of a Diesel Hybrid on par with the a Prius