Car has no pickup speed from a stop!

I remember a bumper sticker I saw a few times:

"I may be slow, but I'm ahead of YOU!"

 

Nice
I wouldn't say that I drive obnoxiously slow, but I hate tailgaters and impatient drivers. If I used bumper stickers, I'd have that one.

 

When you want power, push the "Power" button on the dash. The car will jump to life! When you are through with the jump start, push the "ECO" button.

 

By the time you hit more gas to keep up with moving traffic, you are going to burn more gas than running in regular mode. It's pretty much pointless. Gas mileage is mainly depended on throttle position, so hitting the gas pedal harder to keep up is not much different than hitting it gently in regular mode

 

I pretty much agree with you. I have been driving for 45 years. Sports cars, family cars, suvs both auto and straight transmissions and have never had a problem regulating my rate of acceleration with my right foot. At worst it a gimmick that adds unnecessary complexity and cost. At best it is of some benefit to those with poor driving skills.

 

The ECO mode definitely works if you are TRYING to save every drop of gas. If you are just trying to get from point A to B, your foot will still dictate what you are going to be at. I know my gas mileage is 1mpg lower with the ECO mode because I am trying so hard to keep up with traffic!

 

* ECO/PWR/Normal does more than simply affect pedal usage.

* Being able to adjust the sensitivity of the pedal is useful. ECO mode gives you more control at a smoother setting, while PWR is more twitchy. No need to have "poor driving skills" to want one setting or the other.

* In addition to pedal sensitivity, the modes also affect air conditioner cycles and perhaps other settings. The conventional wisdom is the A/C and that's it, but my experience is that it may also affect how quickly the ICE shuts down when not needed, and it would be sensible to kick in MG2 more aggressively under acceleration in PWR mode.

 

Two different things. What you're used -- unless you're a race car driver -- is fairly crude control, no matter how experienced you are. You want to maintain a target speed or not. You want to accelerate faster or slower based on traffic around you.

With a Prius, a few percentage points of difference in gas pedal usage can put the car into radically different modes. Not saying that it's impossible to do what you want to in either mode, but the difference can be helpful under different driving conditions, and certainly when learning.

I spent my first month in ECO mode, and am in my second month in Normal mode, and I'll spend a month in PWR mode and then do some experiments with switching modes on the fly to see how the car reacts. Perhaps I'll find that in the end it is only pedal sensitivity and A/C (see other post)... we'll see...

 

Twitchy? I'm not sure we disagree here if by the use of that word you mean there is a smaller margin if error.

I do not view the air conditioner changes as a net positive. If I set the temp on 78 its because I want it to be 78. IF the cabin temp of 78 can be maintained with the lowest fan setting it will be set that way regardless of driving mode selected. If on the other hand a higher fan setting is required I really do not want the cabin temp to go up just because I have slowed my speed. In any event once moving again the air conditioner would have to work harder to lower the temp back down to the preset 78. If any fuel saving is gained here must be a tiny amount and at the expense of a steady interior temp.

 

Some of us are less fussy than you, and are willing to accept some temperature fluctuation. I'll stick with ECO mode, but it appears that you should turn it off. Prius gives us a choice. None of my pre-hybrids did.

When the engine is not running, the AC must pull its power from the traction battery, which is less efficient than pulling it directly from one of the MGs. The NiMH battery path adds additional conversion losses. ECO mode can make a tradeoff, letting the interior warm a bit waiting to see if it can get a more efficient power source.

It might save only a tiny amount of fuel. But it took dozens or hundreds of these 'tiny fuel savings' items to get to 50 mpg. If all the tiny items were considered separately and dropped as nearly insignificant, suddenly this car might be getting only 35 mpg.

 

I just test drove a 2010 today, and I must say that I was a little disappointed at it's ability to "get up and go" as well.
Starting up from a stop sign, I would push the gas down a little bit and it would feel like the throttle wasn't doing anything, and so I kept on pushing it and I got to about 50% depression and I finally felt something. I kind of attributed this to my being used to more powerful cars, or at least, vehicles where the throttle is more sensitive. As far as cars go, I am most used to a 2007 Honda Accord, and the beginning of the throttle is very... quick to react, but power doesn't continue to increase linearly the more I push the throttle, if that makes sense...
In other words: The Prius at 50% pedal depression roughly equaled that of the Accord at %50 depression, but the Accord achieves this power with much less pedal pushing.

Like I said, I was a little disappointed with this, and I hope my explanation was not just a way for me to justify to myself that I still like the car, haha.

Even my older car, a 1993 Toyota Paseo (with ~100HP), seemed to have a more sensitive throttle (although hardly the same power at 50%).

 

Did you have the car in Economy mode? Normal or Power should not have felt like that.

 

No, I cycled between all 3 modes (minus EV) and PWR gave it a little bit more feel, but it felt really lagging in normal also.

 

The Prius does not have an automatic transmission.

A normal automatic has fixed gear ratios that it shifts to and a torque converter to smooth out the shifting. A Continuously Variable Transmission has no fixed ratios, it varies smoothly. The Prius never shifts at all, it adds and subtracts power via electric motors to enhance the engine power, Wikipedia calls it an EVT. (Toyota calls it an eCVT)

Even reverse involves no shifting, the Prius just spins the motor backwards, the engine never powers the wheels in reverse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_(mechanics)

So, no automatic transmission, no anxiety from dad!

In New Jersey all you need to know is Drive for Driving, R for Reverse and P to remain Parked.

N is for coasting, and B is for going down long steep mountains, but I do not think you have any in New Jersey.

 

When you use the power buttons you get a couple of choices. If you put the car in power mode, you have power mode until you turn the car off or until you switch to another mode.

If you use the Eco mode, the car will stay in Eco mode even after you turn the car off and restart.

If you don't want Eco ... you need to switch to power mode and then restart the car. THEN you won't be in Eco mode OR power mode ... you get something inbetween.

You don't get a mode unless you choose a mode. BTW ... all of this is in the owners manual.

In Eco mode you only have partial throttle available and slow throttle response. In Power mode you have full throttle available and very fast throttle response. Also in the owner manual.

If you want, you can switch between modes while you are driving ... but the mode change won't take effect UNTIL you take your foot off the gas pedal. On the next press you get whatever mode you changed to.

Try it.

 

Honda does that to make their cars feel more powerful than they are. It's a common trick to front-load the accelerator power curve.

Tom

 

Or just hit the ECO button to toggle it off.

All modes have the full engine power available. The ECO mode starts with a slow throttle response, but brings everything back into play if you press hard enough.

 

I have had my Gen III for 3 weeks and drive in the Boston traffic almost every day. I find that depending on what the needs are I may leave it in Eco mode for around town driving and put in power mode when I know I need the extra power without having to push deep on the gas pedal. My Prius far surpasses my expectations when it comes to performance so don't be hesitant in pushing it if you need to. :car:

 

Thanks for the confirmation of my theory on this. Like I said, I'm glad I wasn't simply justifying the perceived lack of power to myself because I like so many other things about the car (and then had a lot of buyer's remorse).

 

Some folks are fooled by the silent operation, if they can't hear the roar, it must be slow. They buy some fart pipe and then try to convince themselves there is a performance increase just because they are disturbing the neighbors.

Some folks are fooled by the continuous flow of Power, without jerks from shifting, it must be slow. I suspect that is why B mode keeps being played with by folks without 5 miles of 5% grade hills. They are used to the jerk of engine braking.

Some are not used to flooring their gas pedals. As a previous owner of a Mazda GLC (69 HP, 4 speed) and a Corolla All-Trac wagon (100 HP, AWD) I am very used to cars that require full throttle to get anywhere. By comparison, the Prius is a lot more responsive when you use enough pedal. I rarely actually use all the power my Gen II Prius offers.