I was going to work this morning on I95 and had to swerve out of the way of a broken truck tire. I was doing approx 65 and the Prius rolled a great deal. It was scary, this car does not handle that well in a fast maneuver. I know it's not a Corvette but Toyota needs to improve on handling.
Unsure why you posted this in the the PHV section. I've driven a lot of cars at the limit and I find the Prius to be very predictable and easy to drive on the limit of traction... You can actually have some "fun" with it before the stability control kicks in too, which is nice. It does not have any nasty tendencies and is perfectly in line with other non performance cars. If you are unhappy with the level of grip, replace the tires with some sticky rubber. You'll take a hit in mileage, but the grip will go up dramatically. Stopping distances will also be lowered too. Everything is a trade-off. Skinny low rolling resistance tires have lower level of grip.
Yeah, but sticky tires won't reduce roll - since they increase grip maximum roll rates will increase as well. Aftermarket swaybars would help, but I would be cautious installing a significantly stiffer rear bar without also a stiffer front one as in emergency situations it could increase the car's tendency to spin to the point where stability control may not be able to prevent it. Some track testing is in order.
I guess I've driven lots of cars with so much roll, like Lexus IS350 or the Grand Marquis. The Prius doesn't seem that bad to me at all..... I have driven it on Mullholland many times and it seems pretty good. I pop it into B-mode to keep the engine on boil otherwise it keep shutting down below 43mph.
The Prius does roll a good deal, but it is within safety limits. The roll does not equate into loss of traction or the back end whipping out like in some other vehicles. There have been people on here who have done rallying with the Prius just fine. There is an optional aftermarket upgrade sway bar that drastically reduces the roll, and I have heard it is pretty good. Might want to check that out...
I agree, the roll is moderate, not terrible. I've driven other cars that are worse, so I am not that disappointed. Just needs a small rear swaybar to provide more roll resistance.
FWIW, most sports car enthusiasts, other than Corvette fanboys, will say the Corvette (for a sports car) doesn't handle very well either, nor inspire much confidence, at the limit. Although I'm not a fan of huge fan of some of these, the usual handling benchmarks that aren't in the exotic price range include cars like the Porsche 911, BMW 3-series, Lotus Elise, Mazda Miata and RX-8, Nissan GT-R and 350Z, to name a few.
