Prius Killer

If it's a morning route where you're in a neighborhood without anyone behind you than you may be able to substitute stop/go for gentle gliding. Even with stop/go you just need to be cautious on how heavy you are with gas pedal. Bottom line, it will do better than whatever you're using now.

 

Short Answer - no it will not be too hard on the Prius. There are many Prius taxi cabs and the owners seem to give the Prius high marks for its reliability compared to other, traditional taxi cabs.

How long is your route? You might even consider a Chevy Volt or a Nissan Leaf, as you could run all electric. If you use the car for other purposes, you'll just need to figure out if the car will suit those applications as well.

 

I'm still stuck on your job as a News Paper Courter. A courter is someone who courts or plays the lover, solicits in marriage, or flatters and cajoles. A Prius is pretty pedestrian for that sort of task. I would suggest something with more panache, such as a Lamborghini or Ferrari.

Tom

 

LoL

 

Newspapers are trying all kinds of incentives to boost circulation.

 

Ah, if PEVs were cheaper I'd definitely say PEV!

It hurts mileage if you have to work the car hard when the engine's still cold. However, you're in FL and you have a normal commute home, I presume, so you'll have a shorter warm-up than somebody in a colder city and you'll have good mileage on your way home.

The combination of some tough stop and go miles plus those additional miles after your route help the case for getting a prius. Mail carriers and cabbies love their Priuses for the good mileage and you will too. :rockon:

 

You will wish you'd got one years ago. It will save you $hundreds a year in fuel savings.


The Prius will be at home in the use you've suggested. The engine will be off at low speed most of the time, the batteries will charge as you go down hill or slowly and the engine comes on when faster acceleration is required. The benefit of the Prius is that the a/c will still work off the big batteries without the engine running.


Seriously, you will wish you'd got a Prius years ago.

 

I've wondered about this WRT the HV battery. If it is like the paper route I had when I was a kid (do they still print newspapers BTW?) it is like stop and go traffic, so the battery will spend most of the time at the minimum charge level, with the ICE running just long enough to bring it up to 50%, then the ICE will shut off until it drops to 40%, then rinse and repeat. What does this do for the long term health of the battery?

 

I was stumped on that one actually.

:blush:

 

Perhaps, this Mail Courter thread may be helpful.