I am really interested in the prius c but worry it does not have enough gumption to go over hwy 17 in santa cruz on a daily basis. does anyone have any experience with driving it over the hill any input would be appreciated.
I don't know the hill but you should have no problems. I go up steep hills all the time. Your mileage on a steep grade, however, is another question.
I live in Vegas on the hillside, so I go uphill everyday on the way home. It's probably not as steep as the one your talking about, but it does ok on hills. Your gas mileage will definitely not be 53mpg though. I average about 35 uphill and 65-70 downhill, so it evens out for me around the high 40s to low 50s.
i've driven the 17 back and forth a few times.. and the 101 up north towards Sonoma often as well... both pretty hilly. the C does have enough oopmh to tackle the hills, however your mileage is gonna suffer a bit on the climb (you'll definitely need to floor the pedal down a bit more though if you want to keep up with traffic speeds).. most times I actually drive a little bit slower and on the right lane to keep my mpgs up.. but otherwise your overall mileage shouldn't be too bad... ... especially because the downhill portion is gonna give you some pretty high mpg numbers.. so it averages out pretty ok in the end.
My experience yesterday driving highway with steep grades (US93 South from Las Vegas to Kingman) was that if I accelerated to just under the red zone (but still in the green ECO bar) and held it there, I was able to keep the same pace as the 18 wheelers climbing the hill with me in the right lane. If I wanted to gain speed while climbing I pushed it into the red PWR zone and gained about 1 mph for every second I held it there. It seemed to work that way every time for every hill/grade I encountered along the way. (I averaged 54 mpg for the full trip).
As long as there are two lanes, should be no problem. I take it up slow on hills IF no one is behind me. If there is traffic, just giving it more gas will help you keep speed. The C is actually faster than the 3G for going up hills or gaining speed. As for any car, if you have it fully loaded with cargo and passengers, your speed may be limited or it will just take longer to get up.
