Hi all, I live in Western Washington where there are very mountainous roads and highways. For me, I have to drive 15 miles on the highway and ~5 in terrible Seattle traffic...often that traffic stops my car on the middle of steep hills INSIDE the city...there are also pretty steep hills where I live on the HWY. My question is: Can prius c's hold their own on the HWY hills/city hills? By this I mean, will my car lose mph going over the hills even if I give it a lot of juice? will my car roll backwards rapidly in the city if I stop on a hill? I want to be able to do ~70-75 without my car going all the way down to 60 over each hill. Is this possible with the power on this car? Thanks all!
I live in western wa and the c does fine. I live on Camano island and often drive to puyallup using i5 and 405. I always try to drive about 4 miles over the speed limit...75 in some places. The c is no hot rod but you can easily keep up with traffic. Just have to pay attention on on ramps...no jack rabbit starts. The hybrid electic motor provides good torque at very low speeds. I also think the car comes with a "hill hold" feature that would help in traffic.
I live on a steep hill in a very hilly area and the c does just fine from stops mid-hill (like you have in downtown Seattle). Freeway hills at 70+ are no problem but I find I'd rather lag in the right lane and get better mileage. Think of the c's lack of oomph as an encouragement to drive efficiently rather than an inability to drive fast.
Maybe I'm being too gentle on the accelerator in trying to preserve gas, but I go over a small-ish hill (actually an overpass) every day, with a stop light on either side (which kills me). I do find it feels bogged down when climbing the hill from a dead stop. But it can certainly do hills, especially if you have momentum. I took it on HWY 99 in Oregon recently, and it did fine. I used cruise much of the time, and it stayed at speed up the inclines, at the sacrifice of mileage (though I still got over 50mpg for the trip). The c has "hill start assist," which prevents it from rolling backwards on a hill. It's activated by pressing down hard on the brake. Your best bet, if possible, would be to test drive one in the exact place your worried about.
I have found that I lose about 15 mph going up an over 4,000 ft incline starting with highway speed of a bit over 70 mph. Part of it may be that for the first 2,000 miles it is not recommended to floor the pedal, the other part would be a preference to get a running start and not push the engine.
The Prius C is no hill climber. I drive up and down hills in my commute. I have to redline it to maintain Highway speed. My mph drops to low 40's. I get passed all the time on the FRWY. Just being Honest. City I can get 99.9 in no traffic.
Years ago, I once mixed them up in a posting so I now capitalize MPG and lower-case mph. Given the relative importance of the two, the case makes sense. Bob Wilson
I live in the Pacific Northwest as well and there are lots of hills. Hills are a MPG killer. I just recently took a quick trip which was all down hill apprx 5 miles and got 99.9 MPG, the return trip all up hill and got 52 MPG. So to me it all averages out. You just have to drive steady. I am still working on my first tank of gas about 350 miles in and averaging 52 MPG. Still at about 1/4-1/3 of a tank left. I couldn't be happier with my PC3.
I live in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia and drive in the mountains all of the time. My C handles the mountains without a problem
