That is odd. My Prius is not as fast as the '97 Subaru Legacy Wagon 2.5 that I still have. But it is still more than fast enough. BTW, after years of not averaging more the 25 mpg, sometimes pushing to 27 in favorable conditions, a little help from Uncle Wayne over at CleanMPG.com taught me how to push its average up into the low 30s.
Prius is great on gas, practical and very clean, but if it was truly a great overall car, wouldn't it be selling in top 10 of sedans in US? Not counting v and c (that's cheating, different chassis), liftback and PiP should be about #14. Seems the better cars are Camry, Accord, Civic, Corolla since they outsell Prius every month.
Unfortunately, I don't think the sales numbers have necessarily that much do to w/how great they are. Just take a look at April 2013 U.S. Passenger Car Sales Rankings - Top 149 Best-Selling Cars In America - Every Car Ranked - GOOD CAR BAD CAR. You really think the Cruze, Malibu or Impala are great cars? At least the Cruze's reliability has improved to average now. It was HORRIFIC, and the worst in the small car category in the 1st year that CR had reliability reports. I've driven Corollas before. They are NOT examples of "great cars", IMHO. Top 10 Best-Selling Cars: June 2012 - KickingTires June 2012 Top 20 Best-Selling Cars In America - GOOD CAR BAD CAR You really think the now previous gen POS Impala is a great car? The '12 Civic was still doing well in sales even though it was universally panned. Then take a look at April 2013 U.S. Vehicle Sales Rankings - Top 258 Best-Selling Vehicles In America - Every Vehicle Ranked - GOOD CAR BAD CAR, which includes trucks. How many of us would buy these trucks? Ford F-Series, Chevy Silverado, Dodge Ram. Not me. Couldn't care less about them, yet they are #1, 2 and 5 on the list.
Working off the Prius is gutless title, I kind of think everyone is spoiled thinking they must have a car that goes 0-60 in 5 seconds. This reminds me of my first "fast " car. It was the early 60's, my mid teen years. My brother and I bought a few year old, Yellow and black, 58 Ford Fairlane 500 two door hardtop, with the 300 HP "Police Interceptor Special" engine. ( Had that little chrome Police Interceptor Special badge on the glove box lid.) We enjoyed that old car, won a lot of races and burned up a bunch of bias ply tires. Fast forward to July 2009, we bought a new 10 Prius. With a few thousand miles on the Prius, Just for giggles, I decided to "run it to the hill". Thats a spot on a rural intersection where all the kids ran their "hot" cars from a stop sign to a roadside access road. It was nearly 1/2 mile , a few degrees grade uphill. The speed when you passed that access road was your badge of speed I ran "the hill" with my fairly well broken in Prius and was amazed that the speed was very near what I remembered from those old speed runs of near 40 years ago. Brother and I were talking about it a few days ago. That got me interested enough to get on Google and see what the official 0-60 time for that old 1958 model car with the largest avalible engine package might have been. It seems that a 58 Ford with the 300 HP Police interceptor Special engine did 0-60 in 10.5 seconds. Cool, my gut feeling was right, The Prius would blow away this old performance car in a 0-60 run. I also remember having timed dads car( A big 61 Ford sedan with the base 223 CI 6 cyl engine and "3 on the tree."( about 120 HP in a 5000 pound car By the second hand on my wrist watch, that monster needed about 20 seconds to hit 60 mph. Oh for those good old days when you had bragging rights if an engine ran 100,000 miles before needing an overhaul, a set of Bias ply tires might last 10,000 miles, the engine needed plugs and points every 10, 000 miles, and the average car made 15 mpg on "Ethyl" leaded gas. The exhaust was so dirty it made your eyes burn when you drove it into a closed garage.
Definitely gutless. but love that mpg. but not so much the tin can feel...hope next one's more solid.
I think Cruze, Malibu and Impala are mostly purchased in bible belt states or maybe around greater Detroit area because I sure as heck don't see many of them around here.
Yep. Don't see many of any of those around here either, esp. the outdated and uncompetitive Wimpala. At least it finally got a much needed redesign. Hardly see any Malibus either. There are just some folks who refuse to by "foreign" cars or are in denial about reliability differences. Many also end up in rental and corporate fleets. From http://www.cncda.org/secure/GetFile.aspx?ID=2444 (source is California New Car Dealers Association), the Prius (family) was the top selling car in California for 2012. Japanese makes far outnumber the big 3 in sales and cars far outnumber "trucks". Notice the F-Series, Silverado and Ram showings vs. the Prius?
I can see that. I remember those days too. I have driven some very 'gutless' vehicles. How about a Rambler American with a 119 engine, or a Datsun B210 'honeybee', pathetic. I love using PWR when I want rapid acceleration, and EV in parking lots I do not see where the Prius lacks power. We routinely drive at 80 [interstate is posted at 75mph], and have no problems with it.
Hows about we turn this around? What WAS the most gutless car you drove? In my case it was a 1977 Mazda 808 Mizer station wagon with a 4 speed and a 1272 cc engine making 59 HP. Mazda Grand Familia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Same engine in a Mazda GLC was no faster) Mazda Familia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Out of Print- 1977 Mazda GLC Sport Makes You Go Hmmmmm | Hooniverse 0 to 60 in 14 seconds Popular Science - Google Books
Slowest? Any of these: - '69 VW van (work vehicle long ago) - '78 MB 240d (test drive) - '10? Smart for-two (test drive)
I had a '95 Geo Metro, 5 spd. It went 0-60 in about a day. It got mid 30s MPG around town (I was a teenager driving it, though) and was able to get mid 50s highway. It did have the ability to touch 90+ MPH, although usually that required some downhill mountain sections and possibly a tail wind. The speedo topped at 85, I believe. I also had the speeding tickets of 90 and 84 in it to prove it could reach those speeds, although my legs got really tired from keeping it moving Since I just got my PIP back yesterday, I've had a Chevy Sonic, Hyundai Elantra, and Chevy Cruze as rental cars. I can say that I'm definitely glad to have my PIP back. Although, the 140 MPG that was displayed on the dash is a lot better feeling than 30 that I was averaging in the other 3.
46 Dodge pick-up, 6 with a stick 50 mercury 4 door 54 ford, 1st year for a 239 overhead valve V8, 2 speed transmisson, 0 t0 60 before first hard shift really slow!
- HowStuffWorks "Driving the 1950-1959 Volkswagen Bus" http://media.caranddriver.com/files/ford-escort-vs-nissan-sentra-saturn-sl-and-nine-more-compact-carsecon-major.pdf http://media.caranddriver.com/files/hyundai-excel-glhyundai-excel-road-test-mar-1986.pdf
Easy, I had a 1985 Buick Century with the 3.slow engine. Tractor/trailers with their flashers on had to go around me going up a hill.
Was it a 3.x liter V6? I used to drive an 86 Olds Cutlass Ciera (part of the family of 4 GM A-body cars: Century, Cutlass Ciera, 6000 and Celebrity) and it had the 2.5 liter "Iron Duke" 92 hp (IIRC) engine. It wasn't that quick but was better than my dad's 1980 Chevette which I believe had 70 hp. THAT was AWFUL.
