I live at 7,500ft in the Sacramento Mountains of NM. I work at 4,000ft in the valley floor. The road from work to home climbs from 4,000ft to 8,500ft in 20 miles then descends 1000ft in 7 miles to my place. I have a Jeep Wrangler which I will be keeping, which is perfect especially in the snowy winter months. Wife is having baby soon and we will be needing 2 cars, and I would like to be a little greener with car number 2, which should be suitable 90% of the time, just not up to the job when it's snowing. I don't like putting my foot on the brake going down that hill to work, so the idea that Prius will charge its battery on the way down is appealing. But I've heard they're not great going up the hill. I have also heard they are fine going up hills. The desert gets super hot in summer and the solar roof gizmo is very appealing too. Any thoughts? Many thanks.
First the solar roof gizmo is only used to exhaust hot cabin air prior to entering the vehicle and is part of a package that adds about $3850 msrp to the cost. Included in this package is the sun/moon roof, very basic HUD and an upgraded Nav/Stereo that allows you to watch DVDs if the car is stationary...so your call there. For "mountain" use going up, just know that it does not put out like a V8. You will charge going down hill until the saturation point is met. Selecting "B" on you shifter adds increased engine breaking, but you loose regen. In your situation you won't get the mpg bragging rights some of our pulse-n-glide, flat land, garden community members have, but it should be better than just about anything else driven in these conditions.
Hard to say. It is very nice that Prius regens the battery on downhills, but your downhill is so steep, you may fill the battery quickly. Then you have to use B mode (engine brake like downshifting). In general Prius is good for most cases. Interesting to wonder if plug-in Prius has the advantage due to the bigger battery, recharge it on the downhill. There were some cases years ago of a national lab (Sandia?) some Prii were having batt probs due to charging too fully on the downhill trip every day. It's just that parking in hot sun is not good on a totally full battery. So the fix there would be to try get the batt down a tad before parking in a hot sun. If you know any Prius drivers with your commute, check their experience, or possibly rent a Prius.
??? The numbers quoted don't amount to particularly steep grades, at least not on average. That's not to say there aren't steep stretches, for all I know.
We live in the Sierra foothills of California at 2500'. We've had no problems on our hills around here, including a 7% grade we have getting home. We generally get about 48 mpg around here. About 4 months after we bought the Prius we went to Phoenix to visit relatives and came home through Flagstaff. The final climb into Flagstaff on I-17 is several miles of 5% grade at about 7000'. We covered that stretch at 80 mph, so I don't think hills are a problem. I also drove over Carson Pass last week (8574') and had no problem with 3 large adults in the car. Snow on mountain roads is another matter.
Update: I have borrowed a Prius from the dealership and drove it up the mountain this evening. Absolutely fine. The only thing I noticed is that if there's a car at a junction ahead, they see the Prius coming and pull out in front of me. I couldn't believe it when it happened for the third time in one journey. The even funnier thing was, when I kept on keeping up, they went faster and faster up the hill, presumably to either justify their action or to avoid being overtaken by a Prius. I was doing 70mph up that mountain at one stage. Still managed 31mpg. I'm looking forward to the glide down tomorrow morning, should hardly burn a drop. Oh, one other thing happened: the flat tire warning light came on close to home. Sure enough there is a nail in the tire and it's gone flat. Put that skinny spare on.
Often when someone tailgates me on a four lane road, if approaching a hill, at the bottom I will move to the left lane . . . so they can (and do) pass me on the wrong side and accelerate up the hill. Karma! Truth be told, there are a lot of *ssholes on the road and they are not specific about the Prius. They are just jerks. But I enjoy seeing 50+ MPG on the trip meter while they waste their gas money. Bob Wilson
No, I don't remember flooring it at all, except one time to try out the PWR mode. Which was pleasing.
I live at 2500'. Once a week we drive up to 6500' for business purposes. It is 30 miles of very winding 2 lane road and the best we can do is is average 40mph, but if we could do 70mph, it would be no problem with two adults and a dog, about 400 pounds in payload. We average 37mpg going up and 150mpg coming down, but we have a plug in with the larger battery pack. Overall, including around town, flat freeway miles at 65/70mph, and up and down the hill, we have a 70mpg average. Couldn't be happier with the car!