Hi all. I'm thinking about getting a Gen 2 Prius. (Or maybe Gen 3.) My commute is about 2 miles each way. (Yes, I walk some days.) And most errands are just 2 or 3 miles. Will this be a problem for the ICE? (It will rarely get hot.) Thanks!
just for your mpg's and pollution you'd be better off with a bev, or small commuter car have you looked at used leaf's? even an old volt would be better
We looked at Leaf for a long time, but this will be our only car, and we like to go camping and road trips. Volt is too cramped.
oh that's different. priusis your best bet, or pip, if you can afford one. that would let you ev your commute and local driving
I'm basically asking about engine sludge with all these short trips, or any other negative effects. Can't afford a PiP, which is why we're looking at Gen 2 Prii. (And add an EV button!) Imagine driving all these short trips in a 18 MPG gas-only vehicle. Prius looks a lot better from that situation.
Sludge could be a problem, but there are plenty of other issues with that commute. Those short drives would be a terrible way to treat any hybrid. Or any other car with a gas engine for that matter. The exhaust will rust out since it won't get hot enough to dry out. You'll run down the 12V battery since it won't run long enough to get charged back up. And, if you try an EV button for that kind of driving in a Gen 2, you'll destroy the hybrid battery. An EV button in anything other than a Prime or a PiP is just meant for moving the car for short distances like out of the garage to sweep the floor or something. It MIGHT get you two miles if you go really slow, but it for sure won't get you back home, plus it'll put extreme wear on the battery if you try and you'd burn a ton of gas coming home as the cold engine did double duty charging the hybrid battery back up from the EV run. I'm sorry to say this, but there's no way this ends well with any car except a plug in hybrid or a BEV. In fact it almost pains me because I LOVE hybrids. If I had to take a car on frequent drives that short and couldn't get an electric, I'd get an old Corolla or something like that and keep the 12V battery on a trickle charger several times a week if not every night. Also, whether you used a small econo-gasser or a hybrid, at that distance you'd be getting maybe 25 mpg or something like that, so no appreciable savings with a hybrid on those short runs anyway.
Agree that this is the worst possible use case for a Prius. If I were in your shoes and had the means to charge a BEV, I'd get a used Leaf or 500e or Spark EV and then call Avis if I wanted to take a road trip.
I would tend to agree with this. And add that you likely won't do any better either with a 2-mile commute.
hmmm, this hits home. We are a two Prius family. With the Gen3, kiddies get taken to school 1.1 mile ROUNDTRIP three times a day! With the "c" I drive to work 3 miles ONE WAY each day. Now this wasnt on purpose. I used to have two locations of work, one 13 miles away but that ended this past November. I will say that if this was the case, a Prius would not be the best bet, but doable. How so? Well there are other places to go. You have to go grocery shopping, restaurants, shopping etc. This will pull up your mpg. You can do these also on the way home from work (or before) In my "c" I am still maintaining 50 mpg throughout this mild PA winter. And display shows 53~ for the last 5000+ miles, which is around 50 mpg In the Gen3 we are getting about low 40s mpg per tank, but that has been going up since installing engine block heaters a few months ago on both (incredibly worth it for short drives!!!) (summer should see over 50mpg) We take dual car trips with our 4 kids family....last one was over 60mpg on each, so beats out any van or SUV. BUT, I will say this, next car will be able to plug in. A PRIME is in the very near future, very near. I am not ready for a BEV and esp if it were single car for family. I would recommend to search hard for a PIP. Take time, save some more cash up and should be able to find one you can afford.
I bought one of my Prius brand new in 2006. Now my student son is driving the car to school 2 miles away. He is doing that for 2 years now. No issues so far. Both batteries are working fine. Hybrid is original, aux is on the 7th year. Unfortunately the mpg is around 32 mpg when it used to be 42 mpg with normal use. This is expected since the first 10 min as anyone can see on the screen gas consumption bars are very low close to 20s, when car warms up it goes to 40s or higher.
Check out the C-Max Energi. The hatch, although compromised battery location like the Prime, is still quite useful in daily life (think groceries) and the vehicle overall has been quite reliable (early poor reliability scores were mostly due to crappy infotainment software, fixed with update), gets 40-60's mpg in town and a very roomy CUV-like cabin. Add a hitch and cargo carrier for trips. BTDT and quite satisfied. Just an OK seller, used prices are a STEAL right now.
