Braking in Gen III-better or same as in Gen II?

Thank you for those links. I read through all of them but I don't feel any better about it! I hope I adapt quickly because I definitely overshot where I wanted to stop the first two times it happened. Not by much but still... very scary. At least I know it's not a repair issue.

Thanks for the info.

Chris

 

Another thing about disc brakes is that they're a lot less of a pain, at least in my experience, to work on. Drum brakes have more moving parts, more things that could break or wear out, and some designs are almost impossible to put back together unless you have three hands (like the Bendix brakes on my mom's Caravan) because of all the spring tension. With disc brakes, you just unbolt the caliper, replace the pads and the rotor, bolt it all back together, and you're done.

 

gwmccue : your car has radar, does it not? if a kid ran out in front of you, your car should have noticed it and gone into emergency mode where if you were to start hitting the brakes quickly, it will notice the amount of acceleration plus an object in front of you and apply full force to the brakes.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-pTakVadH4]YouTube - 2010 Toyota Prius: Pre Collision System[/ame]

 

Only if the system detected for sure he was going to hit the kid. No impending impact - no automatic brakes.

 

having many years of driving experience, and having driven many cars with and without ABS...I will concede that in hard braking situations under wet and or snowy conditions, that ABS is a good thing. But under less than emergency conditions, I have found ABS to be annoying and "less safe". It has never caused me an accident, but it sometimes engages when coming to a stop sign on wet pavement when riding over thick pavement writing like arrows, or "school zone", or even the word stop. Or if there is gravel near the intersection, I expect a little skidding from a sudden stop, but if the ABS engages, it changes what I expect will happen.

If ABS saves lives, I guess we'll have to live with it, but IMHO, ABS is for people who don't know how to drive, in which case, they shouldn't be driving.

 

I had that feeling also. You hit a bump or start to slide/loose traction and the traction control turns off the regen braking. The switch from decelerating to gliding makes your brain think the car's accelerating. I never felt it in my wife's gen II.

A gen II problem with traction control is the tendency to stop acceleration under full power when the wheels slip. I have learned to NEVER pull in front of someone while doing a tight right turn. The dam car will SLOW down if I spin a tire. I seems you have to release the gass fully before you can resume accelerating.

Otherwise the cars (my Gen III and the wife's Gen II) are great.

 

I know from experience that the radar will detect a motocycle in front of me. I also know, it will apply the brakes when a semi cuts me off (the car quickly slowed from 70 to 38 mph). It even activated once while stopped at a traffic light when a car turning left cut the corner nearly clipping my car (warning of an imminent collision while stopped convinced my wife that she had reason to panic).

As for the boy on the bicycle. I assume it activated, but I do not know for sure, because I was watching the boy - not my display.

The bottom line is that the brakes worked quickly and smoothly. I, my wife and the boy are grateful.