Blind? Not hardly. I suspect I know a hellava lot more about the Prius than you. But that's besides the point - but hardly blind, or having blind devotion to any vehicle. I know what I have. I know the car's weak and strong points. I bought the car for MPG's, plain and simple. As far as you repeatedly, and repeatedly posting videos showing this phenomena...we got it. What's your point with the repeated videos?? Although did find it incredibly humorous that they couldn't even start the car. Kind of makes my earlier point about a basic lack of car knowledge by many Prius owners. But despite not experiencing it on my Prius, over the course of 14 months, I know what it Sounds and feels like. I had the same thing on two other cars I've owned.
Are you serious? You want to compare reliability between the Prius and a Saab? Lol. Despite your love/loyalty to Saab, the statistics regarding the overall reliability of these two brands would clearly show that Saabs's are near the bottom of most manufacturers. Do they even make Saab's anymore? Didn't GM dump them? Nobody bought Saab's because...? Reliability? Neither am I - a Toyota "worshiper". This is the first Toyota I've owned. But I'm not that naive to think Saab's have historically been unreliable, where Toyota's have consistently shown their cars to be very reliable. Not every Toyota, every year...but on average, the statistics regarding Toyota reliability would indicate it's a pretty reliable car. So far, at about 24K miles, my Prius has had no problems. None. Even the widely publicized brake issue, I do not view as a defect. It's a design characteristic that some owner's find disconcerting. That's fine. But it's not a defect, nor reliability issue. The current issue on cold starts can be addressed by simply letting the car run through it's natural warm -up cycle prior to stopping, and the re-starting shortly after. I do agree that you would hope that Toyota could eliminate completely this phenomena...but having lived with two other cars that had a similar problem, it's not anything that concerns me. But that's me.
You suspect you know a helluva lot more about the Prius than I do. Hilarious. My point with posting the videos is to show people that the problem is more than just a brief knock like you might experience with an old car. We're talking about brand new cars knocking for several seconds. I don't care how much you claim to know about cars, it is not normal or acceptable for a brand new Gen 3 Prius to knock when you start it. For you to claim it's OK because some of your old cars used to knock just demonstrates that you are either blinded by your Prius ownership or you don't know what you are talking about. Probably both. And you didn't answer my question. What exactly do you do to make your ICE turn on inside a garage?
Laugh all you want, but your lack of understanding of this issue indicates you don't know much about the ICE. But if you think you know more, let's hear what you've got? Your theories about what's going on are? Did I say it was "acceptable"? No, I did not. I said based on my own experiences with cars I've owned that knocked for 10-20 sec on cold start ups, and things I've read...I have no reason to believe it will cause any damage. The phenomena is real. Got it. We all got it. My points have always remained: (1) IMO, no damage will result and (2) let the car go through it's normal warm up cycle before turning off...if you wish to avoid this issue, and (3) issue is not unique to the Prius or hybrid cars. Sorry, you're the one that has no idea what you're talking about. My whole life, my entire career revolves around cars. Any other bogus assumptions you want to make? Who said my cars, that had this problem were old? I didn't say anything about how old they were. You seem to have a propensity to misquote and make stuff up to suite your own position. Nice try. My finger. I do it every morning.
I'm laughing at your arrogance. You don't know me, you don't know anyone here. For you to claim superior knowledge is ridiculous. By stating other cars do it, you are claiming it is normal. By stating nobody has shown knocking damages the engine, you are claiming that no damage will result. Those are your opinions. Your opinions don't change the fact that a new car shouldn't knock when you start it. Ever. Toyota should find the problem and fix it. But they use the excuse that they can't replicate the condition. That does nothing to reassure Prius owners that their car is mechanically sound, reliable, and will last a long time without problems. It's another example of Toyota's lack of fundamental understanding regarding customer support. You tell me then, how old were your cars when they knocked? Mileage? If they were under warranty did you report it to the dealer? The ICE doesn't always turn on when you press the start button. What do you do then? From the video it looked like the guy had his wife put it in reverse to see if that would start the ICE. Regardless, you're diverting attention from the real problem. The video clearly showed that the engine was knocking.
Mine is not seamless. Most of the time my mind tunes it out, but when paying attention for it, or on particularly smooth pavement, it is always there. I'll have to start watching battery current again on my next drive day (tomorrow is a pedal day), but always believed that the 7 mph 'transition' was a complete cutout. On my car, this 'bump' cutout is a separate phenomenon. When it happens and I think to note the speedometer, it is reading in the teens.
Since NASA came up in this thread, apparently the NASA and NHTSA report is supposed to come out on Tuesday, 2/8. See Government to release review of Toyota throttles | Reuters.
I will note the speed at which the lurch occurs again. In my car, on smooth pavement, I really can't detect much of the transition from regen to friction, and the deceleration seems quite linear.
