Consumer Reports Plug-in Review

Nope. Gotta' wonder about the bias of the tester/writer.

 

Consumer Reports sure loves to find something about any Prius to complain about

 

I too am wondering about those reports. I live in France and am driving a 2007 Prius (watching this forum because I might be tempted by a PIP, my apologies if these comments are found to be somewhat off topic).

Regularly I read reports in the automotive press about Priuses and other hybrids and the consumption figures they quote always are significantly worse than those I regularly achieve. Usually I do 50-51 MPG in the summer and 47-48 in the winter. This would seem normal as the ICE has to kick in more often in the winter in order to maintain a suitable catalytic converter temperature, nothing wrong with that.

As for my driving habits, I'm doing exactly what Toyota advises: "Just drive it". Otherwise I'm just using common sense : Keep to speed limits (or you'll get your license endorsed and sooner than you know you'll kiss it goodbye), and avoid "hectic" driving, just what I do when driving any other car. I'm driving like most guys around me, keeping up with the flow, just trying to be sensible without attempting to break any record.

The press reports often come up with figures like low forties, high thirties MPG. Like you, I'm wondering what sort of drivers are conducting those tests. On technical matters too they seem to "lose the plot" when it comes to explaining how the system works: They would refer to a "continuously variable transmission" when there is nothing even vaguely like a gearbox in a Prius, obviously confusing it with the system Honda use in their hybrids, which is notoriously less efficient.

Another misconception found in press reports is that weight significantly affect mileage. True for an ordinary car, not true here. Any extra energy you need to put your load in motion you'll recoup when slowing down. The only difference I notice when driving my Prius fully loaded is that charge/discharge cycles are shorter, MPG remaining roughly the same. This of course doesn't hold true if you are a hectic sort of driver.

As for me, all I have to say is that anybody trying to sell me a car that's not a hybrid (or full electric when technology comes to maturity) is wasting his time. My advice is: Spread the good news, tell everybody how wrong the press are, tell them to clear their minds and test drive a hybrid applying the KISS principle (Keep It Simple and Stupid) and watch how soon this gas pump stops.

 

Yep, they've been discussing the article here.
Consumer Reports on the Jetta Hybrid & Prius Plug-in | PriusChat

 

It is simple really, if you are a hot shoe car reviewer you accelerate at full throttle all the time, so you can whine about a CVT 'drone' that no one else hears. When you DO get to a corner, (at full throttle) you slam on the brakes and then go back to full throttle, until the next corner.

Driven in this 'car reviewer' mode, no regen will ever take place so the car will seem more anemic than it does to actual owners and mileage will plummet. This makes for a good bashing and you go on to the next car. In which you also get horrible gas mileage but like as not you are now driving just like actual owners, so no one complains.

I wish I was being sarcastic.

 

What sickens me so much about these reviews, is they get a brand new car (not broken in), then they drive it like a race car and slam on the brakes.... I have no idea what that does to the remaining life of the prius but that kind of early aggressive driving can't be beneficial for it. (I watched the vid where they did that with a prius c and the brakes screeched, makes me wince, poor car...)

 

i wonder what happens to those cars...

 

It simulates one well enough for car road test reviewers to complain about it.
Logging Some Last Miles - 2012 Toyota Prius c Long-Term Road Test
2013 Toyota Prius Review By Joe Wiesenfelder

 

CR reviewers are happiest when reviewing new BMW's it seems. When they mash the pedal they want to get thrown back in their seats, they want to corner at 3G's etc. They get in the PIP- they drive it like a 5/7 series and when it fails to perform they knock it. And pushing it to perform like a 5/7 series makes it get 37mpg....

 

how have i managed to drive 6,000 ev miles without the ice coming on? i must be dreaming...

 

They drove the car around with flat tires.


iPad ? HD

 

If you read my prior posts, I'm pretty into hyper-miling my PiP but I'm not your usual driver. I get tailgated and cut off by people in Priuses all the time. Many drive just as ridiculously as the regular ICE drivers - jack rabbit starts, slamming on the brakes and accelerating repeatedly, merging onto the highway at very low speeds and then jamming on the gas after they've merged ... all with no obvious sign that they're aware of how much gas they're wasting. I imagine those are the people who complain that their Prius only gets 40 MPG or worse. Unfortunately, I believe this is how most people drive and Consumer Reports' largest demographic.

 

You are dreaming...unless you disabled the 124 mile mandatory ICE operation.

Mike

 

no, it's the 4,000 miles of hv driving in between that takes care of that, although, it did happen recently and took me by surprise!

 

Now, you just need the fuel filler countdown.

 

yeah, still waiting for that one.

 

Rather than nit-picking the efficiency figures, I focused on this conclusion:

"Overall, the token increase in efficiency isn't worth the higher price. If you want a car that truly benefits from plug-in capability, consider a Chevrolet Volt or Ford C-Max Energi, which are nicer cars that let you drive gas-free for longer distances."

Nicer? I don't think so.

But they're bang on about the distance. I enjoy the plug-in feature but spend entirely too much time thinking about EV range. If the next gen PIP has substantially more range, that'll be the car this should have been to justify the price.

Of course, EV range has everything to do with the distance normally driven, so Y(E)MMV.

And I'm glad I got the PIP. Along with other possessions I enjoy but still think I paid too much for.

 

They were bang on about that too. The Prius feels cheap in comparison. The panel fitment is better on the Prius compared to the Volt though.