Edmunds.com: 05 Prius beats 06 HCH

i read something too. wasnt it tighter suspension and a beefier stabilizer bar... same one that is offered as an upgrade at the Priuschat store? less body flex, less body roll, less body dive...less body this...less body that...

 

Great article, but I have one question -- the article says one advantage of the Prius is that it stays on electric-only power up to 25 mph. In my experience driving my 05 Prius, I haven't seen this. It seems no matter how slow I accelerate, the gas engine kicks in at around 5 or 10 mph!

 

Electric-Only acceleration isn't the most energy efficient choice. So there isn't a whole lot of benefit of staying under the 10kW maximum anyway.

Cruising using just electricity is an entirely different matter though. The up to 42 MPH limit at a consistent draw is fantastic for efficiency. Only HSD hybrids provide that (aka "stealth"). The Ford hybrid tops out at 25 MPH, which is probably the source of the error in the article. As for the newest Honda, it has much less electricity to use in the first place. So even if it's much smaller motor could handle the speed, it wouldn't be able to sustain it anywhere near as long as Prius.

 

Electric only acceleration from stop to a speed like 40 MPH requires a fairly high SOC, and also a very light touch of the pedal.

I've been able to accelerate up to 38MPH on electric only in select conditions... namely, my SOC was green from decelerating from highway speed to the toll booths... from the toll booth to the next onramp, I was able to use just the electric power to get up to a fair speed (38MPH).

John's right. Certainly, using electric-only mode all the time will hurt your mileage, as the energy has to be converted from kinetic to chemical, and then back to kinetic. There will be significant losses in the process.

 

My 1990 Ford Probe had that feature. It was nice, but I normally zeroed one of the trip odos when I filled up and got gas sometime after 200 miles. I didn't want to run out of gas when the "miles until empty" said I still had 75 miles to go. :blink:

 

It's heresy around here but the Civic does handle a tad better than the Prius - I wonder what kind of tires are standard on the civic though, are they low-roll-resistance or standard tires? That would certainly have an impact on the "default" feel... .

I think this review doesn't do enough to praise both cars for being amazing machines. GreenHybrid's database and any test drive will tell you there's not much reason to drive anything but these 2 wonderful cars.

One thing they didn't mention though is the crazy Kelly Blue Book value of the Prius - I bought a Prius a few days ago, and if I sold it minutes afterwards I would've made roughly $3000, more if I sold it smartly. If I drive it 10,000 miles and sell it I'll still make about $3000. You can't say that for the Civic. That resell advantage might evaporate if something even more efficient (probably from Toyota...) comes out, but for the time being that's a wild advantage of the Prius that's unique now and even historically.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SoopahMan @ Sep 19 2006, 03:32 AM) [snapback]321546[/snapback]</div>

the Kelly Blue Book bases cars value on how valued they are by the consumer, not the seller. is it crazy to pay thousands more for a passenger car when one can be had for less?? (tell that to mercedes, lexus and porche owners) might have a hard time convincing one of that. ferrari owners would throw you out of the room, but they dont count imm because ferraris do do what other cars cannot not.

take me for instance. bought a 2004 pkg #1. after all costs final price $22,317.44. drove it for 25 months, put 28,000 miles on it, car was in good condition (had a door ding on passenger side, paint chips, interior surfaces were reasonably clean but visibly worn, etc)

then on August 8th, got into an accident. car was totaled. the other gal's insurance company paid for my rental car for 4 weeks and 3 days, paid me $23,509.80
REPLACEMENT value for my very used Prius.

so besides driving the car for free, all my gas plus $18.20 was paid for in this settlement... now we can assume two things....

1) the insurance company felt really bad about me losing a car i obviously loved and was generous.

or

2) the Prius actually does have that many wannabe owners...

you decide which

 

Exactly! That's what's so amazing about this car - I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "Well remember, a car loses 20% of its value when you drive it off the lot." Driving this one off the lot raised it by more than 10%!

I guess in a way the added price is in exchange for sitting on any wait lists, shopping around, bargaining, etc. I'm half tempted to sell this and buy another one the same way, make some money.

 

Do any of you Prius owners have trouble with the blindspots and the front pillars blocking some view, or are you getting used to it? I wish we had what they have in Europe. They have side mirrors that alert you that something is in your blind spot.
A future Prius Owner

 

There are blind spots, and they are slighly different than you might be used to, but they don't really make the car more difficult to safely drive, IMO. It just takes some getting used to, like many other things on a new car! I find them most noticible when I'm circling a packed parking lot and making tight turns; in other situations, I don't really notice them at all.

 

The pillars are a little more intrusive than a usual car, but you get used to it quickly. If all you see is pillar when you're expecting road - lean forward!

By the way, the regular Camry we hired in the US recently had exactly the same problem. Any car where you sit back from the windscreen (that is, a big one) would be the same surely.

 

Thanks everybody for the kind words about the blindspots. You're all very encouraging, and I think I'm just a bit nervous about it. Like you say: I'll get used to it.
Mary