Gen 4 no faster than previous Gens?

they can really make them go in new york city. good brakes too!

 

Yup, wrong crowd. I remember I was really upset with the Gen 3 because engine size went up from 1.5 liter to 1.8 liter. I said to my sister whom owned the Gen 2. I don't want more power. I want better fuel economy.

 

Applying the wrong tool to the job or the wrong test to the tool guarantees disappointment.

 

6 years is not very long in the life of a Toyota.

 

Nah! He just sticks his head into his shell.

 

I had the same reaction at the time.

 

Funny thing was: bigger engine and better fuel economy.

 

Though the word from some non-North-American marketeers back in 2009-2010 was that it could have had even better fuel economy without the bigger engine. The engine boost seemed necessary to gain wider acceptance in the performance-centric N.A. market.

 

I was thinking if engine size stayed the same, even better fuel economy.

 

It's not quite that simple. A smaller engine is more efficient at lower power levels, and a larger engine is more efficient at higher power levels. As it turned out, at the power levels where the 1.5 l engine is more efficient, the Prius would be operating primarily in EV mode anyway. At higher power levels, the 1.8 l engine is mostly just as, or more efficient.

Then add the synergy effect, where the increased efficiency at higher power recharges the battery more efficiently, which in turn indirectly increases the efficiency of EV mode, which in turn allows the ICE to run even less in the lower, less efficient power range. Thanks to the hybrid synergy effect, the resulting overall efficiency is increased over most of the power range.

 

If you want your Prius to go faster, all you need to do is make a few simple modifications. It might have a slightly adverse effect on MPG however:

Hellcat-Powered Toyota PriuSRT8 Is a Rolling Middle Finger | News | Car and Driver | Car and Driver Blog

 

Note also that it is worth comparing the Gen2 and Gen3 BSFC charts. The near-optimal power band was significantly broadened in the Gen3, and is surprisingly wide.

 

It is quite simple in terms of weight. Gen 3 is heavier than Gen 2. More power needs to be added to the Gen 3 in order to maintain an efficient power to weight ratio that Toyota has already determined to be effective for the Gen 2. Conversely, on the Gen 4, Toyota decided to maintain the same weight as Gen 3 by changing to a lighter battery chemistry, eliminating the spare tire, etc. Add on evolutionary improvements in engine efficiency and we have incremental improvements in fuel economy.

I wish this was the direction Toyota headed for on the Gen 3. They didn't because their only competition was the Honda Insight. Toyota needed to save room for improvement on the next model change. Why add active grill shutters to a 2010 Prius when it's already the most fuel efficient car? Save that for the 2016 model. The Prius C is an example of a vehicle that can maintain similar fuel economy to the Gen 2 by taking what is otherwise a very light Yaris. Imagine if it was purpose-built with the slippery Cd as a regular Prius. Add some unattractive pizza pie hub caps and the wedged hatchback rear and you'll have a vehicle no one wants to buy but fuel misers like me.

 

It's a combination of engineering and marketing. What you say may be true, but it also does take time and $$$ to develop and add new features. Otherwise the Wright brothers would have started right off with a 747, and a Model T would have had active grill shutters. And obviously, Thomas Edison started out with the telegraph and kept smartphone apps in his back pocket so customers would be forced to upgrade their communications equipment gradually over 100 years.

 

Unfortunately, the Gen 4 does go faster than previous generations - It depreciates faster.

 

Not if gas prices rise.

 

why does gen 4 depreciate faster than previous gens?

 

The previous gens are older so they have already taken the new car depreciation hit.