HWY MPG for the 2010 Prius. PLEASE HELP!

I'll offer a non-Prius/prospective-Prius owner opinion. I own two BMW-made cars, a 2006 X3 and a 2007 MINI Cooper S. My first car was a Volkswagen Beetle, my second a Volkswagen camper. I love them all.

I won't argue that the Prius is going to be more fun to drive than probably any of these cars (OK, maybe the camper). And the interior of the Jetta is very attractive, I was seriously considering the TDI, and I have sat in both cars (driven neither).

I ultimately decided that I liked the unique look and design of the Prius. In my head I am leaning heavily toward the Prius.

It sounds like in your mind you are already leaning heavily towards a TDI. So, go for it. Even if the Prius cost less to maintain, gets better fuel mileage, etc., go with your gut and buy the car you want. I don't think you will go too far wrong with either one.

Only time will tell if you are going to spend more on maintenance. In three years of owning a BMW, I've spent $0 since writing the check and flying to Munich to pick it up. But I'm not planning on keeping the car too far past the warranty expiration, and I would likewise be a little more wary with the TDI, than any Toyota.

 

That last line made you sound like a complete troll.

I doubt you'd qualify as a bigger car enthusiast than I and I still love the Prius. 1/4 mile times are not the end all be all of car performance. Trust me on this one.

 

Refer to http://www.autonews.com/assets/PDF/CA60251227.PDF

Unfortunately, VW's reliability is no where near Toyota or Honda.

Toyota Prius earns Best Value ranking from Consumer Reports, American brands fail to make the grade

Toyota Prius Touring Tops Consumer Reports First Ever Best New-Car Value List

"The Prius Touring received a cost-per-point of $325. Rounding out the top five models with the best overall value were the Mini Cooper ($330), Volkswagen Rabbit ($330), Honda Civic EX ($340), and Honda Fit ($350)."

Also refer to

From Consumer Reports Summary
Family Car
------------------
Most Reliable
_Toyota Prius
_Honda Accord

Least Reliable
_Chevy Impala
_VW Passat

Small Cars
-----------------
Most Reliable
_Toyota Yaris & Corolla
_Honda Fit

Least Reliable
_Dodge Caliber
_VW Jetta & Beetle

 

Where's your statistical data?

 

Debunked by Prius G2 taxis fleets.

Prius's high torque is provided by the electric motor.

 

50 to 55mpg

 

Indyking,

People here are not attacking you! They are simply correcting misinformation brought up by you. If you did the same in a TDI forum, you will get an uproar as well. I hope you get to the root and see this.

I know you are looking deeper than driving experience and into ownership experience. Majority of the owners here are extremely satisfy with Prius. The same level you would find in Corvette forum.

There is a lot more to than highway MPG. If you look into the hint of the future, electrification is coming.

 

No, the problem is with you my friend. You are acting like an impulsive child and you provoke such replies from forum members. Many of us have owned a wide variety of cars over the years and hold no special alligience to any particular brand.

You should take a step back and re-examine your own behavior in this thread and try to imagine why folks are reacting the way they are.

#1 You are not speaking with complete facts at hand

#2 You type your thoughts in a provocative manner

Most of the members here are taking the time to write out thoughtful responses and rebuttals to your misinformation yet you take it as "fan boy" replies and nothing more. I've been on car forums for the last decade and have met many people like you so I'll not hold back when I say you are acting childish and disruptive to knowledge and information being presented to you. My advice is to either:

A. Listen to them and the folks on the TDi forum then go see what car fits you best and live happily ever after.

B. Take your assumptions and attitude and troll somewhere else.

 

Indyking,

You have raised concern about HV battery pack life and replacement cost. Strange because it is covered under a very long warranty with 12 years reliability history/data to back it up.

Have you raise the same concern about TDI turbo life and replacement cost? How about the complex and expensive exhaust after-treatment system in the modern Diesel? What are their warranty length and how much will they cost to replace them once out of warranty?

 

#4 is just the type of BS that diesel fanboys like to regurtitate based upon diesel engines in big rig trucks. Sorry, that's not what's found under the hood of a Jetta TDI. Your last statement about the Prius' engine is just unsubstantiated BS. The VW will be the one that requires car replacement due to so many problems cropping up that it won't be worth keeping.

Look at engine reliability of diesel Jettas vs. the Prius from Consumer Reports in the attachment. So much for "lasting longer". "Lasts longer" but has a lot more problems on the way?

#7 is false as well. Go lookup the two cars at Side-by-Side Comparison. The 2010 Prius is estimated to emit 3.7 tons of CO2/year vs. 6.4 tons for the Jetta TDI. See Mr. Green's Web-Only Mailbag - November/December 2007 - Sierra Magazine - Sierra Club regarding nickel in the batteries.

Regarding "green", note that from the above, the Jetta TDI only gets a 6 out of 10 on the EPA air pollution score (aka tier 2 bin 5). There are plenty of non-hybrid gasoline powered vehicles that do better than this. Most of them aren't labeled "green".

I don't know why the air pollution score is missing from the above site for the 2010 Prius right now, but per http://pressroom.toyota.com/pr/tms/toyota/document/2010_Prius_Product_Info_FINAL.pdf, it's rated at Tier 2 Bin 3 or SULEV w/AT-PZEV which are both bettter. See http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/detailedchart.pdf for definitions. 04-09 Priuses were rated 8/10 (aka Tier 2 Bin 3) most states or 9.5/10 for CARB states (AT-PZEV).

Please back up your last assertions w/facts. The fact of the matter is that VW reliability is definitely inferior to Toyota reliability, at least based on ones sold in the US. VW reliability for vehicles sold in the US ranges from ok to horrible.

I know of a lot more people w/problem VWs than I do w/problem Toyotas despite that the fact Toyota outsells VW in the US more than 7:1. See attachment for some VW Jetta reliability compared to Prius reliability. See the 2nd attachment (also from Consumer Reports) for how the various brands rank and the score each was given, denoted by diamonds.

Although I don't trust JD Power that much and don't think their vehicle dependability study (VDS) goes far back enough, notice where VW lands: 2009 Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS) | J.D. Power and Associates.

 

Taller gearing is evident at highway speeds. The EPA on the GenIII is easy to SMOKE!


The 49 mph average includes about 15 minutes of sitting still and playing with the gadgets.130 miles on 2-lane at 50 to 55mph and the rest is on I-64 at 55 to 70mph through Indiana and Kentucky. We picked the car up yesterday afternoon with 5 miles on it and are on our way to Virginia. Today: The hills of West Virginia.

 

Please, Indyking: buy the Jetta TDI and be done with it! You obviously "know" just how inferior the Prius is, although you've never owned either car. And then go troll someplace else.

It's amazing how you have labelled the people here who have patiently and knowledgeably answered your erroneous assertions as being "fanboys", and thereby completely dismissed the logic of their arguments, and the reliability of the sources they quote.

It's also obvious from your responses that you have no real interest in logical discourse, but simply want people to accept your conclusions without providing them with reliable evidence (other than that which you've read from "diesel fanboys").

As for the cost of ownership: how about showing the cost of owning a turbo equipped engine? They don't last forever, and when the turbo unit needs to get replaced, it is quite costly. Back when we were buying our 2001 VW Beetle, my auto mechanic brother-in-law steered us away from the turbo Beetle, as he said that when the turbo fails (which they do), it would be several thousand dollars for the repairs. So we bought the non-turbo version. And it still was an bad purchase.

One anecdotal point: just when our Beetle had gone out of warranty, the rack & pinion unit developed a leak, and the entire assembly had to be replaced by the Volkswagon dealer. At least I can speak with some authority on Volkswagons, as I've owned one. And my daughter-in-law has owned a Jetta (the one that spontaneously burst into flames while parked; good thing that wasn't in a garage!).

Finally, please change your profile: you do not own a 2010 Prius, and having it up there is a lie. Apparently you must think that others will give your rantings more creedance if they think you actually own a Prius.

 

good luck, indyking, with your choice. please do let us know what you decide.

whatever you choose to buy (jetta, prius, something else) - please consider coming back in 6 months with impressions and mileage - that data will be very usefull.

i myself am giong to get my 2010 prius 4 in July. I have done the same commute every workday for 4 years, and in the summer i am at 50.0 indicated, 49 calculated. Point is my gen 1 mpgs are firmly established and will be a great comparator for the 2010. I will report that data and my impressions and I hope you do the same.

finally - maintenence isn't just the money out of yuor wallet, its time the car spends in the shop, even if the maintenance is "free", even if they give you a loaner. Its the pain in the butt factor - the life perturbation.

Good luck.

 

You will get a VW, case closed.

Maybe you can tell us which VW forum you posted good stuff about the Prius so we can go have a look?

 

I would read it. Send the link..op2:op2:op2:

 

Hi Indyking,

What malarky that last post of yours is.

A car is a car, if you make it a personal statement about who you are, you are not buying a car, your buying a physcolgical service.

Most of the people who have given you responses are people who have done things with cars. Based on what you say, I know I have more experience doing major repair work on VW's.

My brother had two VW's. And luckily he had an engineer for a brother (me). Even with that, he had a the 16V timing belt go at 59.5 K miles (60 k was the replace requirement) on the clock, and that was a $2500 repair. In the end, the $1700 catalytic converter (in 1990 dollars) was the end of it. He ended up selling the last car to you guessed it, a VW technician. I did various electrical repairs (Printed Circuit Board traces burning open in the dash assembly) and one of the clutch jobs.

Hybrids are not new car technology. Ferdinand Porshe (you know, the guy who designed the first VW) did one in the 1920's. Now there is a guy who has done stuff with cars. Various organisations have been nibling along at the Hybrid car problem since then. Toyota was the first to do a production Hybrid (second to market it in the US behind Honda).

Hybrid cars are not marketing stategies. Toyota did not even set out to design a Hybrid when it started developement of the Prius. It just found out along the way to get the corporate goal of 100 % improvement in fuel economy, as their leadership had set for a 21 st century car, it had to make the Prius a Hybrid.

In a few years VW will be selling a car called the Golf Twin-Drive. Twin Drive is VW's hybrid system. To get there, they have to sell cars. They know it, and they are doing a hell of a lot of marketing of their present cars - cars designed for the economics of the European continent (artifically cheap diesel). For all we know you are part of this marketing effort. My opinion is that last post of yours could have been written with someone with college level marketing training. Appealing to the reptilian mind, are we? Once the Twin-Drive and various other (Citroen) hybrids comes out, I think you will see pressure on the EU to normalize the tax load on fuels there.

 

INDYKING - can't speak for others, but for myself only. after reading your comments and negativity, i will simply say this for you.

GO BUY YOUR VW.,,,,,DAS AUTO RIGHT?

goodbye.

 

You did not cause disturbance, we are still in synergy here. You are still welcome any time you want two ways communication rather than Diesel "preaching". We know more about Diesel than you probably expected. We do not want you to depart feeling "busted".