HWY MPG for the 2010 Prius. PLEASE HELP!

Sorry, your post is a bunch of malarkey as others have stated. VW does plenty of advertising and marketing here in the US and I know people who have been influenced by it, both VW and non-VW owners. The latest example is their green washing.

I guess "being successful" w/VW means dealing with "engine workshop" messages, electrical gremlins, sunroofs that don't seat properly, failing car stereos, traction control system problems, interiors that fall apart and peel, etc.

Your statement reagrding Toyota not being able to compete w/VW outside the US is complete BS. Take a look at the car reliability reports for all the age brackets from Germany at TÃœV auto reports - cars reliability ratings -- An used car, esp. for the older cars and look where all the VWs lie vs. Toyota.

How about the UK? See Japanese cars 'most reliable' | This is Money.

Years ago there was a guy who had a very extensive web page about a guy who had a horrible VW [FONT=Arial,Verdana]Touareg (not surprising as they've done horribly in CR reliability surveys). VW bought his back replaced it w/another [/FONT]but it was still lousy. Too bad the page is gone now. If you want some laughs, take a look at My VW Lemon Bulletin Board.

It's obvious you've already made up your mind and it seems unlikely reliability reports nor the debunking of most of your assertions will sway you.

 

Please Do Not feed the Trolls! :nono:

 

2009 Jetta TDI vs 2010 Prius? Please HELP!!! - TDIClub Forums

Enjoy!

 

A lot of the guys on the TDi forum seem pretty cool

FWIW I drove home after my alignment today at a steady 65mph (freeway) with occassional passing and parked at 52.6mpg and 64miles on the trip.

 

We may have gotten side-tracked of the wrong foot due to the emission / environmental concern raised by OP. To clarify, see this official Toyota document. You'll need to install Japanese font to see it properly even though all text are in English.

http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/k_forum/tenji/pdf/pgr_e.pdf

With that aside, I want to get back to OP's original question regarding MPG @80 MPH. Considering the Prius has 0.25 Cd and Jetta TDI has 0.31 Cd, Jetta has 24% drag coefficient disadvantage cutting through the air. This energy loss amplifies as speed increases. At 80 MPH, Prius is going to win. Check out more energy loss for Prius at different speeds: Prius Palm Mileage Simulator

Diesel fuel has about 15% more energy than the 87 Octane gasoline but it will not be enough to overcome aero drag. The main reason is because Prius' Atkinson cycle gas engine is as efficient as Diesel engine at low load (04-09 was about 37% thermo efficient). On top of it, Prius has ECO mode to further assist with MPG.

A point I want to make is that the HV battery will last a lot longer with the highway miles because it gets used less often, saving charge/discharge cycles. Toyota will pay you $200 bounty fee to recycle it because the 23 lbs Nickel in the pack is worth more than that. You can't say the same about lead-acid or Lithium battery chemistries. I will state again that the HV pack weights 99 lbs. It is not "massive" and it is not an atomic bomb like Diesel fanboys would want you to believe.

Another thing you mentioned about your preference is steering feel. Prius has electric steering so you never need to maintain / replace the steering fluid. The maintenance free of it was improved in 2010 model to provide more feedback but I am hearing in the reviews that it is still not perfect. However, if you do 95% highway driving, you wouldn't be steering much anyway. You will be keeping the car go straight and change lanes.

On the highway that you drive, is there HOV lane? The Prius may qualify to HOV lane with just the driver. Look for some sort of Clean Pass logo next to the diamond shape sign. This will save you time and stress with driving.

Prius does not have manual tranny and some may view it as "not fun". In fact, I find it more fun to have powertrain connected to the wheels 100% of the time. Prius eCVT does not have power disruption nor fluctuation. It provides a consistent and reliable power in a smooth manner that it will fool your senses that the car isn't accelerating quick. As some Prius owner put it, it is sneaky quick. You can view it as a boring or a luxury feature.

This graph makes my point very clear: http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/tech/environment/ths2/image/output_03.gif
This animation as well: HYBRID SYNERGY DRIVE: Torque on Demand Control

Prius is fun to drive in different ways. We do not shift gears with right hand. We shift power sources (gas or electric) with right foot. It depends on how and when you press the accelerator. There are many techniques to get more MPG that a non-hybrid driver can only dream of. All these matters if it is not your cup of tea.

I have a 3 years old Prius with 97k miles on it. I drive almost as much as you and mostly on the highway (75-80%). I am averaging 53 MPG with 65-70 MPH highway driving. The 2010 Prius improved highway MPG and as msirach reported, you could get over 60 MPG if you drive between 55-75 MPH.

Some state has no sales tax for Prius purchase. Check if your state offers it and that may cancel or even save you more than Jetta TDI's $1,300 tax credit.

Some good reading:
Understanding Contents
http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/tech/environment/ths2/SpecialReports_12.pdf

PS: Since you owned 2 Hondas, did you consider Insight or Civic Hybrid?

 

Good point.
I hear, but can't back this up with any personal experience, that the HCH gets better fuel economy on the highway than the Prius, but I have no idea if that applies at 80mph.

 

The first quoted figure is straight off VCAcarfueldata.org.uk - Search Results - Further Information. It's in Imperial gallons, not US gallons, and it's from the EU standard test, which produces very high results compared to most people's actual driving. 'Beating the EU' is almost impossible. The results are straight off the dynamometer and are not discounted, as the EPA does.

The 2G Prius officially gets 65.7mpg(I) on the same test, and the unconfirmed figure for the 3G car is 72.4mpg(I). I have had tanks ranging from 49.2 to 63.9 - average (omitting first two as I learned the car) is 55.5, but my commute has less traffic and longer sustained high-speed driving than the EU test programme. Also, it's almost all been in lower temperatures than the 25-30ºC specified.

I see from the TDIclub forum that there are still people who believe the Prius HV battery is only charged from regeneration. No. It's charged from normal driving, the generator always being spun, the effect being to average out peaks and troughs in demand. Yes, sometimes this means more fuel is consumed than is necessary to meet the current road demand - but much of that energy is given back at a later point. Regardless, the battery never goes flat on the highway. It won't, in fact, go below, or above, six bars when cruising at regular speeds. You just see the arrows flicking between charging and discharging the battery, on flat ground.

Prius gets its numbers through having an efficient engine sized for average demand, and that engine is perfectly capable of running pretty efficiently at highway speeds without any intervention from the electric motors. The efficient engine would not, however, be possible without the extra torque available from electric assist, and power from the battery under peak demand conditions.

 

Any claims have to be backed up by a valid statistics and real life data.
Your battery claims opens up a counter attack. Your posting's tone is not a typical Q&A session.

It's a matter of statistics and FUD.

Refer to
http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-hybrid-news/30974-prius-vs-hummer-exploding-myth.html
as an example.

From my past experience in other forums (e.g. dailytech.com), TDI vs HSD can be a heated battle.

 

My dear friends of PriusChat:

Please consider carefully the time you spend on this thread. If you wish to read it for your own amusement, please enjoy! If you wish to "debunk" one or more arguments, please do so for your own enlightenment.

If you have any intent to "help" the OP, please turn on the TV and turn off your computer.

If you read the first few posts, where several of us spent considerable time addressing the OP's original questions, you'll notice the OP never responded in kind. There were no answers to the basic questions that would help (except about some would-be plan for a once-weekly 1,000 mile commute). There were only poorly-written, wildly out-of-touch accusations of attack.

I laughed it off, at first, and then I entered in, again, to try and see whether the OP had any intention of engaging in dialogue, polite or otherwise. Well, that response did not come. It was just more of the same.

I see a recent response suggesting love and harmony. Perhaps with someone else.

I'm done here. I can't believe I got pulled in, again, by such a troll.

 

Go the the TDI site if you have questions about reliability. It is filled with horror story after horror story about problems with the TDI's and VW will not help at all. Another big problem is that the VW dealers are not helpful at all and are well over 3 times the cost of normal maintenance that your Prius will require.

If you are seriously considering the diesel Jetta you should go to TDIclub.com and read the current concerns about the new diesel. I don't think you will want to buy one after you read through this.

I would be very careful with the new TDI. I currently (for another few hours) own a TDI and the maintenance is very expensive. Also if you read through this site, you will find very few problems being reported with the prius. If you read through TDI club, you will find a lot of well documented problems with all generations of TDI's that VW has a reputation of not fixing.

Another curious note: Most people here report higher results then the EPA on the Gen II Prius, but the majorty at the VW site are reported much lower then the reported EPA on the new TDI.

My personal situation. I currently have an 07 Prius and 06 TDI. I am getting a new Gen III Prius. I was initially going to replace the Prius with the new Prius, but after weighing the pros and cons after owning both cars, I am selling the TDI and replacing it with the new Prius.

 

The OP tried stirring up an argument at the TDI forum as well. Many posters there steered him toward the Prius, citing that unless he was willing to do a lot of work himself or go to "gurus" for simple maintenance to avoid VW dealer service, it wasn't worth his while to buy a TDI. Although some of them dissed the Prius for the usual reasons, many were quite kind and honest about their experiences.

See: 2009 Jetta TDI vs 2010 Prius? Please HELP!!! - TDIClub Forums

 

after reading that, I guess my experience was not isolated. I owned a Jetta TDI 02 for almost a month and a half (closer to a month). I had a costco sized shopping list of issues (main was it didnt like to start randomly). I never held it against VW, because I just thought that was a lemon, but it seems far from isolated. Well looking back My brother inlaw's 1992 jetta burst into flames while parked.

 

I figured his family (mainly his dad) in Brazil was feeding him the misinformation and our help to clarify "his facts" is all we can do.

Presumptions are hard to notice by yourself, automatically taken as fact when coming from a trusted family member. I hope OP get to the real truth. Before I understood what was going on, I replied back as I would to a troll.

Once I read the TDI forum thread, the paradigm shifted.

 

My 1974 Beetle (not a diesel) did the same thing while I was stopped at a traffic light. I loved that car, despite all its quirks, but I couldn't forgive that last stunt it pulled. You'd think VW would get that spontaneous combustion thing fixed. :scared:

 

My father-in-law's 04 Beetle is not starting again. A new battery was replaced 2 weeks ago. It must be the alternator. It has 62k miles only.

It is a good thing Prius doesn't have an alternator.

 

I had the battery replaced, alternator, Glow plugs replaced, The power windows stopped working... when it started snowing. the headlights flickered then stopped working (funny story with that one) engine started vibrating violently like it was going to explode.

 

I'm not a fan of VW, why?
Because of a 06, 07 and 08 VW's that a few of my friends have (true die hard vw guys)
The 06, went back the next day (would of went back the night it was picked up but they were closed after the car was picked up). The whole dash stopped working. Almost 2 weeks before it was fixed, and has never got anything more then 9.5l/100km.
The 07, brand new again, about a month old, and no brake lights/tail lights or signals all way around the car. Lenth to fix was 1 month.
08, again brand new, wouldn't start, instead of giving him another car, gave him his old car back (was a trade in) and took almost 2 weeks to get it fixed.

Not trying to push you away from VW or Prius...just adding my .02

 

That's how the whole religion thing gets spread. lol

 

I noticed the same thing. It is quite refreshing to see people talk about facts and personal experiences even if it doesn't pain their car in the most favorable light.

I was tempted to sign up just to tell them that and how I think the TDi wagon is actually a pretty cool car but since JHS is already on that forum he can shoot em straight about the Prius misconceptions.