"Numb" brake pedal? "Vague" steering?

OK, so what were your thoughts about the Prius before you test drove/bought one? There is a lot of misinformation, stereotypes, stigma out there and people tend to believe what they hear. The only expectation I had when I first drove one was that it gets good fuel economy. I was sold in the first five minutes.

 

here is my explanation of "Vague steering" ... Many Prii were OEM fitted with Avid S33 Yokohamas. Any new Yokohama tire I ever tried had that really "no center/balancing on piece of soap in shower" feel, at least until you put initial 500-1000mi on it.

Brakes usually require a few hundred miles to bed in, but that is another story.

I rest my case

 

I find the brakes to be good, the one weakness being the loss of braking when the front wheels looses traction while stopping with a high amount of regen. That;s more of an alarming thing than a real problem, if you are on the brakes hard enough t be well into the friction brakes, the front wheels losing traction on a slippery spot doesn't disable braking, just on the wheels that are slipping.

As far as the steering being numb, it's because of an over-boosted inexpensive electric power steering system. It's not worse than a lot of economy and non-performance cars, but it is numb.

 

It all depends on expectations. Car enthusiasts want a car that they have to "drive" -- you might equate it to a spirited horse. The Prius is the antithesis of that. It is easy to drive, with a linear response to steering, brakes, and acceleration. It is so even tempered that some people say it is like driving an appliance. If what you want is easy transportation, then that is a compliment.

Unfortunately, most people writing car reviews are car enthusiasts. They go for horsepower, tight suspension, and manly handling characteristics.

Tom

 

it may be true but the economy tires are big part of it. Another part is frame flex, it got much better with Tanabe STB and underbrace. No it is not a surgical knife but it does not feel like driving a boat any more.

 

(He admits he is just being picky: "More discerning — or perhaps just pickier — drivers will find fault.")

Toyota is caught between a rock and a hard place on brakes.

You have engine braking in varying amounts (on front wheels only) and regenerative braking in varying amounts (on front wheels only) and friction braking in varying amounts (on all 4 wheels) You want the pedal feel to be both responsive and linear. It is not going to happen.

What the Prius does is attach the pedal to a computer, to blend all of the braking into a coordinated effort and give the illusion of feedback to the driver. It does a great job, on the whole, but it is not the real thing, it is a software re-creation of reality.

Owners are angry/frightened/confused if they can tell any difference between engine, friction, and regenerative braking, so the computer hides all it can, at the cost of 'feel'.

Feel would scare folks at every transition. As it is we constantly explain that with engine braking, the engine is louder/busier the more you brake and calmer/quieter the less you brake. We constantly explain that in the transition from regenerative to friction braking it feels like you need to press a little harder for friction brakes.

Terrifying their regular customers is not in Toyota's best interest.

(We get a ton of prospective owners worried about a Prius because they think they will miss the acceleration of their current car. The actual drivers who abandon the Prius are those who miss operating their car, rather than get getting somewhere Adding paddle shifters with fake shift points would do nothing for fuel economy or track times, but would give drivers something to do. I think many of the drivers who use B mode do it just to have something to do)

 

Today up for the test drive a toyota prius. This car is a safe reliable car that gets good mpg. So i will take it to the test track to do my review.

This thing does not have a v-8 or dual tailpipes, Big minus in my book. How is this thing safe on the road when it can't pull .9 g's around a corner and it's top speed is below 150mph, very slow car. The car is also slow of the line, i put the pedal to the metal from a stop and it didn't do a burn out. I normally like to be able to see all four shifts of the transmission on the pavement. I didn't notice the slow moving/broken gas guage moving down on my 0-top speed run. The dash has stupid things on the display common toyota give us what we want, get ride of the mpg, instant consumption, ect, ect. We want a top speed, top g's, and most gas used in a1 /4 mile display.

The steering and brakes are numb feeling. I want to feel every bump in the road with my hands. Also the gas gauge is numb and very slow moving. The prius also didn't do good off roading too getting stuck in deep mud everytime.

Thanks for reading my review, I will now go collect my 100 grand a year i get paid to review cars.

 

Check out enthusiast car magazines in stores - Car and Driver, Motor Trend and so on. They value the BMWs, Mercedes, fine handling cars. Their opinions have merit. If they didn't compare Prius to Mercedes, fewer people would know.

Still Prius is not designed for carving backroads. It drives just fine though. Just looking for them to ace the interior on the 4th gen. Actually, a lot of people are looking for that (the list of suggested improvements is awfully long).

 

Most cars involve tradeoffs, with a Prius we get higher mileage and give up a bit in the handling. There are few perfect cars out there for the price of a Prius, what characteristics are most important to you?

 

You said it yourself, it's not a sporting car.

It's a sensible car with mileage—not handling or driving feel or performance—as its focus.

Why do you assume that those evil journalists are always out to get the Prius?

I'm sure if you drive a higher performance, sporting car back to back against the Prius, you'll feel the difference. You may or may not like it, but to assert there isn't one isn't true.

I'm sure I'll be flamed for being negative, blah, blah. But just as the driver of a sports car probably won't brag about his or her mileage, Prius drivers really shouldn't brag about the handling or performance of the car.

 

CT200h designed to be more of a 'driver's car' and get 42 MPG.

 

In addition to the 17 inch wheels, the US V model also gets slightly quicker steering and a different power steering. The electric motor in the steering is completely different, I don't know what other differences there are in the steering.