Prius: Not For Road Trips?

Not sure what they mean by that. I took a road trip to Toronto from NYC the past weekend. I had a snowboard in the trunk with 40 side of the 60/40 backseat folded down, 4 days worth of luggage for 2 people, and still have tons of room left. I averaged 44MPG doing 70MPH to 75MPH on the hilly I-81, while my lead-foot gf averaged 42MPG doing 80MPH+. Without the hills, I'm pretty sure I can average close to 50MPG.

Please tell me what other cars can do better than the Prius?

 

Who says the Prius is not recommended for road trips?

If I were going cross country, I'd want to carry more than a backpack.

 

Yeah, that's totally out to lunch. The Prius is a wonderful highway cruiser - quiet, comfortable, and spacious.

 

I've taken my Prius on road trips, and will take it again. While I would love a Smart car if I lived in a major city, I would not like to take it on any trip of more than three or four hours each way.

 

i take mine on trips from kansas to wisconsin about six times a year and average 2 tank fills to do it, so that's bananas

 

Let's see ... this numb-nut says it's a toss up between the caddie CTS (HORRIBLE quality issues according to consumer reports) or the smart (a roller skate)
OK.
The he says the Corbin sparrow went the way of the dodo bird. I took THIS picture around last JUNE ...

http://priuschat.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=3925&d=1182271564
can you spell F O R S A L E ?

They came to the Disney greenfest last summer and there it was. Granted, the sparrow IS under new ownership ... but, so much for credibility.

 

Huh? Once electric cars start to take hold, the Prius will be nothing but a road trip car.

 

Anybody who thinks the Prius is "not recommended for road trips" is a moron.

However, the Corbin Sparrow has been notoriously unreliable. It may be constructed even more shoddily than the Xebra. It's a cute little car, but has only a 20-mile range at highway speed. I think it's the same car as the Miles Motors NMG, in which version it's been improved, but is still poor quality, according to what I've read.

 

Another dumb article...

We took our 2006 Prius on a 7500 mile cross the US trip and the trip average was 52.7mpg...

Very comfortable.. plenty of room for two people, food, clothes, hiking gear, etc, etc...

 

Hi Daniel,
Actually, after they were bought out, the car's guts were gone over from the controller up, and has a range of over 35 miles when driven under 55mph. The sales guy gave demos when they came to Disney, which validated their travel distance claims. Heck I could make it back and forth to work! ... for us, it's the high price we have to pay for a 'freeway legal' EV that keeps us from buying. Other wise ...
Each EV that comes to market will hopefully continue to get better & better ... so let's not fight amonst the troups.

 

Hey he's right. Instead of taking a Prius across the country at 5.2L/100km I should take a 6 cylinder sedan which uses 9.8L/100km on the highway and has less room in it for luggage.

The tiny wheelbase to height ratio means the Smart needs an expensive stability system juts to remain upright under normal use, on Prius it's optional and I haven't ever missed it.

Maybe I should fork out for a Cadilac CTS and I'll use 7.5L/100km but I'll need to find a Cadilac premium of over $10,000 more than the cost of a Prius just for a basic model. I wonder how long that will take to recover in saved fuel at -2.3L/100km? Oh I just worked it out, never!

 

Philadelphia, PA to Dayton OH on 1 tank of gas. Yeah, that Prius is just not designed for a cross crountry trip.

 

LOL... right. i know a thing or 2 about road trips and i can say the prius is fine. we, on the other hand, are weaker road warriors than we once were and can't pull the whole trip to wi in shifts anymore, we'll be stopping for the night once next time we can afford to go.

 

What a bunch of BS. It even makes a great bunk with one back seat down and some added padding.

 

Sorry, but I have to agree with the article, with some qualifications.

The seats in the Prius suck, and the cabin noise level is high compared to more expensive, less economical alternatives. Perhaps that's an unfair comparison, but it's my opinion. I can handle about four to five hours in the Prius in one stretch. Beyond that I'd rather be driving something else. I recently spent thirteen hours behind the wheel in one day and I could never have done that in my Prius (I was driving a $45k Acura). I do feel very guilty about only getting 23mpg at 75mph though, half of what I would have gotten in my Prius.

 

God only knows how anyone did these trips back in the 60s. Must have been crippling on vinyl bench seats. So you can't go touring in a car worth less than $45k, don't know how I did a 5000km trip on a $6.5k motorbike.
I'll be driving my 3 year old Prius to Darwin from Adelaide and back with wife and 15 year old boy in April, we will see how it goes.

 

I've always a fan of cars with great gas mileage, and since in the U.S. "great gas mileage" means "cheap car", I can never understand people who say things like "The Prius would be a good car if only it had an electronic butt scratcher!"

 

Looks like about 2,650 km as the crow flies. Longer if you avoid the desert. I think I would avoid the desert.