Weight penalty of the Hybrid Synergy Drive

If "better" means better fuel economy, it's simple: Which car has the better overall fuel economy, his HCH or your Prius? End of argument. It sounds like your friend cares about some weirdo cooked-up figure of merit like (average MPG)/(total weight), or maybe (MPG improvement)/(weight difference with respect to some other model), both of which seem pointless... except maybe by using one of those the HCH is "better" than the Prius :_>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(JustLurkin @ Oct 1 2007, 12:57 AM) [snapback]519725[/snapback]</div>

 

The Corolla Diesel 2.0l in Europe weights 3,031 lbs and do 0-62mph in about 10.3 seconds.

When comes to better fuel economy, where is the HSD weight penalty? Not to mention much lower emission...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(JustLurkin @ Oct 1 2007, 12:57 AM) [snapback]519725[/snapback]</div>

Don't forget that although the Civic and Prius are routinely compared, this is in reality a deceptive comparison. Although the weights are similar, the Prius (obviously WITH all that horribly heavy HSD hardware) is still a substantially larger car than the Civic. That it performs as well as it does in comparison to the Civic is all the more to its credit. Consider the interior volume stats. The Civics have about 88-90 cubic feet, and about 10 cubic feet of cargo space. A Prius has 96 and 14.4. For contrast, a Camry has 101 and 14.