Disappointed in Prius ('08) waiting for '10

[morpheusx]

Originally Posted by Zack

dwdean, I am 51 years old and I don't drive fast at all. Cars we have in the house are choices of 4 adult drivers from 3-4 years ago. I drive Honda mini van and very happy with it.
I grew up in Europe and 900 - 1300 cc cars were and still are at least 80% of all cars on the road. Another fact is that most of the highways there have no speed limits! They drive as fast as they can and want (highway).

Conclusion is that we don't really need fuel guzzlers in the first place. People live and drive fine with engines half and less sized than average American car.
Conclusion is also that instead of waging war for oil in Iraq and spending billion per day doing so Bush could make grants or incentives to domestic car industry and demand practical EV solutions immediately (how about GM Volt?). Mass replacement of the regular cars with hybrids like Prius would slash oil dependency by 30-40% or more.
Conclusion is also that while I said that I like Prius and technological concept that it is nothing fantastic (at rates of 44 MPG that I achieved in everyday driving) since that kind of performance already exists for less and for very long time.
I believe that Toyota will come through in 2010 and VW maybe year earlier with 55-60 MPG performance for every average driver. I am buying at that moment, replace once for ever big engine cars that we have now.

you do realize that the average 4 cylinder car in europe goes the equivalent of 0 - 60 in about 13 - 16 seconds.

[crazyeditnyc]

Kudos on driving it first. Interestingly you didn't find it performed well. We are getting our 08 because we drove 1700 miles around Texas in a rented 07. We stopped for gas 3 times. In those 1700 miles we drove in traffic (where the electric engine saves the gas) and on long hot highways. we averaged about 48mpg. Over 11 days it was great. I got it up over 100 a couple of times and we still were getting 42 mpg according to the lcd screen. Given the cars you are driving, unless you owe more on them than they are worth a prius would save you much needed cash for gas.

Looking forward to seeing you in the "Club" in 2010

[hiremichaelreid]

Originally Posted by Zack

How much was total cost of the car in the end of the day? I am wondering does it worth to bring it from USA?

I consider 4 - 4.5 l/100km consumption really good. Some people claim even lower like 3.8 but I didn't achieve anything even close to above in regular driving.

I considered importing from US, but IMO it wasn't worth it for me. At list prices I figured I might save $800 once all fees etc were paid, taking into consideration loss of the $4k rebates (I'm in Quebec and Quebec rebate also only applies to "new", I.E. not sold to you by an American buyer.)

This would be for a US package 2 base versus a "Canadian base" which is a Touring package #2 with some added features. And now I couldn't get ANY discount in US; perhaps a premium, while I got an APA pre-negotiated price of $1k off of MSRP here in Ottawa.


Depends what you mean by "normal driving". I only got my Prius Thursday and I've changed NOTHING like oil or tire pressure. I've been reading this board for 4 weeks and I've picked up a few tips that are working for me.

This morning on my up to 60-80 KMH commute I was getting 4.1L/100 KM indicated for the first 30 KM, but the last 2 KM dropped me down to 4.3 L/100 KM, perhaps because of 2 over-aggressive pulses that didn't have good glides due to unexpected red lights.

Now that the Prius is somewhat broken in, after 800 miles, I'm looking forward to see what Synthetic oil, higher tire pressures, and some further experience can achieve. I think 4.0L/100 KM must be attainable for my 32 KM each way commute.

[Speedwing]

US based vehicles have different emmission standards than the EU. EU cars only run Premium GAS as that is all they sell over there. Yeah .... the new Diesel MINI Cooper gets 60 mpg on Diesel but can not be imported because of California's emmission standards for diesel. SUCKS doesn't it. Diesel is way more expensive than Regular gas, and Premium is .... well Premium. I'm driving our 05 Cooper on Premium and getting around 32 mpg. Wife is driving the Prius on Regular and getting around 48 mpg. We have lots of hills in PA and that lowers our mpgs as compared to those in flat country. When technology improves I will trade up, and luckily the Prius is holding good used values. Who knows how much the US economy will change in the next 2 years, expecially with a new President coming up in 5 months.

For now the Prius was a good choice for my wife and I. Good luck with your vehicle search!!

[chuckp]

Originally Posted by Zack

Car I was driving was Budget's, 13500 miles on the counter. I tried both styles, regular (nothing fast, regular accelerations, regular highway speeds (55-70 MPH), let go on the gas early) and extreme easy (feather touch on gas pedal, maximum possible electric only driving, a lot of gliding, watching MFD at all times).
Found "easy" driving quite impractical where whole ride (while still somewhat fun) became race against the MFD (MPG counter, consumption bar graph and animated arrows showing a flows of energy).

Hi Zack, I couldn't resist chiming in here with an ancient factoid. For a Prius, 13500 miles is not enough to get the oil dirty! John1701a talked about the time his '02 Prius went on a rally at 45k miles or so, and returned from the hard-driven rally with 5 or 10% better mileage from the engine having finally loosened up! My own '02 has been getting better mileage every year; it now has almost 70k. Engine life and brake life are two very interesting aspects of Prius ownership besides the gas mileage! Like you, I'm waiting in line for a 2010 model (#1 in line, incidentally).

Chuck

[Zack]

Originally Posted by chuckp

Hi Zack, I couldn't resist chiming in here with an ancient factoid. For a Prius, 13500 miles is not enough to get the oil dirty! ... Like you, I'm waiting in line for a 2010 model (#1 in line, incidentally).

Chuck

Hi chuckp, 13500 miles is 21600 km, I think it's one year's worth of driving.
Confusing factor are posts of other people who are also reporting 44-45 MPG range (same as I experienced) after years of driving Prius. They seems can't get any or much better. I have feeling that 55-60 MPG members are more of exceptions than a rule.
Anyway, like you said, we'll be in row for 2010 model ...

[ceric]

Hi, Zack,
Getting around 45mpg is the norm according to my local Toyota dealer's service people. According to him, that's what most of his customers told him including myself.
People who obtain MPG better than that are people who have longer commutes.
When I wife used it for a couple weeks, she was getting 38mpg because all she did was busing kids forth and back from schools. 1-2 miles range.
Whichever automaker that pushes out a plug-in model that is capable of doing 40mile range (round trip of my typical commute) will likely get my next purchase as a Prius replacement, be it Toyota or GM.

[Zack]

It would be very, very interesting if moderator could setup on-line poll where members would honestly select their average MPG! I already saw some polls running.
Select radio button for values like 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64 MPG. I am pretty sure that every member would vote so we all find out results.

[morpheusx]

this past weekend the wife and I decided to take the kid to the waterpark (Geauga Lake) Right when we left I stopped at the gas station about 1/4 mile from my house to fill up and reset the MFD. The Air Conditioning was set at 75 (outside air was 77) The wife will kick me out of the drivers seat if I drive too slow and nothing pisses her off more then if I try to pulse and glide. We parked the car and I bragged to her "25 miles Boom 68 MPG, beat that" and she said well most of the way here must have been downhill. So we get home pull into the driveway and I check it Boom 68 MPG (now with 50 miles 25 there 25 back home factored in). We have taken 3 trips from Akron OH to Virginia Beach, VA since we've had the Prius. At average speed of 70 - 75 MPH the majority of the way we average about 52 MPG on the trips. I don't "hypermile" I just drive smart. I look at the current traffic patterns. The only trick is to always have lots of room in front of you a buffer zone if you will so that you only need your brakes if you have to stop not because traffic has slowed down, works with whatever it is you drive too not just the Prius.

[orenf]

Originally Posted by Zack

It would be very, very interesting if moderator could setup on-line poll where members would honestly select their average MPG! I already saw some polls running.
Select radio button for values like 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64 MPG. I am pretty sure that every member would vote so we all find out results.

Zack,

Check out GreenHybrid - Interactive Hybrid Cars Resource, where you can find a huge database /w detailed real-life consumption information.