Prius vs. Dodge Charger

[usbseawolf2000]

Originally Posted by Stefx

You can play with the numbers all you want. In the end, the Civic, the Yaris and the Versa do 45-65mph faster. The Prius is not incredible at passing on the highway.
It will take longer for a Prius to pass a car, that's all. Lowering your window and yelling "Yeah but I have a better HP/weight" isn't going to change everything. The Prius is "ok" or "below average" at passing. It's certainly not "incredible", which was the original claim. It wasn't "The passing power of the Prius is better than expected given the published horespower rating".

What if some sports cars started calculating mpg/HP and showing better numbers than the Prius, and call them "incredible fuel economy cars"?
Or when those ricers start using HP/L numbers to claim their car is better than a Viper?

I am not playing with numbers. Those smaller cars don't even get as good MPG as Prius. We were just comparing acceleration. The two major things matter for acceleration which is weight and power. The more power the faster. The less weight, the faster. How is that playing with numbers? I used the same car (Civic hybrid) to make a point.

Obviously, you haven't driven Prius on the hilly highway. Prius drives and pass with ease on those mountainous highways. I would say, it is incredible considering it is ultimately power by the 76hp gas engine!

In the same condition, those automatic 4 cyl economy cars would be confused finding the right gear or locking into/out of overdrive.

The Iconic Prius came to market more than 5 years ago. If you want to compare, the new 2010 would be closer. Both have 1.8l gas engine and similar peak hp (134hp Prius vs. 140hp Civic). The 2010 Prius may be ~300 lbs heavier than the Civic and larger (mid-size vs. compact). Both car's passing performance should be about the same.

I am keeping mpg out of this comparison.

[Stefx]

Originally Posted by usbseawolf2000

We were just comparing acceleration.

Good. I agree with you, let's leave mpg, HP/weight and 2010 models out. The best objective criteria to represent highway passing power is the 45-65mph test.

45-65mph acceleration
07 Fit 7.1secs
Civic Hybrid 6.1secs
Prius 5.8secs
08 Vue 5.8secs
Yaris 5.6secs
Versa 5.1secs
08 RAV4 5.0secs
Civic EX 4.8secs
'08 CR-V 4.8secs
'08 Focus 4.7secs
07 TCH 3.8secs
05 Accord Hybrid 3.4secs

[daniel]

Originally Posted by Stefx

Don't get me wrong, I love my Prius... but it's not incredible at all at passing on the highway.
It does ok 0-30mph, but passing on the highway is one of the weakest points of the Prius.

It all depends on your perspective. I traded off a 1989 Honda Civic wagon for my 2004 Prius. The Prius is a Lear jet compared to my old Civic. Not only acceleration from a standstill, but acceleration from highway speed, the Prius blows away my old Civic.

Now, if your previous car was a Mustang, your perception will be very different.

Perspective. I'm very happy with the acceleration of my Prius, and I gather the 2010 will improve a little bit on that (though I don't need more than what my 2004 Prius has got). But if you feel the need for speed, the Prius might not be the car for you.

[DaveinOlyWA]

my sis has a Civic, dont know what year or trim (2003 i think) and my personal experiences dont jive with your stats so i will chalk it up to MY diff's...

here Civic is pretty decent off the line (but we have often wondered if it was a mind trick caused by engine noise)... but at highway speeds, its a dog...no other way to describe it... it is WAAAY slower at passing speeds than my Pri

*edit**
oh she has a 5 speed...

[malorn]

Originally Posted by daniel

It all depends on your perspective. I traded off a 1989 Honda Civic wagon for my 2004 Prius. The Prius is a Lear jet compared to my old Civic. Not only acceleration from a standstill, but acceleration from highway speed, the Prius blows away my old Civic.

Now, if your previous car was a Mustang, your perception will be very different.

Perspective. I'm very happy with the acceleration of my Prius, and I gather the 2010 will improve a little bit on that (though I don't need more than what my 2004 Prius has got). But if you feel the need for speed, the Prius might not be the car for you.

It is much easier passing in my CTS-V! As long as it is not snowing or icy!

[daniel]

Originally Posted by malorn

It is much easier passing in my CTS-V! As long as it is not snowing or icy!

I would expect a Cadillac to be overpowered. I guess there have to be cars for people who need to compensate. But at that price I'm surprised it cannot handle snow and ice.

[usbseawolf2000]

Originally Posted by Stefx

The best objective criteria to represent highway passing power is the 45-65mph test.

For 20 mph acceleration, the sweet range for Prius is 30-50 mph. It will be interesting to see how the Civic EX perform for that test. We'll see if the gearing was optimized for 45-65 mph test.

[Stefx]

highway passing at 30-50mph?

[usbseawolf2000]

More like merging into highway. Speed limit on LIE (I-495) is 55 mph but the cops don't mind 15mph over the limit.

[Stefx]

Well, it's probably a flawed logic, but if we look at the 0-30 time, and the 0-50 time, maybe substracting the 0-30 from the 0-50 might give an idea about the 30-50?
08 Civic 0-30 3.2 secs, 0-50 7.0 secs... 30-50 = 7.0 - 3.2 = 3.8secs
06 Prius 0-30 3.4 secs, 0-50 7.6 secs... 30-50 = 7.6 - 3.4 = 4.2 secs

Pretty close. In an actual 30-50 the 5 speed automatic Civic would suffer from having to downshift, so adding half a second on the 3.8secs makes both about similar.

Not scientific, but gives a ballpark figure

the challenge is to find what a Charger is like. I couldn't find any specs for the V6 Dodge Charger. Actually, Motor Trend (where I took most of the numbers I posted here) is one of the few that publishes lots of accel numbers, but they rarely test entry-level cars. I couldn't even find the regular Corolla, they only had the XRS.

Which reminds me, this weekend I'll take a stopwatch and time a few 45-65mph runs on the highway.