Anybody From Costa Rica Here?

[panhead]

There are a couple tricks that you need to know in order to get your Prius to survive here. Also tell Purdy Motors to go to hell with their monopolistic theivery and general idiocy!


Mike

[mchaconcr]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(panhead @ Mar 9 2006, 01:28 AM) [snapback]222618[/snapback]</div>

There are a couple tricks that you need to know in order to get your Prius to survive here. Also tell Purdy Motors to go to hell with their monopolistic theivery and general idiocy!
Mike
[/b]

Yes I'm from Costa Rica... (Forum Admins... is spanish allowed here???) I just got my 07 Prius from Purdy... and yes! Purdy Motors suck big time! I paid over $32k for a basic Prius, (supposed to be brand new) but the idiots drove the only brand new Prius they had to and from Liberia... so AFTER I paid the $1.000 to keep the deal, they call me to notify that they had a little problem... The ODO had 700 Km on it... so after negotiating a $500 discount (for what I think is not completly NEW) and the free check-ups.... They called me again to let me know that they were painting some minor "glitches" and the thing goes on and on!!! I hate Purdy... love the Prius. Lved my MR2 Spyder too... but family is against 2 seater cars!

What are the tricks to get the Prius to survive? Never take the "cuesta de Bario Cuba" route? The engine sounds weird there!

[panhead]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Marco CR @ Oct 5 2007, 12:08 AM) [snapback]521561[/snapback]</div>

Yes I'm from Costa Rica... (Forum Admins... is spanish allowed here???) I just got my 07 Prius from Purdy... and yes! Purdy Motors suck big time! I paid over $32k for a basic Prius,

I had to pay $35,000 for one of the first 25 in the country.

(supposed to be brand new) but the idiots drove the only brand new Prius they had to and from Liberia... so AFTER I paid the $1.000 to keep the deal, they call me to notify that they had a little problem... The ODO had 700 Km on it... so after negotiating a $500 discount (for what I think is not completly NEW) and the free check-ups.... They called me again to let me know that they were painting some minor "glitches" and the thing goes on and on!!! I hate Purdy... love the Prius. Lved my MR2 Spyder too... but family is against 2 seater cars!

I had a connection to one of the bigshots there, but it didn't do any good. What did work was blocking the entry to their shop with my body and another vehicle at about 4 PM. They gave me what they had promised rather than be on the evening news who drive around with police scanners.

What are the tricks to get the Prius to survive?

Go to next size down rims. And the biggest tires that will fit. If you get stuck there is a pedal dance routine for emissions testing that will engage both front wheels and not let both quit moving when one slips. Write me at panhead@racsa.co.cr and I'll get it out of my glove box if you can't find it.

Never take the "cuesta de Bario Cuba" route? The engine sounds weird there!

Where does that road go. I never heard of it. A high battery temp will cause the cause the car to sound like it is in high gear without any power, which it basically is without elctricity. I proved this at the Paseo del Muerte.

[/b]

[mchaconcr]

Read this: http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2006/mayo/23/economia0.html

Did you knew that the government made a flash discount in taxes... taking the Prius price down to $27.000 for less than a couple of weeks???... and then it went up again!!!!

[panhead]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Marco CR @ Oct 17 2007, 04:51 PM) [snapback]527072[/snapback]</div>

Read this: http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2006/mayo/23/economia0.html

Did you knew that the government made a flash discount in taxes... taking the Prius price down to $27.000 for less than a couple of weeks???... and then it went up again!!!!
[/b]

Typical. What do expect when 40% of the legislature are required to be women who are usually going through their change of life and are all corrupt.

I keep getting "Página no encontrada" That wasn't that far from the time I bought mine, but I thought the final 25% discount didn't take effect until over a year after getting mine. During which time I learned more about the car than anyone else in the country. I tell Purdy Motors hybrid expert things he doesn't know about the car. Ask him.

I don't want to read the article anyway. It is too depressing.

The lying peice of s**t who sold me my Prius realizes that I was going to shoot him at his desk, if he had been there when I stormed in. I nearly broke the front door. His brother in law used to be the best lawyer in the country for imports. But went to work for Purdy motors and became irresponsible.

Using a radio shack digital thermometer the best way I have found to keep the Power batteries from overheating is to leave it in Recirc and A/C and control the temperature by adjusting the ducts. Toyota went to considerable trouble to come up with an extremely sophisticated Fuzzy Logic System control system for the cabin temp. You won't beleive the little power saving tricks it uses. BUT leave the passenger air duct open and aimed for the battery air intake. It is compoletely counterintuitive, but you acheive a 1 degree drop in air temp by leaving every windows open a crack EXCEPT the one by the battery air intake. Off course you don't want to do this with the A/C on.

At least with a 2005 model I have a third party instrumentation package that is fairly comprehensive. I'll be glad to show you it you. In 2006 they switched to a digital screen and the inventor didn't sell nearly enough in 2005 to justify a redesign. It is hard to understand the car without these virtual gauges. For example you are not limited to 40-80% of the battery's power. You just can't get it over 83%, but it will drop down into the 20's if you need it to. The harder you push the batteries the wider the range at which they will operate.

DON'T do the pedal dance routine for getting unstuck any longer than needed. Though I have run around these mountains up here in inspection mode in Puriscal just to see if I could better performance with the transaxles locked. It is the only way to burn rubber, but you are limited to I beleive 4 accelator positions that feel like 2, and the amount of damage you can do to the car isn't worth it except for maybe that or getting unstuck. Where you wind up spraying s**t all over anybody pushing the car because of the limitions on the accelerator. I wish I could remember the right technical terms. Anyway if one wheel begins to spin both quit turning and you have to put the car in inspection mode. I don't think that is in the user's manual.

Just do a search on "Prius Inspection Mode." A steep or slippery unpaved road can leave you with a car with wheels that don't turn and looking silly as hell.

I still have no idea of where the Cuesta del Barrio del Cuba is. It sounds like somewhere in San Jose where it is impossible to run the batteries down. The car was designed for Tokyo traffic and then given more power for the US market.


Michael Grace

[panhead]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(panhead @ Oct 17 2007, 11:24 PM) [snapback]527185[/snapback]</div>

Typical. What do expect when 40% of the legislature are required to be women who are usually going through their change of life and are all corrupt.

I keep getting "Página no encontrada" That wasn't that far from the time I bought mine, but I thought the final 25% discount didn't take effect until over a year after getting mine. During which time I learned more about the car than anyone else in the country. I tell Purdy Motors hybrid expert things he doesn't know about the car. Ask him.

I don't want to read the article anyway. It is too depressing.

The lying peice of s**t who sold me my Prius realizes that I was going to shoot him at his desk, if he had been there when I stormed in. I nearly broke the front door. His brother in law used to be the best lawyer in the country for imports. But went to work for Purdy motors and became irresponsible.

Using a radio shack digital thermometer the best way I have found to keep the Power batteries from overheating is to leave it in Recirc and A/C and control the temperature by adjusting the ducts. Toyota went to considerable trouble to come up with an extremely sophisticated Fuzzy Logic System control system for the cabin temp. You won't beleive the little power saving tricks it uses. BUT leave the passenger air duct open and aimed for the battery air intake. It is compoletely counterintuitive, but you acheive a 1 degree drop in air temp by leaving every windows open a crack EXCEPT the one by the battery air intake. Off course you don't want to do this with the A/C on.

At least with a 2005 model I have a third party instrumentation package that is fairly comprehensive. I'll be glad to show you it you. In 2006 they switched to a digital screen and the inventor didn't sell nearly enough in 2005 to justify a redesign. It is hard to understand the car without these virtual gauges. For example you are not limited to 40-80% of the battery's power. You just can't get it over 83%, but it will drop down into the 20's if you need it to. The harder you push the batteries the wider the range at which they will operate.

DON'T do the pedal dance routine for getting unstuck any longer than needed. Though I have run around these mountains up here in inspection mode in Puriscal just to see if I could better performance with the transaxles locked. It is the only way to burn rubber, but you are limited to I beleive 4 accelator positions that feel like 2, and the amount of damage you can do to the car isn't worth it except for maybe that or getting unstuck. Where you wind up spraying s**t all over anybody pushing the car because of the limitions on the accelerator. I wish I could remember the right technical terms. Anyway if one wheel begins to spin both quit turning and you have to put the car in inspection mode. I don't think that is in the user's manual.

Just do a search on "Prius Inspection Mode." A steep or slippery unpaved road can leave you with a car with wheels that don't turn and looking silly as hell.

I still have no idea of where the Cuesta del Barrio del Cuba is. It sounds like somewhere in San Jose where it is impossible to run the batteries down. The car was designed for Tokyo traffic and then given more power for the US market.
Michael Grace
[/b]

Hi Marco:

Check out PriUPS.com. A freind of mine in New Jersey runs his house off his Prius during black outs. It was his idea but I found the first cheap way to do it. Do you work with Lucia Calderon?

Cheers;
Mike

[mchaconcr]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(panhead @ Oct 18 2007, 04:57 PM) [snapback]527507[/snapback]</div>

Hi Marco:

Check out PriUPS.com. A freind of mine in New Jersey runs his house off his Prius during black outs. It was his idea but I found the first cheap way to do it. Do you work with Lucia Calderon?

Cheers;
Mike
[/b]

Hi Mike! I have no idea who is Lucía Calderón.
What I have in mind is to use some solar panels. I already called the company in the US that makes the solar roof & extra-LI battery, but they charge $4,500 + send + taxes + fedex.... at the end it is over $7.000 to get 40 miles of Electric autonomy...
But solar makes a LOT of sense in a tropical country like Costa Rica. I'm looking for some local solution. Any Ideas?

Also, the Purdy Motors guys are completly clueless in how to upgrade my radio to the bluetooth version... so am I.