Mountain driving

[The Ericsons]

A friend of ours - a career G.M. management employee - is throwing all sorts of figures about torque, etc. at us and telling us that our Prius will not have enough power to drive in the mountains. We'd like to hear from some Prius owners, who have actually driven in the Rockies or similar mtns, on how their cars performed. Hoping for some good news.....

[cheaplawyer]

have driven my 04; pckg 8 to southern rockies 3 times over the last 12 months; climbed to over 11k feet; car handles fine as long as snow depth is not too great

[hdrygas]

My experience is limited to fair weather and summer driving in the Cascades and Northern Rockies. I had no problem. When I was driving home with the car on I 90 going over Lookout Pass between Montana and Idaho I got stuck behind a truck on a >6% grade going up hill. Had to slow to below 50 pulled out and around and up to 70 in jig time. No Problem Man!! 8) Car is great in the mountians. GM is just mad because they missed the boat.

[skruse]

I have driven in the Transverse Ranges (between the Great Central Valley and southern California), the central Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada, up to 3100 meter elevation many times since October 2004 when I first acquired our 2005 Prius.

From owning a 4Runner for 14 years, the Prius drives superbly, including steep uphills and downhills, winding and twisting sections and places where the road is poorly engineered (i.e., slopes the wrong way on curves, narrow, etc.). The Prius "hugs" the road on the straight and the winding. The Prius has very good torque and never feels underpowered, even at 3100 meters.

The OEM tires handle snow okay - based on many years of living in snow in the central Rockies and Sierra Nevada (with air temperatures to –40°). Small diameter cable chains and a double set of chain binders work well on the front tires - on both two-lane mountain roads and I-80 across the Sierra Nevada between Sacramento CA and Reno NV. I look forward to upgrading to passenger M+S tires.

We are looking to replace my wife's Mercury Mountaineer with a Highlander hybrid. Based upon the Prius, the Highlander hybrid can only be an improvement, including greater ground clearance for driving in deep snow.

[KTPhil]

No problems keeping 80mph up Gaviota Pass (rises 500 feet in less than 3 miles).

No reports of problems taking Tejon Pass ("the Grapevine), a rise of 2500 feet in about 10 miles or so.

[jayman]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(The Ericsons\";p=\"74626)</div>

A friend of ours - a career G.M. management employee - is throwing all sorts of figures about torque, etc. at us and telling us that our Prius will not have enough power to drive in the mountains.   [/b]

Sounds like your friend is really covering his a** and spreading a lot of bulls*** in the process. I hope he isn't lying himself but rather repeating the lies that GM is pushing in response to being complete boobs WRT how they missed the boat.

Tell your friend that here in Winnipeg, I have *no* problem keeping up with racing GM brand pickup trucks. On snow and ice, thanks to the advanced Traction Control, I easily blow their doors off.

And when I drive reasonably, I get at least 4-5 times the fuel economy.

Maybe your friend should see if he can jump ship to Toyota? I'm sure he's a fine fellow otherwise.

[jeromep]

Hills I have driven in the Prius:

Lewiston grade, pulling out of Lewiston, ID going north toward Moscow, ID; Pullman, WA and Spokane, WA. 8% grade starting at the bottom, becomes a 7% or 6% grade about 2/3 the way up. Huge truck killer. Speed limit is 65mph up hill and I tend to follow it. No issues at all. Car throttles up and doesn't break a sweat.

I-82 east of Prosser. 5% grade about 2 miles long. Another truck killer. 70mph with cruise on. No issues at all. Holds cruise lock in speed, which is 70 all the way up hill. On the immediately following downhill the car goes into regenerate mode and recovers most if not all of the battery power it used climbing the hill.

I-90 Snoqualmie Pass, Cascades. Pulls the approaches very easily. I-90 is kind of twisty and turn going throughout the Cascades and as such it is a real test of vehicle handling. Performs better than most cars I have ever driven. You can lock in your cruise and the car doesn't hesitate at all or loose speed on inclines. Regenerates on long downhill streches, such as when you come off the crest of the pass. Amazing!

[200Volts]

I just drove over to Reno via Truckee in the Sierras( ~6,500 ft pass) again at 70 mph up, no problems except: Be very careful about accelerating on snow-ice without chains.
Sometimes you can put your foot to the floor and NOTHING happens, except a very slow acceleration until the traction control gets some bite.
I bought my car in Salt Lake City and drove back to Sacramento at 80-85 on the flats, and 70-75 up hills and mountains.

[jeromep]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(The Ericsons\";p=\"74626)</div>

A friend of ours - a career G.M. management employee - is throwing all sorts of figures about torque, etc. at us and telling us that our Prius will not have enough power to drive in the mountains.   We'd like to hear from some Prius owners, who have actually driven in the Rockies or similar mtns, on how their cars performed.  Hoping for some good news.....[/b]

It is really too bad your friend doesn't seem to know much about torque curves and electric motors. Electric motors have flat torque curves. From the moment they turn on till they turn off they have the same designed torque output regardless of shaft speed (rpm), well within reason. But not like a regular ICE where torque varies based on engine RPM.

Anyway, I wouldn't let anybody from GM tell you about torque. Since the 40s and 50s GM has always been behind the 8 ball when it came to engine torque output. GM has always pointed toward high reving higher horsepower engines. Whereas their competent pickup truck competition, such as Ford and Dodge focus on torque in their engine designs. Ford's torque curve on their Triton V-8s that go in the F-Series have a very flat torque curve for a conventional ICE. If you have ever driven a Ford and compared it to a GMC or Chevy you notice a huge difference in engine performance.

Anyone who knows how to design a vehicle for utility knows that torque is much more important than horsepower with regard to moving the load a vehicle is carrying. If you floor a Prius from a light the car fires everything up and will do its level best to push you back in the seat, and does a find job of it. That is the feel of torque, not horsepower.

Anyway, I'm sure your friend is a great guy, however he is management, not engineering. I bet their engineers would feel much differently. What kind of scares me is that your friend probably reflects the organizational feel toward hybrid technology. I've got this strange feeling that GM will be last at this table also (regardless of their paltry offers now) because of a combination of market stupidity (not taking other companies market offerings seriously) and group think.

[DanMan32]

I don't have any mountain experience, but I would like to bring up a point that maybe your friend is extrapolating from.

It isn't torque that's the problem with the Prius, as MG2 provides plenty of that, but traction. The traction control is quite sensitive, and some have gotten stuck going up hills with the OEM tires. The OEM tires lose grip, the TC senses that, and stops the wheels dead from spinning.
However, if you change to appropriate tires, many have reported that the problem goes away and they can easily climb slippery hills.