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Avalanche vs A Prius

Discussion in 'Dealers & Pricing' started by BigBen, Aug 24, 2010.

  1. Airbalancer

    Airbalancer Active Member

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    In our town 87 was 1.029CDN or 1.20 USD:D diesel 1.199
     
  2. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Ahh ok.

    Damn cold lol. Well put it this way, you break it in now then you can enjoy much higher mpgs in the summer!

    Depends on where you are in the country. It ranges from 98¢/litre to $1.20/litre

    Yeah I've noticed diesel is higher than 87 in Canada but it's almost the same or even lower than 87 in the US.
     
  3. BigBen

    BigBen Junior Member

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    I'm definitely looking forward to even higher MPG's.
    Today I topped off at 44.9MPG, but who's counting! ;) :D LOL...
     
  4. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    lol... <looks the other way> I do not know.
     
  5. BigBen

    BigBen Junior Member

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    Heck, I'm still learning how to drive this bad-boy optimally.
    What's the smartest way to drive it in both highway & suburbia scenarios???

    I've been driving with it in ECO mode.
    I try to use the EV mode when in bumper-to-bumper ~10MPH.

    I noticed that you could hit the EV AND ECO buttons. What does that do?

    After posting the above, I've been reading even MORE here about increasing the MPG. Hobbit has a great article on it too (Thanks Hobbit).
    http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/HSI/

    Thanks Fellas,
    BigBen
     
  6. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    suburbia - P&G
    Highway - Not sure.. maybe SHM? Once I'm on the highway, I'm in DRCC mode unless the limit is 80km/h (50mph), then I'll try SHM.

    EV Drive mode in B2B isn't necessary unless the engine is running and you want it off (usually turning off the climate control works too). ECO mode definitely helps as it lowers the temperature threshold for engine shut off as well as reduce the power consumption on the A/C compressor (and/or heater).

    Nothing. EV Drive mode and ECO mode are independent of each other. You can be in EV Drive mode in ECO or normal mode (I haven't tried PWR mode since I'm rarely in that mode).
     
  7. BigBen

    BigBen Junior Member

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    Thanks Tideland.
    Yesterday it topped off at 45.2 MPG!
    I'm lovin' this!!!

    BB
     
  8. BigBen

    BigBen Junior Member

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    Helluva travel last night to an account.
    Had to drive slow due to the ice so I did some coasting & peddling, and I topped out at 56.7MPG!

    BigBen
     
  9. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Wow, wouldn't have expected that. I would expect snow to decrease mileage (pushing all that loose stuff).
     
  10. BigBen

    BigBen Junior Member

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    Yes that surprised me too, eventhough the roads were clear, yet icy in spots.
    The Westbound side was worse as there were about 6 or 8 accidents that I passed while i was going Eastbound. I think they salted the Eastbound side of the LIE, but didn't get to the other side yet (at that time).

    When I did some 'round town driving yesterday, it dropped to ~47.5-50.
    We'll see what happens today, with a more "normal" day of driving. ;)

    PS: I received my Clean-Pass stickers yesterday, so HOV lane, here I come. Well just as soon as I can clean the car, and put the stickers on it anyway. LOL...

    BB
     
  11. BigBen

    BigBen Junior Member

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    Currently, she's holding steady at 49.9 - 50.5MPG.
     
  12. BigBen

    BigBen Junior Member

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    Lately I've been getting between 49.9 & 55.5MPG.
    Just have to pedal it, and get into a "pedaling groove".

    I FINALLY put the Clean-Pass stickers on my Prius this AM, and I used the HOV Lane today for the first time too.
    I breezed past some pot-hole repair crews.

    Even though traffic wasn't very heavy today, it did cut some windshield time off of my commute, that's for sure.
    Once the traffic gets back to normal (which is VERY HEAVY), my commute should be cut by at LEAST 30 minutes!!!

    BigBen
     
  13. DataWrangler

    DataWrangler Prius Owner (finally!)

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    Congratulations on your Prius.

    You should consider updating your stats to indicate your new car. :cool:
     
  14. Airbalancer

    Airbalancer Active Member

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    A guy know just a new Ava, and is getting 16.1 l/100km the wife is avg about 5.3 this winter

    So for every 100km(60 miles) the Ava is costing about $11 more

    He did get a $36,000 coupon(about $24,000 after taxes) for GM when the cost the truck plant, and with other discount he did pay less then 1/2 for the Ava. It was the best bang for discounts
    And he has to keep it for 6 months before he can flip it
     
  15. BigBen

    BigBen Junior Member

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    Thank you DataWrangler!

    AirBalancer,
    WOW, that's a fantastic deal on that AV!

    I keep thinking of upgrading my Avalanche 1500 to maybe a 2500 or 3500 Dually, so I can easily tow my Pro-Street Monte Carlo.

    BigBen
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  16. BigBen

    BigBen Junior Member

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    Over the past couple of weeks, the Prius has been hovering in the 49.6 to 55.5 MPG range!
    Maybe I should have pulled the trigger SOONER!
    Then again, I have no regrets in waiting either, with the deal I got.

    QUESTION:
    Did you ever step on the brake while going over a pot-hole or bump, and have the car actually SPEED-UP???
    It's like the car releases the braking system and it "free-wheels", even with my foot on the brake pedal!!!
    Wth is THAT all about?!?!!??!
    That's happened to me on several occasions, and I almost smashed into the back of an idiot that stopped short while making a left turn!

    Thanks,
    BigBen
     
  17. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    ANSWER:

    It didn't speed up. Human sensors are not all that good to begin with, but then when you add in the brain trying to make everything "normal" even when it isn't, you get false readings.

    When you lose traction (i.e. driving over a pothole) the regenerative brakes immediately disengage. A few milliseconds later (thousandths of a second), the friction brakes engage. However the "grippiness" of the friction brakes may not equal the grippiness of the regen brakes for the same travel distance in the brake pedal.

    This feels like you are speeding up, because your body is stupid. When you are decelerating if you decelerate constantly, you wont feel anything. Your body almost always moves itself so you lean backwards equal to the rate you would otherwise fall forwards. When your rate of deceleration (called jerk, the 3rd derivative of distance with respect to time, with 1st and 2nd being velocity and acceleration) decreases your body leans backwards too much, exactly as if you sped up. But you didn't speed up, you only slowed down at a slower rate than you were before. Instead of losing X mph per second, now you are losing X - Y mph per second. Still decelerating, just not as quickly.

    It may feel like you were going to hit something, but you weren't. If you really were, then you were traveling waaaaaaay too close. At 30mph, 50 milliseconds is just over 2ft. You are supposed to leave 1 car length per 10mph, or in this case @ 30mph, 3 * 15ft, or 45ft. 45ft >>> 2ft.

    Also note, that if you emergency jam the brakes, friction will activate immediately.
     
  18. 2k1Toaster

    2k1Toaster Brand New Prius Batteries

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    As an aside on bad human sensors being made worse the brain, there was a study done some time ago where participants wore glasses that inverted everything. So up was down, down was up, and same with left and right. After a long length of time (I recall a week or so) their brains had adjusted to giving them "normal" images from the obviously backwards and upside down images they were seeing. They then removed the glasses and their normal eyes without inversion now saw the world completely inverted. The brain had switched processing to believe everything was supposed to be upside down and backwards, and when it wasn't they now saw regular things all screwy. Eventually the brain switches back, but it is just an example of how the human brain plays dirty tricks with your 5 senses to make things appear normal.
     
  19. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Ahh, I see that you've discovered our friend, the traction control/ABS system. Remember the braking fiasco and the recall for the 2010 models to update the ECU? That was the reason why. It'll occur not just on potholes but over wet manhole covers and wet railway tracks.

    Basically, you're braking normally so the elec. motors are regen-ing. You hit that bump or slick spot and the car slides for a split second. The car goes "uh oh, you're sliding", switches over to the brake pads and activates ABS.

    I think the "free-wheeling" or the "speeding up" is the transition from regen to brake pads. You're really not speeding up but it feels that way because you've been slowing down and then for a split second, you're cruising at whatever speed you were at at the moment you hit that bump then you continue to slow down when the brake pads are applied.
     
  20. BigBen

    BigBen Junior Member

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    Thank you for the detailed info fellas.
    It still scared the crap out of me for a moment or two!

    Strange thing is that we were at a traffic light that just turned green, and we all began our left turn, so we were not going fast at all.
    Then the person in front of me had to stop short. because a-hole in front of him decides to make a right turn into a parking lot without a turn signal!

    BigBen