Some Noon questions

since these are NOON questions, i apologize in advance for the 10pm answers.

you'll get about 40 mpgs.

sometimes, not always. you can check with your insureco.

can be troublesome on the back for some. rent one for a long drive, or get power leather.

how bad dose a turtle cargo care kill the mileage?

you can buy a small cheap inverter to run off the 12 volt battery, it will run up to 1000 watts or so, or there is an after market company that makes a unit that runs off the hybrid battery and will operate all the necessities in your house when you lose power. you just plug in and leave the car on. it starts and stops the engine to recharge the battery in both situations as necessary. needless to say, you must leave it running outside.

rear sway bar is worth for someone who drives like you do.

if you get the one door smart key, you'll never miss the other two. if you get the three door, you'll never want to go back. push button start turns on the computers. the engine starts on it's own when it feels the need. you need a test drive.

sunroof is a personal decision, i don't care for them, but what does that mean to you?

all the best!

 

I drive back and forth to Boston at 70 mph from NJ. I get around 45-50, more when it's warm, less when it's cold. Play jackrabbit and you'll get 'way less. The Prius is designed with feedback (i.e., pretty graphs) to get you to not jackrabbit it. Go with the flow and you'll get around 50; 68 miles means it'll warm up all the way and get somewhat better. If your drive is pretty much on the flat and you run into slow, steady traffic, you can actually get close to 60 during summer months.

Insurance: It's not a sports car, so you won't pay that. However, intrinsic value is greater (i.e., it doesn't depreciate as much as other cars), so you pay more for that. Answer: Meh.

As far as long distance: Gen III is cool for 2, maybe 3 people. Me, the wife, and the adult daughter went from NJ to Montreal to Prince Edward Island and back, long road trip, didn't get the vibrations. And the gas mileage was cool.

Not sure what a "turtle cargo care" is. Put something on the outside of the car and your gas mileage suffers, p/o the car's good gas mileage performance is low wind resistance. Note: This car has an Atkinson cycle gas engine, not Otto like most cars. Good efficiency as compared to the Otto, but lousy torque. However, it's a full hybrid and the electric motors have enough torque to flip one to the moon; with the gas and electric motors together, it drives well. Not sports car well, but well. And with top-notch efficiency for a gas-powered car.

Sway bars: Some like them, some don't. People report that with the stiffener (not a sway bar; the stiffener hangs out roughly below the rear seat) the car handles better in turns; I can believe it. On the other hand, nobody should mistake the car for a sports car. On the third hand, whatever floats your boat.

I'd like 3-door smart key; I don't get it on my 2010 III, I think all the 2015's have it. But in the greater scheme of things it's not that big a deal. Reaching into a pocket and hitting the fob works fine.

Push button start is roughly the same as on a gas car. However, you have to remember: The gas engine in a Prius turns on and off at semi-random and as per Toyota's programmers. The Prius is a full hybrid and uses the gas motor and the electric motors together and apart. It's not at all unusual to be chugging along at 40 mph in traffic with the gas motor off. So, you hit the Start button and all the electronics certainly turn on; but on a warm summer's day, the gas engine might not.

Had a sun roof on my old Civic. It was nice, sometimes. But it was a low-cost option. On the Prius the sun roof typically shows up on the high-priced models and I wasn't going there. One of the good things about the Prius is it has an "Auto" on the interior climate control; set the interior temperature to what you want and it'll get you there pretty quick.

As far as using it as a backup generator: Basic idea is to hook up a (rough max: 1 kW) 12V to 120VAC inverter to the regular car battery in the rear, then turn the car on. At those currents at 12V you'll be using some pretty thick wire between the inverter and the car battery. You can run a fridge and a few lights, or the gas water heater and a few lights, but not both the water heater and the fridge at the same time. It'll run the electrics on a gas stove. Forget it about the house A/C/heat. Basic idea: With the car in On mode, the engine will run until it warms up, then shuts down. The traction battery (~300 VDC) has an inverter that generates 12V for the standard car battery in the rear. You put your inverter on the car battery, it gets discharged from you and charged from the 300VDC to 12 V inverter; when the 300V traction battery discharges, the gas engine turns on and charges the traction battery back up. It can take quite a while for this scheme to run through a tank of gas. And, weirdly enough, it's fairly efficient as these things go, especially since the gas engine doesn't run that often. There's quite a few around here who have done it; you'll find pictures and step-by-steps if you do a search.
Cost: about $200 or so for a decent inverter, wires, and wire connectors and a couple of hours of skinned knuckles wiring it all up. I haven't gotten around to it, gotta do it before the next Sandy strikes.

I own a Prius III, which, with the 2010, came with satellite radio (don't use it) but decent sound system and bluetooth for the phone. The 2015 Prius II has about the same features or better. Posts on this site imply that there's pretty good deals on both new and used Priuses right about now, since the 2016 Gen IV is coming out later this year with purportedly better gas mileage.

KBeck

 

Let's be clear about the numbering scheme here. From late 2009 to the present we have the Generation III Prius; that's the funny hatchback shape. From mid 2009 back a few years there's the Generation II Prius, somewhat different shape. Early Generation I Priuses look like a Corolla, no hatchback shape.

Gen III Prius come in several model types with different levels of junk. A G3 Prius I is only seen in fleets sold to rentals or single companies or something; Prius II is the lowest trim level, with III, IV, and V also out there with more stuff, not to mention the Persona. So, a hatchback G3 V is a standard hatchback with all the bells and whistles, leather seating, radars, etc. etc.

Then, just to confuse matters, there's a Pruis V. Yeah, it's a Gen III, but it's a station wagon version of the hatchback, and, it too comes in several trim levels.

You've probably heard of the Prius C. That's the smaller version of the hatchback.

And, adding to the confusion, the hatchback and the V are also available in Plug-in variants. The Plug-ins have a big jack on the opposite side of the car from the gas cap and bigger batteries, too; one loses some storage area. You can go some distance without turning on the gas engine with one of these, although not as far, say, as a Volt. (On the other hand: When the Volt switches to gas when its battery runs down, it's gas mileage gets outstandingly awful. You pays your money, you takes your chances. And the Volt is a four-seater, really; the Prius hatchback can seat 5 for a medium trip, and the GIII Prius V station wagon can seat 5 for a long trip.)

Hope this helps.

Made simple. Only the 2010 Prius used upper case roman numerals for model designation. That is why the Prius v wagon uses a lowercase v and that is why it matters people explain this to people instead of complaining about v lowercase v. Case in point, the confusion found here.

KBeck

 

Noob questions?

No one mentioned this, but you can change a setting to unlock all doors and the hatch from the driver's door on a 1 door SKS system. Or you can press the unlock key on your fob 2x to unlock all doors.

There is also a way to add parts to a one door SKS system to gain 3 door functionality.

How to Program a New Key Fob for Full SKS Functionality | PriusChat

But it's not for the faint of heart.

 

that's the W.

 

Huge drops above 75 MPH

 

OK. You can edit your OP title BTW...

More efficient than a pickup truck, SUV, or sedan.
You'd probably get about 38-40 MPG real world in a Corolla, or similar car. My son in law has a similar commute (55+ miles one way) and chose a Sentra, which is about $6,000 cheaper (base-to-base) and his 30,000 mile average MPG is about 40, versus the 45 or so that you'll get at 70+MPH.
Do the math.
You're better off in the Prius after a while....but you gotta keep the car for a while.
Buying a new car to "save money"...doesn't.

Not really.
Hybrids are more expensive to buy, so they're slightly more expensive to insure, but there's not enough of a difference to sweat.
You can get a quote in 5-minutes on the internet.

About as much as a non-hybrid.
Put another way.....not as much as driving an SUV.
Consider a rear-bumper cargo carrier.
More efficient.

It depends on what you're comparing them with.
I think they're OK, but I can think of MANY cars that I would MUCH rather take a 600-mile trip with.
My Prius is a company car. When I have to drive more than about 200 miles in a day, I start getting "Prius Butt" because the cabin is pretty spartan.
Some people complain about the (electric) steering being kinda twitchy at interstate speeds, or in dirty air.

If you're going to be spending three hours a day in this car for five days a week over several years?
Do yourself a favor and go rent one for a weekend, huh?

You can't run a house from a Prius (yet) but you can easily install a 1-1.5kw inverter into a Prius. Much quieter than a gas generator and a little more efficient too. 1.5kw will light a LOT of LED lamps run some other appliances as well.

No.
The Prius turns like a toad, and it has more body sway than a pregnant Kardashian.
A rear sway bar isn't going to fix that.

If you work full time, 68 miles from your home, then you're knocking down about 40,000 miles in one year, mostly JUST to get to work and back.
If I'm you, I'm getting a 2 and buying some extra rims if they're that important to you.

In three years, you're going to have a three-year-old, 100,000 mile Prius.
If you start out with a base model and keep it until it drops (about seven years) then it will have saved you a significant sum over nearly any other car that I can think of.

Good Luck.

BTW...find out if your state is a CARB state, and don't buy the extra warranty under any circumstance.

 

Are you sure you're not from Canada...

If you want to get the best from the car, you'll need to come around a bit. Leave a bit earlier, stay right, take it easy, abide by speed limits, anticipate traffic. If that's not in the cards you will be frustrated.

No. Well, there's different rates for all cars, but no special category.

Fine. We've drove a 700+ km trip into the BC interior soon after getting the car, pretty comfortable, smooth, quiet. Stay in the right lane, under the limit, set the cruise, you'll get good mpg.

Almost stumped. Is that some sort of roof carrier? I'd avoid it if possible, there is a lot of hatch room.

No clue. I'd be inclined to get a regular generator.

No clue, seems fine without.

I'm pretty sure the US Persona model, with 17" rims, also has a different steering setup, tighter steering, less turns lock-to-lock. Our Canadian 2010 Touring is similar, I like the feel, a lot. The wider, low profile tires are a little hard on mpg, but we try.

Yes and yes.

Our Canadian Touring doesn't have sunroof, don't miss it. We had one car with sunroof, decades back, seemed a novelty item. But that's just me.

When we were on the dealership lot, looking them over, I sat in front passenger seat of models with and without sunroof. I'm just short of six foot, found my hair was brushing the roof in sunroof models, was bugging me.

Bring them on!

 

pretty quick. you can get a remote start, and/or block heater.

 

The heat will drive you crazy until you realize it does not want to blow cold air on you. Once the water temp will heat the cabin, then it blows warm air just fine.

 

Heat takes a couple of miles until you're feeling real warmth. Fortunately, I bought a 5 with seat heaters that give you heat right away.

 

Or the heated Softex seats that heat up quick.

 

love the heat seaters.

 

This is one of the things that drives the impatient crazy. On Auto (the normal setting) the Prius won't blow air until the coolant is warm enough to actually make the air warm.

There are certain people who will, on a -20 F day, get into a stone-cold car, start said car, turn the heat control to max, and then turn the blower on high, thinking that somehow this will make them warmer. Of course, the heat exchanger core in a car's A/C system acts like a second radiator, but without the little flapper that restricts coolant flow into the radiator in the front of the car. By pushing cold coolant through the core (that's what putting the heat on "max" does) while turning the fan up, the car's coolant is kept cold longer, thus freezing the occupants for a longer period of time.

Not that other cars with automatic climate control don't turn on the blowers until the coolant is warm, but the Prius is a special case: Since the gas engine shuts down on a regular basis, and a cold engine has lousy emissions control, keeping the engine hot is a special problem for the Toyota engineers. There are reasons, beyond streamlining, that the Prius has covers under the engine compartment to keep road air off the engine. Hence, the automatic climate control: I'm sure that one good reason the Prius has this is to make sure that the engine warms up quickly. And, if running along on a cold day, possibly restricting the amount of heat put into the passenger compartment so the engine stays warmer.

What I do know: If one gets into a Prius on a cold day, it takes about 0.5 - 1 mile before the blower starts running. As the engine gets warmer, the blower picks up speed until it maxes out. Once the passenger compartment is warm, the blower slows 'way down.

If you run the car in Eco mode, the blower doesn't hit max, either when heating or air conditioning.

Finally, depending upon just how cold it is, during the blast-it-out stage, the car may go into defrost-and-heat-at-the-same-time mode.

Fun.

KBeck

 

I'm kinda scratching my head, listening to you central and east coast folk. Pretty balmy out here, even in our "winter".