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Vacations over and I'm impressed

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by Woodswagon1, Jun 28, 2013.

  1. Woodswagon1

    Woodswagon1 Junior Member

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    Just returned from our two week vacation to north east tenn tonight and I've got to say that this thing has me even more impressed than before. Wife, myself a 4 and 6 year old packed in with all our luggage and I could still look out the back window! The best thing I drove a total of 3480 miles most of which were running 80 to 85 mph and I got anywhere from 46 to 50 mpg calculated on my phone!!!! This thing rocks on the interstate I was truly amazed. Why all cars aren't made with a cvt trans is beyond me the same trip and speeds (I've got a lead foot on the interstate) would have the tongue hanging out of our rav4 and at those speeds it would be sucking 20 mpg. I was honestly thinking I was going to get low 40's and turns out I got better than my daily work commute. It cost me 98 bucks to get to my moms house only down fall with such long travel with the Prius is I have a bad habit of stopping only for gas!! Wife and kids didn't agree!!!!!!
     
  2. jonb505

    jonb505 Member

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    I found a similar problem on a few road trips I've taken, even in my "gas guzzling" prius v I have to carefully watch my fluid intake as the gas tank will almost always outlast my bladder. :D
     
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  3. jgilliam1955

    jgilliam1955 Sometime your just gotta cry! 2013 Prius 4.

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    Nice! Enjoy the car they are great!
     
  4. ChipL

    ChipL Active Member

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    Looking forward to my first big road trip in the Prius this coming Fall. But so far been happy with the 300-400 mile trips so far. The days of non-stop driving of 300-400 miles for me are a thing of the past.
     
  5. attyjeff

    attyjeff Member

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    We drove from Tallahassee Fl to L.A. California. Had a great time and saved gas too.
     
  6. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    The CVT is great in hilly terrain. There's no need to wait for the transmission to downshift, just slowly increase throttle input to maintain speed. If you have cruise control set, the travel up the hill is much smoother. I recall our 2002 Camry would lose speed, then a hard downshift, followed by a moderate acceleration as the cruise control tried to keep up. The Prius is definitely more elegant in that regard.
     
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  7. mmmodem

    mmmodem Senior Taste Tester

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    Yeah, I still don't understand the animosity towards CVT's in car reviews. They complain how the engine drones at acceleration. But the alternative is Honda's shift logic which just holds the lower gear longer so we don't have gear hunting. So we can have high rpm engine drone, or constant and annoying gear changes, or a CVT that gives you the exact rpm for your exact power needs.
     
  8. MPGnutcase

    MPGnutcase Active Member

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    CVT's are great some companies use them like Nissan others won't touch them I was planning a Chicago to Florida road trip how is the Prius in the mountains? climbing up and going down???? did you use the B on the shifter?

    Around Chicago I am pulling 54mph true number highway will be less at 75 I am sure..............
     
  9. ChipL

    ChipL Active Member

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    Don't understand reviewers as well. They knock the Prius's added cost over a gas model - yet praise the VW Golf diesel that stickers for $3000-4000 over a comparable gas version. And diesel fuel costs more!
     
  10. jonb505

    jonb505 Member

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    Drove a rental 2013 ford focus automatic a couple weekends ago for a couple days. Sure made me appreciate the Prius eCVT, so much smoother. The focus was very harsh at low speeds, it was fine once at highway speeds but couldn't see myself owning a non CVT car ever again, Anything with gears just feels so primitive now. My last two daily drivers from the past 7 years were manual transmissions so i never like auto transmissions anyway. After a couple days of looking for the clutch pedal in my new prius I immediately took to the CVT smoothness. I find it funny now seeing other cars accelerating from lights slowing to change gears, then accelerating briskly for a second or 2, then slowing to change gears again, all the while my prius is smoothly charging forward with no herky jerkiness. :D
     
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  11. Bob G IA

    Bob G IA Member

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    Its actually too bad that the Prius Synergy drive has been lumped into the "CVT" category since it is nothing like they typical CVT. The typical CVT is basically a variable pulley system, very similar to a "snow mobile clutch". In the case of the snow mobile setup the pulley diameter varies based upon engine RPM and centrifugal force. In the case of cars that use similar pulley system, the computer sets the pulley diameter. The Ford Freestyle and some Ford 500 cars used this system.

    Ford Freestyle CVT Transmissions « Got Transmissions Got Transmissions
    Ford named in class action over defects in the continuously variable transmissions of the Freestyle and Mercury Montego | Got a Class Action?

    The Synergy system is elegant in its simplicity. It is simply a group of gears with 3 input/output "shafts". The input from the ICE and input/output from the 2 motor/generator shafts all combine together in synergy with each other.

    The Ford Escape uses a similar setup to the extent that, "Of the 351 patents covering the hybrid drivetrain, Ford did feel compelled to pay license fees to Toyota on 21 of them. This was done simply to avoid any patent infringement controversies."

    2005 Ford Escape Hybrid
     
  12. jgilliam1955

    jgilliam1955 Sometime your just gotta cry! 2013 Prius 4.

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    What was your average mpg?

    SCH-I535 ? 2
     
  13. hubmacfan

    hubmacfan Junior Member

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    I just got back from a trip from Hattiesburg, MS to Durham, NC along I-20 and I-85. Some pretty big hills on that route (don't know if you'd call them mountains). I just set my cruise control and enjoyed the drive. I drove the speed limit (getting passed all the time, but saving $). No problems climbing or going down. Even got 60 mpg on one tank!
     
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  14. ChipL

    ChipL Active Member

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    Over Memorial Day weekend went out to the Luray area in Virginia. The Prius kept up very well on the local roads. In drives from the DC area to PA, even with crosswinds the Prius did well. Down steep grades, use the B mode.

    Many times the battery was at its fullest charge state, but I have faith that the computer takes care of this....
     
  15. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Indeed. I had a Mazda3 rental and nowadays the automatic transmissions are geared for fuel economy so they upshift early. It was only 25°C outside and at idle, the Mazda3 had trouble keeping the cabin cool. It wasn't until traffic lightened up a bit and I could accelerate did I feel the A/C compressor put out colder air. In addition, passing on the Mazda3 was scary. There'd be a 1.5-2 sec delay between me putting my foot to the floor and the car responding (downshift and accelerate). Scared the hell out of me the first time because I was in California and the guy in the next lane was closing in fast behind me. I eventually figured out it's ok to floor it in my lane even though there's a car in front of me and wait 1 sec before changing lanes so that there's only a 0.5-1 sec delay of power delivery when I'm outside of my lane. I also could've used the manual mode but that required I stay in manual mode, otherwise it's a 2-step process.


    Fantastic in terms of the HSD system. If you set the cruise, it'll slowly increase the engine rpm as you go up the base of the incline unlike an automatic that will realise you need a lower gear and abruptly shift down and rev the engine up to make up for the loss in speed. If the road "steps" up rather than a straight up and down the side of the mountain, you can try and use your foot to increase mpg rather than using cruise by making up for speed on the flatter portions and losing a bit of speed on the uphill portions.

    For downhill stretches, it depends on the scenario. If traffic is light, I'll let the slow down on the straightaways prior to the downhill portion and then let the car "roll" down the descent in "D". If traffic is heavier and I have to keep up the speed on the straightaways, I'll brake on the downhill portion until the battery is full then use the brakes for a bit and then finally shift into "B" if it's a steep portion.

    I cross the Rockies once a year for my summer vacation and I do wish I have the PHV for the downhill portions :).




    It depends. I've driven the B200 and iQ with cone & belt CVTs and I did not like them. The planetary gear set system in the Prius is set up way better imo. The Prius doesn't rubberband (revs up then settles at an rpm a bit lower), it just revs to the rpm it wants and stays there. It also revs a bit slower so it's not too noticeable in terms of engine noise.
     
  16. ewxlt66

    ewxlt66 Active Member

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    I'm in SoCal. Wife's grandma passed last January.

    She began researching flights on the net, reporting to me her findings.

    Without responding, I picked up my phone and hand calculated what it would cost to drive to Phoenix and back in the Prius vs. Flying.

    Her response, "So we're taking the Prius then."
     
  17. jonb505

    jonb505 Member

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    I hear ya. Maybe its worse in canada because we only have 2 nationwide airlines to choose from.
    I occasionally fly/drive to edmonton from vancouver for work/visit family. 1.5hour return flight averages $500. Driving there and back costs roughly $120 in fuel + meals/snacks, still way cheaper than flying any day of the week. Only downside is driving takes 14 hours of my time each way so unless i have the luxury of time i will usually take the flight. :(
     
  18. jgilliam1955

    jgilliam1955 Sometime your just gotta cry! 2013 Prius 4.

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    Yea you are right. I took a weekend trip and ended up with 55 mpg. Some highway mostly back roads at 55 mph.

    SCH-I535 ? 2
     
  19. attyjeff

    attyjeff Member

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    We averaged 48 on the trip
     
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  20. Hoosiermama

    Hoosiermama Junior Member

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    We just returned from a vacation with ours, too. We bought it in April, and drove from Indiana to the beaches of Delaware last week. It really was a joy to drive and to ride in. My son is 6'1", I'm 5'9" and DH is 6'2" and there was plenty of room in both the front and back. We had 3 adults and a 4 year old, with lots of stuff in the back. There was plenty of room for everyone, and it was very comfortable. We got just over 48 mpg for the trip (mainly because of the mountains in West Virginia and Maryland).

    Two things that struck me were a) just how much you can get in the lower storage area (a quilt for the beach and six beach towels), and b) how many more Priuses (Prii?) there are on the East Coast than here. In our townhouse complex alone (which wasn't very big) there were at least six.

    The last thing that struck me is that even though we've had it since April, DH keeps reaching for the key to turn it off:). My son has already said that his next car will be a Prius and has asked to drive it to Florida in October.
     
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