Is The Chatter Dying Down?

i think it's quieter at times, hard to believe when the 'database error' shows up. gen 4 has been pretty busy, but if you're not involved, it's not as exciting.

 

Before.

 

One thing I know for me is true is that I rarely post to ask questions as a couple of Priuschat/Google/Youtube searches in most cases gives me the answers I need, so I don't have a need to start a new thread. In the past when the cars were new, this wasn't true. Also the Prius used to feel like you were on the cutting edge (in a way) driving one. That's no longer really true (I feel). All of the buzz is around Tesla these days.

 

There are 'easy' ways to improve on 50 MPG. A single seat car can have less frontal area (or even cockpit seating, one person behind another) less weight, and less rolling resistance. It is doubtful that it would sell as well, or be as safe, but it would easily beat 50 MPG. Drive train packaging would need to change, currently the inverter/transaxle is side by side with the engine, if we want a narrow car we want to rotate that 90 degrees.

Assuming you can get HOV lane access*, a single seat commuter car could sell at a low enough price point.

*Mississippi has 0 miles of HOV lanes, 0% of those allow hybrid preferences of any sort. (nor to they have any state rebates for hybrids. But some of you live in this century)

 

looking at it from toyota's point of view: a quick review of their p&l suggests, do nothing.

from danny's point of view: who cares?

from members point of view: plenty of 10 year old prius to try to help with, and lots of interesting things happening in gen 4 and prime.

 

The majority of the posts I see on this website have to do with problems/failures/mechanical issues. And I guess that's normal for an auto discussion forum. After all, you can only promote the "cotton candy" and the good stuff for so long... then it starts getting old, or nobody cares anymore. (The heck with the fluff, let's see that huge crack in the windshield! )

You can say, everything you want to say, about a Prius in about 10 posts. I have no idea how I got up to over 250!? And with all due respect, I will never understand the guys that are in the 4000 or 5000 bracket… Let alone 50,000!??? (Somebody should start a thread about the Prius chat addiction!) Do those guys do anything else??? Do they visit any other websites? Have any other interests? Hobbies? Relationships? Some admit that they very rarely drive... I wonder if they at least get out of the house, and do some exercise for their health??? If nothing else, just take a simple daily walk. Man, you talk about a sedentary lifestyle! Again, I don't mean to sound snarky, but some of these guys are logged-on for about 20 hours per day! (Then they wonder why they have to take all kinds of heart medicine.)

My apologies to the forum, but I think the Prius is just another car... and I just drive it. Unless something breaks, busts, fails, or leaks... I really don't have anything else to talk about. That should make everyone very happy!

The Prius is 20 yrs old now? There is nothing to get excited about any longer. Frankly, I don't understand why these "Prime guys" are getting all giddy and beside themselves. Big deal, so it gets 25 or 30 miles on a charge? WAKE ME UP when it starts getting TWO HUNDRED miles!

I'm in the Prius capital of the world… California, Los Angeles County. Home to 2 million Prii? Something like that. And I'm surprised at HOW FEW of the new Gen4 I see. Maybe only 8 in the last year and a half? And maybe 4 or 5 Primes? (Perhaps I'm in the poor part of the County. ) I just don't think they are selling as well as people believe. Let's face it folks, the Prius is OLD NEWS! And with gas prices being so reasonable, most people will continue to love their SUVs and pickup trucks. (When I bought my Prius, not one family member, and not one relative, and not one coworker or friend said… "Wow! You bought a Prius?? Cool!" It was more like: "Who gives a shit! It's old, man, and nobody cares anymore! Hell with being "green.")

Well, it's been nice knowin y'all. The Coast Rider is cruising on down the road… Off into the sunset. And yes, I won't let the door hit me in the nice person on the way out. Have fun, take care, and please turn off the computer and get out and WALK every day! Enjoy God's blue Earth... before the North Korean missiles start coming over the horizon...

Lock & Load....

And GOD BLESS all our Military members... veterans and those currently serving... Our prayers are with you!

"If all people are brethren, then why are the winds and the waves so restless?"

 

The peak Prius sales were September 2013 and there has been a slow decline ever since. It was as if a dimmer switch were slowly turned down. Even Ford has out sold the Prius for about 3-4 months starting late last year and only this month 'fallen down.' A big part has been evolution of the technology.

We passed on a 2001 Gen-1 Prius because it did not have dumb cruise control. So we got a 2001 Echo with dumb cruise control and I kept driving the 1991 Camry, manual transmission, with dumb cruise control.

When we lost our Camry, we replaced it with a used, 2003 Gen-1 with dumb cruise control. There were lots of new technology that needed to be understood and when broke, fixed. Yet the original Monroney sticker listed 52 City / 45 Hwy. After three months, my lifetime average reached 52 MPG City and Hwy and we kept it for 120k miles.

I skipped Gen-2 for a Gen-3 with dumb cruise control because the engine was much improved. But I almost passed on the Gen-3 because dynamic cruise control and collision avoidance would have jacked up the price $8k. It was an option only available on the top trim. Our Gen-3 also got 52 MPG at 5 mph faster. So we sold the Echo and had nothing but Prius on the driveway with each backing up the other.

Our next car was a used, 2014 BMW i3-REx, our first plug-in hybrid with 72 mi EV range that had a sensible, serial hybrid system. The 0.6L, motorcycle engine was right-sized and though not throughly tuned for efficiency, still gets 40 MPG on the Hwy. Around town, it is one of the top three, electrical efficiency cars. Although optically based, it also came with dynamic cruise control and collision avoidance and became my standard. We were keeping the Gen-3 as backup until an infantile problem forced failover to the Gen-3 and I had a chance to test drive a Prius Prime with TSS-P (dynamic cruise control and collision avoidance.)

I test drove a 2016 Level 3 Prius but really wanted a Level 2 ECO. But the Level 2 ECO did not have TSS-P and the Level 3 had a moonroof instead of MPG. The Gen-1 went to our house keeper so we had the BMW i3-REx and a backup Gen-3.

We replaced the Gen-3 with a 2017 Prius Prime because of TSS-P and high MPG. Although the 25 mile plug-in range was nice, it was TSS-P and high MPG that sold the car. My third tank went 2,100 miles before filling up. I drove to Knoxville, 470 miles round trip at 58 MPG to deliver my spare, Gen-1 pack to someone rebuilding their traction battery. Today we have a Prius Prime and BMW i3-REx on the driveway and I simply swap the J1772 charger when I leave or arrive home.

Now I've never claimed to be 'the average buyer' but the absence of dumb cruise control aborted a 2001 Prius sale. Absence of TSS-P stopped a 2016 Prius sale and almost a 2010 Prius sale. Presence of dynamic cruise control sold a BMW i3-REx and 2017 Prius Prime.

MPG is important but automated cruise control is a hard requirement. When the car can finally handle all driving with high MPG, I will be ready to buy. Perhaps BEV and the charging network(s) will be advanced enough to support cross-country driving BUT I would have no problem with a high efficiency, sustaining engine in a serial hybrid.

The history of the Partnership for Next Generation Vehicle was aimed at an 80 MPG car in the 1990s. There were three USA contenders and my studies suggest an 80 MPG car is entirely possible. Heck, there was an EV1 that with NiMH batteries would have beaten Tesla by half a decade.

I'm OK with 40 MPG for the infrequent vacation trips but love the 58 MPG our Prius Prime returns. In reality, it should be closer to 70-75 MPG but there comes a point of diminishing returns. But I really like EV around town getting 117-133 MPGe.

Toyota tries many approaches include the hydrogen fuel cell of the future where it remains since PNGV was killed in 2001. Personally, I think the current fuel cell cars are treating CARB like a dog owner might hold their muzzle to a pile of dog poo. But some of the other Toyota efforts have looked like 'Oh this works, Scion xB, so lets fix it!' and the car soon disappeared.

In part because the 'sheet metal' stylists insist on screwing up the aerodynamics and light-weighting is too often compromised. Overall I like Toyota continuous improvement but not every experiment works. Certainly the BMW i3-REx threw down the gauntlet.

So the simple answer, here are my requirements for the Prius of the future:

• autonomous driving - let me be an interested passenger, perhaps catching up on a Harry Potter movie.
• EV city - the 25 mile range is a good enough but would not turn down a little more.
• Gas/diesel/CNG Hwy - 58 MPG is good enough but would not turn down a little more.

Bob Wilson

 

gas prices have been low for an unprecedented amount of time, and the foreseeable future.

 

I do get the sense that the chatter is dying down. Not precipitously, but yeah.

Where could Toyota take the Prius? Everyone has opinions. Personally I'm not that excited about further mpg goals, though they're nice.

I'd prefer a refocus on utility and practicality, which seems to be losing ground to "edgy" and "infotainment" these days.

 

agreed. would a more utilitarian interior increase sales? idk, more likely competition and gas prices.
i think a bev would increase chatter, if that's what is desired. the future is clear, up to a point.

 

Lots of good reasons already posted especially Tesla and other makers with viable EV/PHEV products; however, I have another one.

On adult forums (NO not those kinds!!! ), I've come to notice there's always a slow down in posts during the summer that peaks around August. I think it's because folks are away on vacations, family time, or just out and about more. I've also found another thing happens in the winter on motorcycle forums and so have others; in fact, there is an acronym for the slowly eroding behavior by those riders that occurs during the cold, dark periods: PMS (parked motorcycle syndrome).

When gas prices rise again or Toyota comes out with a hybrid with.... ahem.... a little more "pizazz", you'll see a big uptick in forum traffic.

 

we've moved from the enthusiast phase to the 'help, my prius is broken' phase.

 

Interesting, I checked my 'ignore user' list and two have been gone for a month. Hummmmm, the anti-troll effect, fewer posters.

Bob Wilson

 

we've moved from@18. I see these as having a lot of overlap and not serial. In addition there is more recent discussion of other related vehicles. Because now there are more other related vehicles. How do the various Prius relate to those others? Where else would one look for such discussions? Also side discussions of how Prius get modified.

A parallel development may relate to maturity (over maturity?) of this chat group. Here we also talk about non-Prius things, with folks with some shared Priusness. If somebody (let's suppose that I am not talking about me ) wants to pursue a non-Prius topic, here there may be a level of 'comfort' and expectation that it will not go to hellinahandbasket. This is a matter of congeniality, amplified by a broad range of expertise among participants. I suppose other car-chat groups might offer similar? No, really I don't.

ignore user@19. Oh Baaahb.