Do you know what Honda Insight owners are talking about recently?

That's very true, if the system uses a double clutch. F1 paddle shifts are getting close to nano seconds. Very cool technology.

Unfortunately for me, I still like old school manuals... the ones with the funky third pedal on the left and the stick that has to be stirred into gears of choice while trying to match engine revs. It's nearly artsy fartsy involvement with the machinery.

Sequentials are ok for race cars and motorcycles, and maybe even hybrids, too. I do like the sequential on my small motorcycle, but its a manual system that still requires a clutch and the ability to match those revs that help avoid possible painful rash.

I guess I'll have to make the time to try out a Honda Insight, to see how it compares to our Prius. Interior pictures I saw make the dash look pretty un-Honda skitzophrenic. Maybe I can try to figure out what Honda Isight owners are talking about.

I've had Hondas since 1975, but they started losing their way shortly after Soichiro Honda died in '91. After the mid 90s, Civics started going more mainstream vanilla, instead of leading edge. Especially after dropping their double wishbone suspensions and then starting to gain significant weight and size. Their new cars aren't bad cars in any way, but not nearly as inspired as they once were. The Prius is a good example of how far Honda slipped technologically behind Toyota.

Now, if Toyota could just figure out how to fix their tricky accelerator problem! :noidea:

 

If Toyota was "cheating", then what does that make the rest of us that easily get over 50 mpg...and that's in the Winter months, no less. In the Summer, I had multiple tanks in the low 60's.

Besides, doesn't EPA conduct the tests, and I thought I read that they pull cars off the assembly line - at random. They (ie EPA) then does the tests on these cars, or car.

Sounds like a lot of sour grapes to me.

 

I live in Maryland, and have no problem getting over 50 mpgs. The biggest killer to mpgs is having a short comute. It takes a good 3-4 miles before the car is fully warmed up on cold days...and during much of that time, the ICE is running to get the cat warmed up, and to warm the cabin. There's no way around this.

 

FYI - In the Prius, the AC runs off the battery, and not the engine. If you don't have a sun roof, keep the AC on and roll up the windows. Learn to coast/glide whenever you get the chance. And the longer the trip, the better. Short trips that don't allow the ICE to fully warm up, and the ICE is running most of the time. The slower the trip, the better - ie, avoid going over 65 as much as possible. I always travel in the slow lane, and if traffic is flowing, stay between 5-10 miles over the speed limit...but no higher.

 

This is true. Short trips are a killer. A second mileage killer is cold weather. While there are things you can do to mitigate the effects, losses go up in the cold: heating, higher rolling resistance, greater aerodynamic drag, and so on.

Tom

 

Let's not forget our "Winter fuel blends" that are such mileage killers even in mild weather.

Also, I wonder how many colder climate region Prius owners keep up with their tire pressures during the Winter months. A change of 10 degrees F = about 1 psi of change. So from 60 degrees down to 10 degrees, we lose about 5 psi per tire... and that's not even factoring in the normal slow bleed of air that occurs under normal conditions anyway.

My 70K mile '05 is still pretty efficient in the cold, as long as the trip is over 15-20 miles, I drive it conservatively, and I keep the tire pressures close to optimum. I've started using "dry air" or Nitrogen, as it's advertised, to see if tire pressures are affected as much by fluctuating temps.

So far, the tires seem to hold pressure closer to where I set them. In the last couple of weeks we have experienced morning lows from near zero F... to a high of 49 degrees in a rain storm a few days ago. Checking the pressures, there was about a 2 psi difference at those 2 points. So, not too bad so far.