I'm afraid to drive my Prius

You are constantly afraid of something, do you even follow up your own posts?

 

Move out to California. You can forget about those cold weather worries . . . as you are stuck in traffic on, or under, a freeway overpass while contemplating when the next “big one†is going to hit.

At least your milage won't suffer.

 

and now Vespasian is probably afraid of you too!

 

afraid to merge, afraid of cold, gee

I see he edited his post... I guess he got scared

 

The mileage will suffer if you are indeed stuck in slow-crawling traffic on the 405 during rush hour. It's especially fun if there's any precipitation going on--traffic will worsen 500% immediately after the first mini rain droplet hits the ground/windshield. Take surface streets like I do instead.

 

My wife and I own two Prius one is a 2002 the other 2005.

I live in Minnesota so I can claim a little knowledge about cold and winds.

Both of these cars have performed flawlessly in all kinds of weather.

The 2002 (51000 miles) does move around a little in high winds but nothing that wouldn't
be expected in any little car. The worst mileage was during one of our cold
snaps (below zero for days) and my mileage dropped to the mid 30's. the best has been 52 .

The 2005 used to move around a lot on the freeway and in high winds, I removed
the Intergity's and had Hydroedges installed , What a difference, no more lane shifts,
wind no longer move car around etc. As far a the cold weather(which just started here)
I have noticed a small drop in MPG mid 40's vs. 51 or 52. This car only has 6200 miles
on it and is not yet broken in.

I hope this helps

Tom H

 

One mistake is claiming the car needs a lot of time to go from 0 to 60. I do it in maybe 12 seconds when I feel like it.

Or do your eggs all cook faster than that?...

 

Dude... you're not going to get very far with that kind of attitude.

If you have gripes with your car, that's fine... but at least try to make productive posts instead of saying how much your car sucks all the time.

 

Please... enough with the sarcasm.

I'm going to try to make a helpful productive post... notice how i'm not a prick.

Your fuel economy will drop in the winter. It will drop for everyone here. I live in massachusetts, and the winter is almost here today as well. But that's no different from any other car... your old car probably dropped the same percentage MPG as the Prius, but may not have had instantateous feedback...

You're not going to be able to maintain 50 MPG through out the year... warm up times adversely affect your mileage in the winter, but there are things you can do about it. Block heater for example. If you want to keep your mileage up, get a block heater.

And also learn to drive your vehicle! For most people there's a lot you can do to improve your mileage just from learning to drive smarter.

I'm sorry if others here have pissed you off... just don't be so adversarial, you guys.

 

And I think others have answered your question about accelerating to freeway speeds...

The gut reaction when driving a CVT like the Prius's is that somehow the transmission is slipping, and hold back on the acceleration because it sounds "wrong." After all, it won't shift gears... it'll just rev higher and higher.

So the trick is to ignore the sound, and just stick your foot on the accelerator. You'll be surprised how much the Prius will give you past the point where your ear tells you that the car's doing something weird...

 

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Classic!

 

It depends on a lot of different things...
How far are you going to drive? What's the terrain like? Are you going to have the heat on? How much weight are you going to be carrying in your car? Are you going to be around 40 MPH and do the pulse and glide?

Just because it's 20 degrees out does not mean that your mileage is going to suck totally.

And please... don't delete your posts that way.

 

Actually my mileage went up (breaking 50 for the first time back in June) when I was in an LA traffic jam.

Winter in So Cal generally brings lower mileage due to the change to winter formula gas, for any car. Other than rain I'm afraid I don't have the experience about cold weather driving. If I want to see snow I have to wait until it gets to the 3,000 foot level drive to Julian and have some Julian Apple Pie.

 

I live in Winnipeg and can tell you that EVERY car or truck will suffer far worse fuel economy if driven in very cold temps, especially if the vehicle is parked outside all the time.

I live in a high-rise condo with heated underground parking, so I don't take anywhere near the hit I would otherwise. Still, this January when it was -42 C, my tank average according to the MFD was 9.8 litres per 100km: about 29 MPG Imperial gallon or 25 MPG in the U.S.

I dumped a P.O.S. 2000 GMC Sierra SLT 4x4 for my Prius. Under similar driving conditions (Stop and inch during a blizzard at -42 C) I was very lucky to get 45 litres per 100km: about 6 MPG Imperial gallon.

Ever since I got my Prius a lot of my co-workers have also started tracking their fuel economy. Without exception all take HUGE hits in winter city driving. In particular the owners of the 2005 Range Rover and the 2005 Lincoln Navigator get less than HALF their normal summer city fuel economy.

If you're worried about cold weather engine performance, do what I do and run a synthetic 0W-30 like Mobil 1. This winter I'm trying Mobil 1 0W-20 and have noticed a slight improvement in city fuel economy (4.4 litres instead of 4.6, a difference of about 2.5 MPG Imperial gallon).

As far as high winds and highway tracking, i will state the Prius needs a lot of improvement. I had the biggest gain in highway tracking stability by moving the little chin spoilers in front of the front tires to the front of the bumper, as forum members "200volts" et al have done.

Still, when I hop into my parents 2003 Buick LeSabre there is no comparison: the Buick tracks like on rails, no matter if they run the Michelin Harmony on the factory alloys or the Cooper WeatherMaster S/T 2 studded tires on steel wheels.

 

Now I know why I bought a Prius instead of a BMW.

 

Because one is at the top of reliability charts and the other is at the very bottom?

 

Rancid13's dancing is quickly becoming rancid.