Interesting Steering Comment from Accord Hybrid Review

Electric steering uses no power? Best hybrid yet??? 32 mpg at 70 mph?

Hey, Honda is a great company and the Accord is a superlative car. But I think "best hybrid yet" still belongs to the Prius.

 

Okay, best hybrid under 55 mpg with leather seats, heavy transmission, no spare, and no electrochromatic mirror. :wink:

That leather really helps it blend in and look normal, but of course the lack of sunroof in a top-of-the-line car is the giveaway.

 

....and no mention of stablity control in a 30k car??

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel\";p=\"41466)</div>

Why are you only getting 32mpg at 70?
I guess I'm luckey I get 50mps at 70 :mrgreen:

Ben

 

best hybrid yet??? at 32 mpg?? is this some sort of joke?

it should be readily apparent that a 5 passenger hybrid passenger car that doesnt get at least 45 mpg, shouldnt even be allowed to wear the name hybrid.

The Prius has set the bar for economy, passenger comfort, performance, engineering and forward thinking. it seems obvious to me that most other manufacturers have chosen to ignore those standards.

all i can say is i be willing to bet a months paycheck that the honda accord hybrid does not win Motortrend car of the year. in fact, i be willing to bet that they dont win half of the awards the Prius has.

 

Heh, I bet when the Prius was released, there was bitching just like this on the Honda Insight boards.

"Omg a hybrid that doesn't get 80mpg????"

 

This has been talked about past few weeks,
either fuel milage or low emission(so does "Danny" wrote before).
If looking for Fuel milage this is not that one, It just buying a Accord name and luxury item like Lexus Rx.
If I buy Accord right now, I wont buy this one. I reather buy 4-cylinder 5-speed Accord for my self. it almost same gas milage and more easy to drive. (My Prius is the first automatic tranny car I ever owned).
Also Accord and Civic hybrid isnt purpas build car, Honda wanted hybrid car so just added to current car, which not like a Prius.
It come down to your objection regarding to hybrid, Fuel milage or low emmision. (I guess most Californian wont buy this hybrid since wont apply new HOV regulation like a Prius, insight, and Civic hybrid)

 

Come on Dave! "Hybrid" means it combines two different types of power plants, which the hybrid Accord does. Of course they can call it a hybrid. It's just so far behind the "best hybrid yet" as to be laughable. And at 32 mpg at 70 mph, well, what's the point? (Except that it's got more power than its conventional counterpart.)

The Prius appeals to tree-huggers, gadget freaks, and people who don't want to buy more imported oil than they must. Who's the hybrid Accord going to appeal to? No gadgets, not green, and burns as much gas as the same car with a smaller (but still plenty powerful!) engine.

Honda builds great cars. I just don't see the market for this thing.

 

Electric power steering and electric A/C do not get free energy. I'm not sure how much "better" is is than hydraulic or compressor power. Probably 20% more efficient but certainly not free.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tempus\";p=\"41661)</div>

When I first read the post I thought they were talking about the Prius, honest. OK, don't want to start another controversy here...I mean MY Prius. One owner here in San Diego had his dealer tell him that it was in fact the electronic PS that made the car not want to track very well. They said that Toyota told them that some owners "notice" it and others do not. He quicky realized that this was not going to be something to be fixed easily, if at all. So he sold his car with about 1600 miles on it and got about $26K.

How could you not notice something like this? For me it's extreme at times and no big deal at others. It just depends on the road, wind, trucks passing, etc.., even with my Hydroedge tires. I have read write-ups on our Prius mentioning an over boosted feeling to the steering. It seems, like us owners, some writers pick up on it and other don't. I didn't expect the car to handle like a sports car. But there really isn't anything about a high mpg, low emisson vehicle that should prevent it from having a nice tight suspension, limited roll, and a feeling of stability on the road. But I guess only the Europeans put any value on that according to the marketing experts. I wonder just how different the European version feels.

 

Fred,
I know you have been dealing with this for a long time. Have you had the chance to drive someone else's Prius on the same roads you normally travel to compare? I rented one for a week and just picked mine up yesterday. I didn't notice the tendancy to dash off right or left on the highway in either car. Neither had much 'dead band' but they didn't act as you have described. If you found the problem in 2 cars (especially if the owner of the other doesn't) it is 'your sensitivity', otherwise there is something strange with your Prius. If this is the case, and they can't fix it, I would think the lemon law would be appropriate.

 

I did drive a friends car and he drove mine. He thought mine made some unexpected moves and was twitchy. I thought his steered lightly and acurately like mine but didn't seem to go off on its own and was not twitchy.

I've intentionally gripped the wheel very, very lightly on mine and just let the car do it's own thing. In no time the car will go right or left without any steering input from me. It's much worse with some of the very deep grooved freeways we have here or if the expansion joint is right under the left tire like when they've resized the lanes to add another one. If I'm on top of the expansion joint and I have cars on either side, it can be almost dangerous at times. On smooth asphault it's not all that bad....still not much centering or tracking but managable. The rocking motion when it's doing this is pronounced too and the soft suspension doesn't help here. It's like a correction to the right causes the left frt to drop too much. My new dealer has offered to look at it when I do the fuel tank TSB but I don't hold out much hope. It's been aligned many times now and is pretty much perfect. Unless there's some PS adjustment, a bad strut, etc....what can I do. Proving that it's a lemon is tough when they tell me it's normal for a Pruis.

 

i think it took about 3 days for me to get used to the electronic steering controls and that "go cart control" feeling, but now, if i drive a normal car, im almost appalled at the seeming lack of control when i never really paid no mind to it before.

to be honest with ya, i like the fact that i no longer have to do the "wave" type of driving that requires me to move the wheel within the confines of the "sweet" spot.

on long trips i admit to getting a bit bored and i will frequently hold the wheel with one hand rest my forearm on my knee or something since the car can be held arrow straight on the road without any hand movement since there is no discernible slop between the steering wheel and the tracking of the car.

 

I envy you Dave. When my car is doing it thing you better not be even adjusting the radio or you might drift into the car next to you.

 

lol... that is how my truck works!!

i need to me moving the wheel back and forth in an arc of about 2-4 inches constantly...

 

Mine is fine in town and when there's no wind on the highway. On the highway, if there's wind, I'm always working to keep going straight. Since I've had my car for 7 months, it seems unlikely that it's just a question of getting used to the different mechanism.

There are systems that are inherently stable, and systems that are inherently unstable. Unstable systems tend to be more manuverable. Stable systems are less manuverable. Clearly, you need to compromise, based on your usage. A touring bike is stable, to be more relaxing on those long stretches; a racing bike is nimble, for darting around in the pack so you can avoid crashing into the bike next to you, but requires constant attention and is exhausting.

So it's partly a question of how the car is designed, and the compromises the designers make. But my old Civic was both more nimble and more stable than the Prius, so I think Toyota could make some improvements here.

Also, since the Civic had no air bags, I could rest my hands on the extremely wide spokes of the steering wheel, to change my hand position from the wheel itself, and this made long-distance driving more relaxing. A long trip in the Prius is more tiring for me. (Though it might also be the decade that elapsed between my last long road trip in the Civic, and my first in the Prius. -- I was out of the country for a while.)

 

in high wind areas, i notice no extra effort to manuver the Prius. in some cases, the Prius seems much less affected by the wind. i attributed this to the wind not being as bad as other days although the place i am talking about (The Tacoma Narrows Bridge) ALWAYS has wind problems and there is a warning sign (one ive see off about 10% of the time) that notifys you of the ever present dangerous wind conditions.

also as anyone in Western Wa will attest, the freeways here are a journey from one valley to the next and nearly every one is subject to winds. mix in several peaks of Puget Sound where winds are like any offshore area on the Eastern Pacific shore. The Olympics to the West and the Cascades to the right creates a wind funnel making certain areas here very windy while other areas wont support kite flying.

the low CoD will help to reduce the wind effects, but the Prius for its overall weight, does sit a bit higher than other smaller cars which does affect wind shear (wind from the side...which btw is what is present on the bridge.)

i will have a better idea when winter comes and the winds get much worse. but as many trips as i have taken over the Narrows, the I-90 floating bridge, 4 trips over the Hood Canal floating bridge; all done with no noticeable difference in handling, i would have to say that my car is comparable to any other.