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Just lost all my respect for Car and Driver

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by Mr. Nelsby, Jun 18, 2009.

  1. johnnyp500

    johnnyp500 New Member

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    Misinformation? What are you talking about?

    I come to a board where people can express their opinions. but nevermind.. if opinions not similar to yours or your 'prius enthusiasts' are not welcome here I can stop posting and go elsewhere.

    Im trying to stay on the prius or thread topic and you keep going on personal attacks. So if thats how its going to be I dont want to post here anymore so you win!!

    enjoy.
     
  2. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    it's your inflammatory wording and assertions

    Wrong!
    Ok, but you've used inflammatory words to describe the Prius such as
    [FONT=&quot]
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    I've and other have already dispelled this and I've driven the same route roundtrip, twice.

    Others:
    [FONT=&quot]
    Others here will disagree w/your assertion that C & D is a "good" magazine.

    Clearly, owners of the the highest rated car in
    terms of customer satisfaction by Consumer Reports readers 5 years in a row must all be deluded by Toyota marketing for giving a 0/10 and "piece of crap" "nightmare" car such a rating that also happens to be the most fuel efficient mass market car currently sold in the US. Those of us here who are Prius enthusiasts must also be sheep too.

    The 2nd gen Prius also won all these awards below (see PDF attached to http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii-2010-prius-main-forum/60002-prius-technology-video.html). They must've all been deluded too.
    Motor Trend Magazine "Car of the Year"
    "North American Car of the Year"
    "10 Best Cars," Car and Driver Magazine
    "Ten Best Engines," Ward's Auto World
    "Design of the Year," Automobile Magazine
    Best Engineered Vehicle for 2004, Automotive Engineering International
    Awarded a Gold in the 2004 Industrial Design Excellence Awards
    "Most Significant Vehicle of the Year for 2004," Consumer Reports
    [/FONT]
     
  3. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    I had not looked at your previous postings but the comment about 'Prius batteries in landfills' is inaccurate, a common canard:

    Prius Battery Photos

    Everyone is welcome to their opinions but facts and data are something else. Just as I hit my head on the door still of a Honda Insight, not every car is built for everyone. But Prius batteries in a landfill ... nonsense!

    Bob Wilson
     
  4. blueumbrella

    blueumbrella Member of Prius Regeneration

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    I think Car and Driver is a great magazine.
     
  5. MMSteve

    MMSteve New Member

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    Hey everyone. I'd like to make a quick suggestion. As some of you have seen, on MotorMouths we keep all the reviews for all new cars (including the Prius). A rating is given to each car, but also to every reviewer. The Critic Credibility score is based 100% on how actual owners of the car feel about the reviews given. We do have the Car and Driver review, as well as Jay Shoemaker's review on MM, and I'd like to encourage you all to head to the Prius page and rate the reviews of the cars based on your own experience. It only takes a few seconds, and the scores you give could greatly help make our Critic Credibility rating more accurate. Check it out here: Toyota Prius :: MotorMouths

    Thanks all!
     
  6. Soylent

    Soylent The v isn't a station wagon! It's just big boned

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    The Prius is a great commuter car, not a luxury or racing car. Car and Driver needs to consider that there are people who drive 30-60+ minutes to work one way and prefer MPG over luxury comfort or speed. Like myself, for example.
    I still get a rush from getting in my 2002 Isuzu Trooper with a 3.5 V6 and gunning it to hear the roar of the engine. But it's just so inefficient (12-14mpg) that I can't possibly drive it daily to work.
     
  7. johnnyp500

    johnnyp500 New Member

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    “The nickel for the battery, for instance, is mined in Sudbury, Ontario, and smelted at nearby Nickel Centre, just north of the province's massive Georgian Bay.

    Toyota buys about 1,000 tons of nickel from the facility each year, ships the nickel to Wales for refining, then to China, where it's manufactured into nickel foam, and then onto Toyota's battery plant in Japan.

    That alone creates a globe-trotting trail of carbon emissions that ought to seriously concern everyone involved in the fight against global warming. All told, the start-to-finish journey travels more than 10,000 miles - mostly by container ship, but also by diesel locomotive.

    But it's not just the clouds of greenhouse gases generated by all that smelting, refining, manufacturing and transporting that worries green activists. The 1,250-foot-tall smokestack that spews huge puffs of sulphur-dioxide at the Sudbury mine and smelter operation has left a large swath of the surrounding area looking like a surrealistic scene from the depths of hell.

    On the perimeter of the area, skeletons of trees and bushes stand like ghostly sentinels guarding a sprawling wasteland. Astronauts in training for NASA actually have practiced driving moon buggies on the suburban Sudbury tract because it's considered a duplicate of the Moon's landscape.

    "The acid rain around Sudbury was so bad it destroyed all the plants, and the soil slid down off the hillside," David Martin, Greenpeace's energy coordinator in Canada, told the London Daily Mail.

    "The solution they came up with was the Superstack. The idea was to dilute pollution, but all it did was spread the fallout across northern Ontario," Martin told the British newspaper, adding that Sudbury remains "a major environmental and health problem. The environmental cost of producing that car battery is pretty high."
    This is the unseen cost of these hybrids that some would have us ignore. There are more, but that one fact serves as a fine example. The study concluded that the cost per mile of the champion vehicle for environmentalism, the Prius, was $3.53 per mile average with a maximum of $4.08. This is surprising when you consider that my Ford F-150 full sized truck scored and average of $2.47 per mile and a maximum of $2.73. My wife’s Ford Expedition was a heavy hitter at an average of $3.16 per mile and a maximum of $3.40, but I am glad to say it was the lowest in all the of the large SUV class. Still that's less than the cost of the most championed savior of the planet in the automotive industry, the Toyota Prius. (All information in this paragraph is taken from medium and maximum cost per mile table beginning on page 288 of the “Dust to Dust” PDF file.)

    **Taken from CNW Research "Dust to Dust" **

    Recycled or not, they are not environmentally friendly.
     
  8. usbseawolf2000

    usbseawolf2000 HSD PhD

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    johnnyp500,

    What car do you own or drive now?

    I can't believe you fell for the CNW Marketing Research! LOL. That report has been debunked and you keep recycling that garbage.

    BTW, Prius' steel chassis has more Nickel than the Nickel in the HV battery pack. Any vehicle made out of steel has 6% Nickel in it. Do you happen to have 5 cents in your pocket? That has Nickel in it too duh! The stainless steel utensils you eat with also have Nickel.

    Open your eyes and look at the bigger picture dude! Why are you so focus on the 23 lbs of Nickel in the Prius HV battery pack? It enables the MPG to double vs. a comparable non-hybrid.
     
  9. OZ132

    OZ132 Member

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    It depends on what "excites" you, I guess. I get really excited when I stop at a light, the engine turns off, it's dead silent, and I hear in the back of my mind: Ca-ching, Ca-ching, Ca-ching...
     
  10. bedrock8x

    bedrock8x Senior Member

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    I used to subscribe Car & Driver in the 70s and 80s to look for test reports on family sedans for buying references. But when the 90's came, C&D changed the emphasis to luxury sport cars and luxury SUVs, (same with Motor Trend and others) they no longer do comparison test of family cars and no less econo boxes. I can understand why they cater to the rich folks who can afford the price of the magazine.

    As some of the posts before have pointed out, if they do not rate the Prius as good as the Ferraris, BMWs and MBs, don't get upset because they have a different point of reference. Settle down and enjoy your Prius.
     
  11. usbseawolf2000

    usbseawolf2000 HSD PhD

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    So why didn't they use the 2010 Prius V with 17" rims when they did the comparison with the Insight? Why even review a econohybrid (Insight)?

    I think C&D should acknowledge and respect the new trend of (hybrid) enthusiasts. Performance is no longer about only the acceleration time, cornering Gs or braking distance.
     
  12. equake

    equake Member

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    I just read the comparison and it is a joke having driven the Insight. The vehicle stuff is very subjective but the powertrain rating the Transmission a 5 for the Prius is gotta be funny. Both the Insight and Prius have eCVTs and except for the paddle shifters on the Insight which are gimmicky there is not much difference.

    The chassis ratings are also very subjective. THe brake feel I thought again was a joke. With discs all around I think fade would be a gauge but the driver instead chose to rate it on regenerative braking.

    The Insight will be a more fun to drive car no doubt having driven Hondas and Acuras but the rag review is a bit biased.
     
  13. usbseawolf2000

    usbseawolf2000 HSD PhD

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    The Insight has mCVT (mechanical) and Prius has eCVT (electric). eCVT is superior because the thrust output does not depend on the the ICE's RPM.

    I don't know why they ignored the fact that Prius' electric brake can regenerate 4x more energy than the Insight before the frictional pads kick in. Electric brake respond instantly without the initial hydraulic delay. In that technical sense, Prius' brakes are superior.
     
  14. donalmilligan089

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    I wholly disagree. I drove a Linc. Towncar for years in this hilly twisty turny cycle type terain. The linc. leaaned so heavily on the curves as to be scary. I now take all these curves with out braking unless one of these so called pleasure dudes get in my way riding their brakes. My daughter borrowed the prius and said: Boyt! that was fun but I would probly get a speeding ticket.
     
  15. a64pilot

    a64pilot Active Member

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    The car Mags are driven entirely by advertising. Usually immedately following the glowing review of the new BMW, there will be several full page BMW ads. Pretty obvious