My Prius Review: I HATE THIS THING!

I guess the tone of my reply was not well broadcast: I recycle all rechargeable batteries, but I believe most people simply toss them in the trash. Since your home's garbage (and most offices' garbage) goes into sanitary landfills and not hazardous waste landfills, the nickel in those batteries will be made "available" to the local groundwater. Not exactly the most "environmentally-friendly" scenario, and certainly much less valued than the $300 credit to us for recycling a Prius battery.

 

A lot of discussion in this thread:

What got lost with the op's credibility in this issue is:

1 The Prius is his WIFE'S car, not his...and apparently HER choice, not his. I want to hear what SHE says...and what SHE says about his 'vette and Sebring convertible.

2 Comparing the Prius to a Corvette (waste of money and a rattle trap), Sebring convertible (wonder why Chrysler will go belly up...it's crap), a BMW (no less...come on...a Prius vs a BMW...now that's a stretch) and others is a waste of time. There is no comparison aside from the Honda Insight...and the Prius wins hands down.

3 Stating that the op would rather purchase a VW TDI...what a joke that is. Have fun with the NO RELIABILTY factor of a VW. Yes, my daughter has one and basically it is a German piece of crap. It's forever one thing after another...and the vehicle is 5 1/2 years old with ONLY 15K miles on it. And the dealer/repair facility is run by a Nazi who overcharges (times two) what my Toyota dealer charges for service.

4 I had a 2005 Prius with 46,000 miles on it. I averaged between 52 and 55 mpg EXCEPT in the dead of Chicago winters, where it dropped to the mid to uppper 40's. I have no idea how YOU drive to get the kind of mileage you are talking about. I traded the 2005 Prius in on a new 2010 Prius IV. The 2005 Prius had the original OEM tires on it. Sure, I needed new tires badly, but I got to 46,000 miles on one set of tires.

5 I find it incomprehensible that you get the mileage stated from your other vehicles. Every American made car I have driven barely gets 20 mpgs.

6 I didn't buy my Prius to "make a financial killing". If I wanted to do that I would have bought a Yaris, a Fit, some piece of crap cheap Kia, or an Elantra. I wasn't looking to buy the cheapest car around and figure out the diffence from that to the Prius and how much gas I would need to save to break even. I was looking to buy a car in the $25,000 range with the amenities that I wanted and needed and it happened to be a hybrid as well with Toyota reliability.

7 Speaking of reliability, I have owned 6 Toyota's and 3 Lexus'. I had a few problems with the Lexus (heated seat had a short in it, some minor maintenance issues), but never had a non-scheduled repair with the Toyota's. As a matter of fact, the 2005 Prius had only regular oil changes and tire rotations (with a cabin filter and air filter thrown in for good luck). I am not a car repair do it yourselfer. I need reliability in my vehicle so I don't spend untold hours at the dealer for repairs. Toyota fits that bill nicely for me.

8 Owning a Prius changed how I drive. I feel its always me vs the Prius. I am always pushing for the extra mpgs. Coast to the light now. Reduce the accelerator when going downhill. Paying more attention to the posted speed limit. I now do that when I drive my daughter's VW or my wife's Lexus. I think the Prius has made me a better and smarter driver.

9 I still feel like I am a part of saving energy by not wasting fuel consumption AND doing my part in trying to "save the planet" by using a vehicle with reduced emissions.

10 Finally, if ALL cars were hybrids and got even twice the mileage they are getting now with a 90% reduction in greenhouse gases, wouldn't we ALL be better off? Would it matter if it was a Prius, an Insight or even your 'vette? Isn't that the REAL purpose of driving a Prius?

 

I don't give credence to statements like "I got 25-30 MPG on my __________."

A range of numbers like that means the fuel economy was never regularly tracked, but the person making the statement remembers a couple of numbers once calculated. The question: Why did that person calculate mileage those couple of times? The answer: Because he/she was expecting a particularly good number. The effect: Someone mistakenly believes those one-time measurements represent the actual mileage numbers for the car.

Calculations like these happen, usually, when someone is on a road trip. What is missing is the measurement of city mileage for a non-hybrid vehicle, and, necessarily, that measurement would be considerably lower than the highway mileage for that non-hybrid.

 

As Evan points out, the financial incentive for recycling a Prius battery is just a bit higher. Even existing lead-acid car batteries are pretty well recycled, now that there is a deposit on them and landfills won't take them.

More importantly, most Prius batteries are replaced by a dealer, where battery recycling is a standard part of the program.

Tom

 

Wow.... 13 pages huh? I was gonna talk about how I had an 08 HCH that I got out of because I had a lot of remorse and regrets with it... totally different car of course, but similar situation.

Seems kind of pointless now though.

 

Kinda think you liked it when you posted this:

Average MPG after 110,000 miles
We bought a 2005 Prius in August 2005. It has been 4 years, and in that time we have put 110,000 miles on her.

I average somewhere between 50, and 60 MPG. My last tank has been 55MPG with 90% of the miles on 65+ MPH highway driving.

My most interesting record is 100+ MPG for ~10 miles doing 60+MPH. That's right, over 100 MPG at over 60MPH for ten whole minutes. I was sitting in the wake of a trailor going down a a small 1% grade.

I do not coast, or impulse drive. And I very rarely, if ever, drift behind trucks.

There is zero modifications to the car. In matter of fact, it's been abused somewhat. It has 4 dents, and the front air dam, and rear air dam lip (under the bumper) has been ripped off. (My wife tried forcing the car over an icy hill)"

 

+1

Not only is the OP a troll, he's also clueless...

 

You are aware that a century of operation at the INCO Sudbury facility was primarily to meet AMERICAN nickel/steel demand?

 

and what might those "average" family cars be?

 

Oh don't give me that tripe. We know that you Canadians are really NICKEL PUSHERS. If it wasn't for your evil influence, Americans wouldn't have this terrible nickel habit.





Tom

 

He's a troll.

Done. Finished. Finite. Out of here, already. Before he brings up the 'fact' that driving a Hummer is more environmentally friendly than driving a Prius.

 

Fair Enough you had your say, why not go check out the 2010 and then see what you think. Like everything it get's better over time.

But as you said Your entitled to your Opinion...

Thanks!

 

what we really need is a writeup from the person WHO ACTUALLY DRIVES THE CAR!!

My SO also hated the Prius, but more from ignorance than anything else. well, her car became too unreliable (22 years can do that to a car!!) so i forced her to drive mine (did that by not lending her money to get another car!!) and i bought the Zenn. (actually had bought it about 3 months before since i knew her car was on its last legs despite her claims to the contrary)

that was 19 months ago... she now swears she will not drive any other kind of car... PERIOD

 

You can't expect a Prius to handle like a sporty car. There are tons of cars out there that claim to be "sporty" and yet have very little power or even overall performance but the makers say they are sporty because that particular model is a bit sportier than the other trims. And then there are cars which say they are a sport which actually have awesome cornering, decent power and a sporty look...


.... The Prius makes absolutely no such claims, in fact it's purpose in life is to be economical while providing owners with some cargo space and reasonably decent power. It's done that very well so it really doesn't compare to econobox subcompacts as they have very little to no cargo space, 0 people moving ability and still have very little power.

 

Smart SO, you should keep her. Once people drive it I cannot understand how they could go back. I hated driving my Sport Trac even for a short period after I purchased my old 2005 Prius. I felt like I was driving a tank!

 

In addition to getting higher gas mileage, there’s good safety news about three 2010 small cars – including two hybrids - from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
The Honda Insight and Toyota Prius hybrids and the Kia Soul all received the Insurance Institute’s top rating of Good (on a scale of Good, Acceptable, Marginal and Poor) in front, side and rear crash testing. They are all going to be Top Safety Picks. To be a Top Safety Pick, a vehicle has to earn good ratings in all three tests and must offer electronic stability control...

Hybrids Score High in Crash Safety - Wheels Blog - NYTimes.com

 

Go buy a Ford and find a friend to talk too.. Dont feed the troll