My thoughts on GenIII vs. GenII

Drove Prius two for four years and Prii 3 for 14 months so far, so hear are my thoughts.

The two handled way better (that is with at least two different sets of tires and various tire pressures). I drive through an obstical course almost daily and it became my goal to see how fast I could do it, after driving the 2010 for 14 months I am defiantly not able to achieve the same speeds. I will repost if this changes with different tires and I will try some pressure changes in the tires now.

With that said, because ones goal should not be to break the speed limits designed for safety and security.

I LOVE MY MOONROOF!

I LOVE POWER MODE, when you need it, you need it!!

I admit that for the first 25K of this cars life, I had difficulties in adjusted my driving style from Prii 2, but after much effort I to can change. It is and average 40F outside and I am proudly rocking out 55 mpg tanks.

For cross winds the two styles respond pretty much the same.

My wife and I frequently drive down to Disneyland so here is my experiance on long drives.

Prii 3 passenger seat way more comfortable.
If you lock in the speed limit on cruise control, the Prii 3 gets better gas mileage.
If you spend alot of time going up and down in speed the Prii 3 eats more gas with the bigger engine. With that when your driving the two lane roads of the mountains you have way more fun accelerating out of the corners.

My two cents!
Mark

 

I'm surprised you didn't mention more engine noise in gen2 compared to gen3. I just came back from Vancouver and spent some time riding in their Prius taxis. This was my first experience with gen2. They felt like a lesser car compared to my gen3 with smaller cabin/trunk and much more engine noise on accelerating. Perhaps I'm comparing my low miles babied car with tired, near million km cars abused by cabbie drivers, but the difference was very noticeable.

Anyone noticed the difference in engine noise?

 

* I dont really notice any difference even though the 2011 Ive driven still has 810 miles compared to my 08 gen 2 at 30k. Well as what you said its a gen 2 used as a taxi.. so I believe its not fair to compare it to a new prius even to a gen 2 which is privately driven.