new member of the forums here!

The best mileage isn't gained when you're making use of the battery. More accurately, the best mileage advantage over other cars is gained when you're using the battery. Overall, a nice steady cruise at not too high a speed is probably best for mpg in all cars.

It sounds like your commute will suit the Prius quite well. It'll build up lots of spare energy while on the highway, and then you'll probably coast through town mostly on electric.

For highway cruising, the Prius's competitive advantage is less, but only a diesel or a really small car has a chance of actually beating a Prius. What efficiency it does gain is mostly through first-class aerodynamics and only having a smallish engine. There are probably some cars that won't be far off. But as soon as you find yourself in stop/go traffic or coasting through town at 30mph, that's when the Prius really beats the competition.

I really fancied something battery-electric, but there's nothing really viable as a sole car. The Insight and Civic, and most diesels, were out because we wanted an automatic. The Prius is much cooler, mainly because it can run purely electric some of the time.

Speaking for myself, the Prius is one of the more powerful cars I've driven. Here in Europe we aren't as horsepower-obsessed as you lot seem to be. 10-and-a-bit seconds to 60mph and 110hp isn't bad for a family hatchback. Can be a bit noisy when you do accelerate hard, as the engine flatlines at 5000rpm all the way, but it makes up for it by being whisper-quiet most of the time.

A solar trickle-charger for the 12V accessory battery wouldn't go amiss if it wasn't going to get used for weeks at a time. But there's nothing available yet to let you charge the main traction battery externally.

 

Hi Dina and welcome!

As for downsides when driving... There is one thing to be aware of:

When needing to accelerate quickly from a dead stop on snowy roads, it doesn't' happen. The traction control kicks in and keeps the car from spinning its wheels. Many of us are used to pressing the accelerator and expecting something to happen: Either we move forward or the wheels spin. With this car, it moves very slow as it tries to maintain traction. Some posters have mentioned of trying to scoot across busy intersections by giving it gas during a lull in the traffic and having the car slowly trudge across the intersection. There's several threads on this. You may want to read them.

Most of the complaints are minor but two other gripes commonly heard is the lack of adjustment in the driver's seat and the substandard stereo. As Evan suggests, road trip it someplace or stop a Prius owner on the street and try sitting in one and see what you think.

Good luck,

-bob

 

Sounds like a great Prius commute. My only real comment is that you will have to keep your gravel road well grated throughout the year. I have a longish 300' gravel drive and have no problems but there are roads around here I would not think of driving on. Ruts and potholes will need to be fixed.

 

Actually there is one important difference between the Prius and a normal 1.5 litre car on a highway - the engine uses a different compression system called the Atkinson cycle, instead of the conventional Otto cycle used by all conventional cars. This increases the efficiency, at the expense of peak power. www.answers.com says:

The Prius, along with some other hybrids, is able to use this type of engine because its peak power demands are met by the electric motor instead.

 

You can leave your car even longer and not worry about the battery as long as you turn off the smart key transponder (button under the dash). The trickle chargers were not recommended because the power sockets are dead when the car is off (although you can get a mod for this) and the batteries and system were not designed for this. The general opinion is that the Prius was not meant to run soley on batteries. It is still a gas car but uses electricity to augment the atkinson engine as mentioned above.

Actaully your dad is not wrong if he is talking emmisions. I think he was referring to some consumer report I saw where the insight and civic hybrid were the top of a list with the lowest emmisions but the prius was 3rd. However, neither can be compared since both are smaller and in the civic's instance gets worse mileage so more gas burned for same amount of driving distance.

For me I needed something that I may have to take cross country trips in as well as a economical commute car that will accomidate 2 people and baby seat. The Honda civic's MPG was pretty low (and had less cargo space), Insight is not practical (2 passengers only with limit of 500 lbs), Escape hybrid had low MPG but can tow 1000 lbs, Accord hybrid was not much better than the civic in space and MPG. Prius won hands down. We considered getting the Escape Hybrid as the wife's car but she decided she liked the Prius also, so we are a 2 Prius family.

I considered biodisel also but that is a $800 mod to a diesel car. Then there is the problem of finding biodiesel. I do not care to have to drive around to the local fast food restraunts to fill up on cooking oil to make my biodiesel.

 

Dina, if you (or your dad) want even more info on how the Prius works, look at Graham Davies' site.

 

Welcome to the club.

Sounds similar to my commute, but shorter. I have 1/2 mile of rural town road, 12 miles country road, 38 miles interstate with some heavy stop and go, 1 1/2 miles city road to work (52 miles). My lifetime mileage is 50 mpg after a year (32,000 miles). You'll start out with less, probably lower to mid 40's until the car teaches you how to drive it. Watch those arrows, and keep a light foot on the pedal. Summer gets better mileage than winter. I was getting 55 or so over the summer, upper 40s in winter.

I try not to go over 65 mph as the mpg starts dropping noticeably, and I try to let off the pedal a little going uphill (without losing too much speed) - you'll make it up again on the back side of the hill. Always try to use gravity to your advantage. If you're like me and try to get every last bit of mileage out of it, you'll really learn to hate that gravel uphill. Gravel roads are real a killer for mileage. Luckily you start out with a downhill, that will help keep the mileage up when the engine is warming up. Wind is also a mileage killer, either head wind or cross wind.

Heavy rush hour traffic can also be a killer for mileage. If you run too much on electric only, the battery can run down, forcing the engine to run to charge it. This can lower your mileage. The only trick I've learned is to leave some room in front of you so you can coast as much as possible when others are hitting the brakes. (Don't get upset when the speeders pull in front of you 'because there's an open car length or 2).

The electric motor provides instant torque, a gas engine has to spin up before it can provide full power. When you want to accelerate in a Prius, you go. The Prius is the fastest thing on the road for 20 feet or so.

Good luck and have fun. The Prius is a great car in addition to being clean and high mileage.

 

Well, these complaints are from people the Car Talk Guys would call "knuckleheads".

The reason the car does not scamper across the snow when you floor it is not because of the traction control, it is because of the laws of physics.

I'd bet 10 points that the Prius will get to the other side of the street just as fast (or faster) than the knucklehead spinning his wheels. It also won't scrape a thousand miles worth of rubber off the tires in the process, even if your driving style encourages it to do so. (The better a driver you are, the less likely you will ever see the traction control light come on in the first place.)

If you're on snow you have to leave more time to accelerate. If there's not enough of a gap in traffic to make it across, you wait--in any car. Just because a car will let you spin the wheels doesn't mean it will get you across the street faster. Loud whirring noises do not make the car go; friction (i.e., traction) does. And static friction (such as when the wheels are not slipping) is much greater than kinetic friction (such as when they are).

 

Welcome to the forum Dina!!!

you are probably experiencing a bit of info overload right now. sooo...let me help you load up there.

most of the info here is dead on. the Prius gets the great gas mileage because it doesnt waste any power. everything you do in the Prius will affect gas mileage. having the headlights on, heater on, even the volume of the stereo will affect the mileage (although very slightly) and the reason is, its the efficiency of the car.

in a regular car, it constantly produces power through the alternator. well in an average car, the battery is fully recharged after only a few minutes. then most of what the alternator puts out is wasted energy. modern circuits do a decent job of reducing this waste, but it is waste nevertheless. in the Prius, a much higher rate of return is realized from the energy available from the gas burned. in fact the difference is about 250%

also the engine of the Prius is more efficient because it only works in its maximum efficiency range. all gas engines have an optimum running speed. so any operation outside this range, iow, starting up from a stop, or very high speeds will put the car outside the max efficiency range and waste gas. also idling at stop signs wastes gas.

the Prius gas engine only runs in its max efficiency range. it idles very little (after the car is warmed up, it will idle less than a second most of the time when stopped). the electric motor takes care of low speed needs and also provides high speed boosts. this give the Prius excellent emergency acceleration especially in the "passing mode" (that is acceleration from 45-65 mph range)

roughly estimating from your description, you should easily average over 50 mpg on your commute since freeway is the best way to do that. keep in mind that a drop to 65 mph on the freeway could easily put you near the EPA figures. for me on trips of your length, at 60 mph i average about 56 mpg, 65; 53 mpg, 70 mph; about 50. key here is cruise control. let the car do the driving. in light traffic your mileage will SOAR!!

also remember that nearly all areas use anti-freeze components in the gas at this time of year. depending on your location, you will have an 8-14% drop in the energy available in your gas since the anti-freeze (no its not ethylene glycol!@!) components dont burn but do take up space. so the mileage figures are for summer driving. you can see by my byline that there will be a very noticable difference with what you get depending on the season. some select areas change formulas twice so they have a "winter" and "spring" (for lack of a better term) formulas. im not too versed on where this occurs but i would have to assume that its the severe weather states like North Dakota and Minnesota...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Dina\";p=\"71503)</div>

Have you ever visited following site?
http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/tech/environmen...ths2/index.html
Its Engine page explains about that into detail.

Regards,
Ken@Japan