Road Trip Results

Hi all,

We just got back from a 1400 mile road trip down to Eastern Kentucky to do some rock climbing. I'll share a few thoughts and observations about how the Prius performed:

1) Capacity
We had her loaded with three adults, luggage, and lots of rock climbing gear. The gear and luggage all fit in the hatch area, so we had the entire seating area available for people and loose items. At no time did it feel crowded.

2) Performance
The trip was a mix of highway and mountain roads, often hilly but never long mountain grades like you get out West. The Prius never felt under-powered. Highway driving was pleasant, with plenty of speed left for lane changes, and merging. The engine races on the steeper grades, but it's just one of the Prius quirks that you get used to.

3) Nav System
We have the integrated Nav System. It was a great help, as would be any GPS Nav. For highway driving, I love the split screen showing showing lanes and exits. It's a great help to have advanced warning of upcoming turns. My wife and I used to get a little snippy over map reading and navigation, but not with the Nav System, so it makes traveling easier. I also loaded all of the climbing crags into the Nav as "My Places", so we didn't have to do a lot of hunting around to find our climbing spots. I did notice that the system did a lot of dead reckoning in the gorge area, since the GPS was often at a loss to see satellites. This produced some noticeable position errors with all of the twisting and turning in the roads.

4) Tires
We have the stock Integrity tires. In the 5000 miles of driving before this trip, I haven't had any real problems with them. That's not to say that they are great tires, just that they have worked okay. On the way down, we hit a lot of rain and wind going into Ohio, and for the first time with our Prius I experienced a squirrelly feeling with control, which caused me to back down a bit on speed. On the other hand, two SUVs going the other way hydroplaned off the road and into the median, so there must have been a lot of water.

Our second tire issue came with a steep gravel road leading from our cabin. It had loose crushed rock and lots of ruts. The Prius couldn't make it up the hill at slow speed. I had to get a running start and bounce thorough the ruts, then hold the gas pedal all the way to the floor as the traction control cycled on and off, going "rump, rump, rump" as the tires gripped, threw gravel, stopped, and gripped again. I suspect better tires would have helped. A friend with a Ford Focus was able to do the road with no problem.

5) Seats
Much has been said about the comfort of Prius seats; some in favor and some against. I suspect it has a lot to do with anatomy. We drove 13 hours home in one day without any discomfort, and this after four days of heavy rock climbing and hiking. We find the seats very comfortable, but then I am 5'7" and 140 lb, and my two climbing partners are even shorter. It may be taller people that have issues with thigh support and such.

6) Mileage
54.6 mpg for the first half of the trip, including the twisty local roads; 49.8 mpg coming home. It was much colder on the homeward leg. That's not too bad for heavily loaded highway driving using air conditioning for much of the trip. I'm happy with it.

7) Conclusions
The Prius is a great vehicle. We were extremely happy with it in all respects, except perhaps with the loose gravel on the steep road. I'm looking forward to trying that hill again with better tires.

Tom