A friend of mine who's in a market for small car just test drove a Prius C today per my recommendation, and he said its acceleration (merging into hwy) was "unacceptably" slow. He said it was the WORST of all the 2012 model new cars he test drove within last few days. They are: Mazda2 Versa Focus Fit Accent Imprenza Sonic I am about to purchase a Prius C and what he said made me little disappointed. I haven't test driven a Prius C or any of the above cars. What do you think of Prius C's acceleration to hwy speed?
It is not going to be fastest 0 to 60 but after readying reporting from magazines it was good enough for many of them. Im waiting to break my engine in before I even floor it. I would say not to buy a C and buy another car if stronger acceleration is desired or go with the normal sized Prius which may be better for you since it it does pull stronger.
It will do 0-60 in about 11 seconds... And 99 HP. Not a speed demon. However that said, 2oo lbs of torque thanks to the two electric motors, do wonderful things. acceleration when floored is close to the Toyota Yaris. The nice thing is when you are up to speed, say 60-65 mph there is a quick response to pass semi trucks and such, and thanks to advanced aerodynamics wind will not bother this car! From a rolling start acceleration isn't bad! Cornering is wonderfull!
Your friend may not have much experience driving full hybrid cars. It takes a little more thought accelerating onto freeway in a car that's not very powerful. Let's face it, none of those cars in the list have much power. So the Mazda might do 1 to 60 in 10.5 sec whereas Prius c is 11 seconds. That's negligible difference. If you plan ahead and work on getting up to speed early as possible, you'll be alright. If one accelerates late, then expects to floor it and have 8 second acceleration, it's not going to happen with any of those cars. Unfortunately, extra power on tap and super-high efficiency are sort of opposites. Cars with big V6 or V8 gas engines have lots of extra power 'just in case', but they suffer pretty lousy efficiency 'all the time'. I'd rather have a highly efficient car and work a little harder for the rare occasions needed to do a short merge onto freeway.
Hmmm, you want a super economical car but you want it to go fast too? You can have one or the other but not both. Oh, and none of the cars you have tested will come anywhere close to the same mpg's in real life on an automatic transmission. My other thought would be to see if the car was acceptable to you, not whether your friend thinks it's quick or not. When fuel costs increase in the summer you'll be able to smile as he/she complains about how much it cost them to fill their tank.
while all of the above is true, i have not had much of a problem merging yet. we'll see when i go to daytona in may. around town, the acceleration is extremely good, because of the instant torque of the electric motors. i think it fakes bigger vehicles out when you give it a little punch and it darts right out.
Absolutely agree. As with anything you think you need from a car, test it yourself. If they've just tested it, part of the feeling of sluggishness could be being used to a larger engine and easy conventional power, or even just having to press the pedal farther. It will be slower at high end than other cars, but that's part of the trade off for hybrid efficiency: the engine is run for economy instead of power.
The real obvious thing, is that you're friend was comparing standard ICE vehicles to a hybrid. I watched one review on the Prius c, that suggested that because of the electric motors...0-30 mph, was actually pretty fast, but it's when the ICE kicks in from 30-60 mph where it slows down. In anycase, Yes I would suspect the Prius c is no great accelerator. But the bonus is that while you might lose 3-6 seconds from 0-60, you gain about 20-30 mpg over many of those vehicles. If acceleration is a priority? I wouldn't buy the Prius c. Reading your post you said your friend was in the market for a small car and only tested the Prius c on your recommendation... Well if he wasn't in the market for Hybrid, his expectations were tainted by the reality of Hybrid vs ICE.. What are you in the market for? Only you can drive The Prius c and decide if it's performance is up to whatever standards you apply.
The Prius acceleration is far better than the 96 Geo 3 banger that I had, and even quicker yet than the old 81 Plymouth Reliant. It is also much quicker than all the 4 banger Chryslers built up until the mid 90s (unless turbo). A quick check showed that our 2011 Prius (not a C) runs only a tiny bit slower than a couple of the cars that I drag raced when they were stock! The mph is better in the 1/4 than my mid 16 second gutted 84 Horizon that I drag race! Driving style calls for it to be floored to be able to merge in some cases. I simply plan ahead and look for the spot to merge....something that people around here seem to not know how to do, even with Corvettes!
I find it mildly amusing that somebody that was in the market for a hybrid car to save fuel, was concerned with how quickly it can accelerate. Ask them if they ever heard the expression, "You gotta pay to play." Well in the Hybrid world it's more like, "You gotta sacrifice to save." The gas savings comes in the form of a drivetrain engineered to operate efficiently. There's no point in buying a hybrid unless someone is ready to fight off the lead ball in their right foot and stop it from rolling forward.
dont forget that there IS a hybrid that gets about 75mpg and does 0-60 in about 3.5. it is made by porsche. the only drawback is that your monthly payments may be on the high side since the cost is about half amillion. so, there you go. you can have your gas saving without sacrifice (not counting money) i guess if you kept that car for like a hundred years you would save somewhere around 10 cents per gallon.
thank you. i find it amusing when people complain about power with a hybrid or any fuel efficient car. i'm coming from a 500+ hp car to a prius, and you don't see me complaining. the prius serves it's purpose very nicely, and i think it has plenty of power to get the job done.
Did our Geo Metro's even reach 60 before reaching the destination??? I had one a year older than yours, and it's the car I owned the longest. That thing was a beast, because I was 18 when I had it and put it through the wringer.
bdub you are right. every car that ive had and enjoyed is driven differently to get what you want out of it. i could and did at times, heel and toe double clutch my 240z. i used to toss my boxter thru the corners. i punch the heck out of my vrod. i drive my c280 in a regal fashion. i punch and glide my prius c. i enjoyed each and every one and drove them all differently.
wixk1ert, you remind of a joke where a cop has pulled over a geo metro for going a little over the speed limit and the driver is begging him to exaggerate how fast he was going. you had to see it enjoy it
In addition to the above comments, drivers of conventional cars associate shift shock with faster acceleration: You stomp on the gas pedal, the automatic shudders in a down-shift, the gas engine races, and off you go. A Prius lacks all of that drama. The eCVT transmission just goes faster and faster. Without realizing it, you smoothly get up to high speed. Don't discount the effects of perception. Tom
As a driver with a 2009 Prius that is MUCH more powerful than almost every car I ever owned, I am always bewildered by these threads
I was at the opposite end of that spectrum...I was pulled over doing 90 (don't ask) and was in sheer amazement that the car even attained such speed! Actually, I knew it would do roughly 95 down the Rockies while it shuttered like it was going to fall apart.
I would assume it is in fact slower than all of these. Its 0-60 is supposedly about 11.5, which really is very slow by today's standards. Whether that's unacceptably slow or not is mostly subjective. I, like many of us, have spent many years driving cars much slower. But then I also spent many years without high def or a cell phone, so you need to make that decision yourself. The little sub compacts have gotten much faster. Back in the 90's 11 or 11.5 0-60 would have been above average for them (geo metro, for example).
