So, A Prius Is Slow?

American culture is limited in some ways of thinking, ignore it. Same reason why i refuse to watch their movies. It's all about size and power, intelligence or anything else is sign of weakness apparently. *edited. Keep your political views/opinions out of the open forums, that's for the political forum*

 

In terms of top speed, both the Gen 3 and Gen 4 are limited to 112 MPH.

I would think that acceleration would be more relevant, however. (Or maybe they did not expect it to float?)

 

Admittedly, I've never really owned a vehicle that's hallmark was exceptional speed.
But I've owned many 4 cylinder vehicles, and IMO The Prius seems perfectly comparable. In fact in terms of cruising power/speed, the addition of the electric motor seems to give The Prius the feeling of more power.

As an vehicle owner/operator? My approach has always been how much speed do you need? I actually LOVE driving fast, but it is dangerous, the USA does NOT have an Autobahn, and all it really leads to is risk of speeding tickets.

But to me? The Prius has plenty of power and meets all the "sane" speed capabilities I would ever call upon.

I can very much relate to the allure of owning a legitimate sports car. IF The US had it's equivalent of an Autobahn? I'd probably want one JUST for that application. BUT...as it is, in the majority of driving scenarios, a vehicle that runs on battery power at low speeds becomes much more valuable and applicable to the driving reality, than a vehicle that can go 0-50 in 4 seconds.

 

Just to bust a myth, autobahn isn't actually THAT glorious. It's pretty bumpy actually in some parts due to concrete foundation. And nobody buys vehicles (except for rich) just because of it - normal driving speed usually isn't much over 130 - and sometimes you get to drive 20-30kph due to congestion.

 

That's what I've "disappointingly" heard.

But when you say "Normal Driving Speed isn't much over 130"....my reaction is still....I'm In!

Since uniformally in the USA, if you drive anywhere NEAR 130...you're likely to end up with an entourage of police vehicles following you, perhaps a helicopter, and you'll make the evening news.....in a bad way.

But I have heard that the reality of the Autobahn isn't as great as my imagination of what one would be like.

 

130 kph is 78 mph which will get you tailgated in the left lane where I live. I haven't driven on the autobahn but I've traveled through it and it really isn't much different than what we see here except it is more orderly in terms of left lane passing only. The areas where you can really open up are few and far between. It's really quite ordinary to what we see in the U.S. except the occasional Volkswagen will be rocketing through the left lane at higher speeds.

Anyway, Prius is slow compared to the competition. Very few cars sold today in the U.S. has slower acceleration. I don't see why we have to keep adding that it is plenty fast enough. Why does it matter if the Prius is slow or not? I have no issue with calling the Prius slow. I prefer it that way for better fuel economy.

 

130 kph is 81 mph. I drove past numerous 80 mph speed limit signs in Montana a few weeks ago, and have heard of several other places with posted limits of 80 or 85.

 

i hope we didn't lose a member...

 

Well now I'm even more disappointed.

 

No airplanes here.

Lots of cars reach 100 mph. Few, 150, very few exceed 200, the supercar stratosphere. No doubt owners get happy feelings from buying that capability, but how could it be used?

A serious car racer told me he would never exceed 100 in any car without carefully examining tires. Off the rims, inside and out. I found that meaningful.

It is no big deal to deliver enough kilowatts to the wheels, and make body aero such that you don't fly (poorly). But, if you want to bet your life on tires you have not inspected, or assume there is no troublesome debris on the road ahead (you won't see it in time), well that is a notable thing. Reveals your sense of self-worth.

Driving really fast with some safety takes you to tracks where they go round and round. Will leave it to y'all to present reasons to go nowhere, in circles, really fast.

 

I wonder how two different conversions ended up differing by as much as 3 mph.

I guess km are pretty standard but there are a few different miles in the world ... but checking with international miles, with U.S. survey miles, and with British Imperial (1824) miles, they all come out around 80.778 and only get different in the 4th decimal place. (I'm surprised, I sort of thought the different units would be more different than that.)

In knots, it's about 70.2.

Was there some calculator or conversion table that gave the 78 result?

-Chap

 

^^ I'm guessing that someone used a rounded estimate of 1 km = 0.6 mile. But for decades, I've had the exact conversion ratio (1.609344) memorized.

 

That's what I did.

 

Wasn't there someone on this board a few years ago who rolled the Prius his parents had bought him? It was on a freeway exit, and he took the corner far too fast.

You can crash any car, and you can always take a corner too fast, no matter how slow the car might be.

That said, I always found that the Prius was very fast away from the lights.

 

i think you're right. the guy quoted in the article was just being facetious.

 

It's a very distant memory...

 

like all of mine.

 

All of your what? I've forgotten what we were talking about.

 

who are you again?