Blastphemy said:
cwerdna said:
On the contrary... the Prius has improved significantly over the generations.
The Prius has improved marginally, but the drivers are stereotypically some of the worst on the road. When my friends and I see a Prius on the road, we stay far away! The Prius fills its niche perfectly (hence the robust sales), but it's still the same sluggish, pretentious, overhyped hybrid it was eight years ago.
:roll: What a ridiculous and untrue stereotype! It does remind me of http://www.mercurynews.com/mrroadshow/ci_11917435 though (which Mr. Roadshow fortunately put back up, he also drives a Prius). As for sluggish, yes. Pretentious and overhyped, no. I fail to see how either is true.
It's still the most efficient non-plugin mass market car and does great at http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/02/the-most-fuel-efficient-cars/index.htm?loginMethod=auto and http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/05/best-worst-fuel-economy/index.htm.
Why 8 years ago? It first showed up in the US in August 2000 (NHW11) and in Japan (JDM-only NHW10) in December 97. Some of the NHW10 have ended up in other countries where they drive on the same side of the road as Japan.
As for marginally, let's see, it's gone from 41 mpg combined to 50 (http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=26425&id=19813&id=16705) while growing from a not-so-versatile compact sedan to a larger, heavier midsized hatchback while acceleration has improved and net system power has gone 98 hp to 134 hp. It also gained AT-PZEV certification. Where are the other 50+ mpg (or even 46+ mpg) combined hybrids or non-hybrid ICEVs from others at a similar price? How are they doing in sales? How do their reliability records compare?
Tons of features exist on current gen Prius that were only a dream in car in its price range and class back then (e.g. smart key system, lane keep assist, lane departure warning, dynamic radar cruise control, HUD, 3 driving modes, EV button, solar roof, remote AC, nav w/traffic, A2DP music streaming, backup camera, Bluetooth support, etc.) and various features to improve efficiency and warmup time (e.g. coolant thermos (ditched after Gen 2), exhaust gas heat recovery system, etc.)
It's very annoying to drive non-hybrid ICEVs now. It's ridiculous that the ICE uselessly runs when stopped, needs to run at low speeds and that all kinetic energy when braking is lost as useless heat and brake dust.
Sounds like you're one of the Prius haters, w/a lot of misinformation. We on Priuschat hear of plenty of those. :roll:
ehelmholtz said:
I've been in a 2013 Prius since Sept 21 when my Rav4 went into reduced power mode and wouldn't start again after I pulled to the side of the road. The prius, I find to be noisy and under powered for my liking but it's not bad; I can see why it's so well liked; it can easily keep up on the California highways. I own a Volt too and over the last year and a half of ownership, I get an average of 92 mpg so not the 250+ mentioned above. It's a lot more fun to drive than a prius.
Even though I'm a Prius fan, I do admit that compared to my Leaf, the Prius feels like a noisy rattletrap. In the past 2 days, I've put ~200 miles on it. It tends to sit not driven for fairly long stretches now that I'm leasing a Leaf.
And yeah, compared to the Rav4 EV, the Prius is definitely slow.
Anyway, as I said to the other before, if Toyota's the "enemy", don't support/reward them buy buying and leasing their products. Spread the word to others as to why they're the "enemy".
