So, I'm interested to know, where you live, are Toyota Prius drivers in general as bad as they all seem to be here in NZ? Got stuck behind one today... slow, slow, slow, OMG slow, please pull over, why are we braking? - it's only a gentle curve in the road... hooray! we're now doing 40 km/h (in a 100 km/h zone), sigh.... Where's a Monty Python 16 Ton weight when you need it?
I ran a Prius for 9 years. Sold it to a taxi driver 2 years ago when it had 175k on the clock and had never had anything go wrong other than routine service items. Used it on the dragstrip at times (as you do) and generally drove at the same pace as most other traffic on the road and occasionallt significantly quicker. Constantly returned 55+ mpg. Very quiet, very comfy, but a bit yacht like when you pick up the pace. It was by far the most reliable car I have owned and I only sold it as I needed something with a towbar. So to answer your question, no, not all Prius drivers are sluggards.
My mates wife followed the sat-nav fitted to her prius. It took her to a ford (the wet kind, not a sierra, etc), she ignored the UNSUITABLE FOR CARS sign and drove through the ford. Believe it was the first Toyota Prius written of in the UK by flood damage! Recovery driver refused to recover it, in case he was electrocuted, but following telephone conversation with Toyota, he did drag it out of the river eventually. Only time I have been in one, was this one prior to drowning it. My pal & I went to NEC Motorsports show. It is the noisest car at motorway speeds I've been in the last 20 years. Anytime you passed a truck, the sidewind had you all over the road. The sat-nav tried to take us through a hotel, and when looking for a petrol station, it took us to one that had been closed for a decade, definitely closed before the prius had been built. It didn't even do that well on fuel, cos he drives 'quickly', so the poor wee engine was getting thrashed all the time. JPOS. Did you ever see the BMW M3 v Prius around Top Gear test track, driven hard, the prius was less ecomical than the M3 driving along behind it !!!!
The difficulty with top gear is a completely biased bunch of wankers doing the reporting. You don't buy a Prius to chase beemers round a track - it's a bit like sticking a 20 ton trailer on the back of the beemer then complaining that it's slower than a truck and trailer round a track and uses more fuel. They are designed for completely different things. My BMW spent more time being fixed than it did on the road. Blew it out after a year as it was a pile of crap. Great car to drive when it worked. But at normal road speeds on my daily 50 mile commute I would pick the Prius every time. Sat nav was shite, but I never used it. Much prefer maps.
Don't get me wrong, hate BMW as much as the Prius. But the bit at the end, change your driving, not your car, agree with that.
Yes, saw that. A large amount of the work I have done has been measuring vehicle fuel consumption and emissions, performance etc, designing scientific testing programs to do it correctly. The Prius was never going to win on that one.... It was funny though...
Well I used to have the 1.8 engine Prius as a company car (UK company car Tax for high emission cars has become extortionate) so was forced to look at greener cars as a result. TBH cars have never really been my thing, always got my speed fix with bikes, but apart from being very noisy, not engine wise but general road noise in the car at Motorway speeds I thought it was OK. In fact some eejeet in a custom Vauxhall Corsa and his mate in the passenger seat were obviously taking the piss out of me at some traffic lights once, so I selected power mode (stop laughing it had one honest) & when the lights changed I floored it and beat him away, at the next set of lights his passenger was clearly giving him shit coz he was blown away by a Prius. So not all Prius drivers are driving Miss Daisy!
Yeah, but at that point you were getting about 8mg !!!! But, electric motors are good for max torque from 0 revs. Why Tesla's are quick as feck off the mark.
All credit to Toyota for trying. Mankind will get there eventually....... but in the meantime its environmentalist credentials need to be seen in the context of the energy and materials that go into its construction and in due course its recycling. It makes the whole life costs of Land Rovers and Rolls Royces (most of which are still running) look green. There is more to it than on road fuel consumption alone.
Most cars use more energy during construction, than they do during their lifetime. Tesla's use way more energy than a Focus to manufacture ! Land Rover, greenest car on the planet, by far, cos something like 80% are still on the road.
Yes but didn't care as I wasn't paying for the petrol! My MD has one of those Porsche plugin hybrids, never plugs it in, but still gets the cheaper personal tax because of the low emissions
.......and there you have the greatest insight into ‘government’. They get the behaviour they incentivise.......whether intended or not. And fundamentally the same is true of economics. We all suffer if there is insufficient reason to get out of bed due to confiscatory levels of taxation and daft public subsidy. Careful with stick AND carrot.
I agree, would be nice to have a little less stick! Seriously though, as I have progressed in my career and been rewarded by my employers for my endeavours, my tax burden has become bloody depressing
The sad thing is how few people truly appreciate how much tax we are paying. Our personal tax allowance may be £11,850 but with 20% income tax plus Nat Ins it means very litre of fuel you buy FROM ALREADY TAXED INCOME is 58p in duty PLUS 20% VAT so a £1.35 litre is the best part of 70% government revenue.....and if the fuel goes up the Chancellor rakes in more in VAT too. Governments speak of ‘investing‘ but in truth they just spend and often badly.
OK I put my hands up ,I have a Gen 4 Prius, It's as quick/slow as most other 1.8lt 120 HP Mid sized hatchbacks out there. The performance off the line is surprisingly quick up to 30 MPH due to the electric motors but after that it takes 0-60 in about 12.5 seconds with a top end of 112MPH. It is not a performance vehicle but it is comfortable,cheap to run.after 20000miles it has returned 60.2 MPG . It is reliable as there is no fan belt no alternator or starter motor,the aircon pump is electric. This car has lots of toys & the dash looks like the Starship Enterprise. As mentioned the SatNav is not the best & Road noise is intrusive but i think that might be down to the Tyres. So feel free to take the piss.