Didn't quote you pauldun170, but that's a use case I think the Prius would be great for too. A "backpack car", great for summer breaks in college or something, go and see the country without having to spend a ton.
In Japan, the Sienna has had a HSD drivetrain variant for a long time.
Wish they'd offer it here. Or on the V, just have a rear facing bench.
the Volt has been extremely reliable overall and has customer satisfaction scores near the top.
Good to know. I've wanted to test one out, and I've seen some used ones for good prices (although I kinda was wondering if there might be a reliability issue because they seemed almost low).
Oh yeah I forgot about that! Stupid people are always trying to pass me in the right lane on I-90 after I blow by them in the left lane. One tool not sure if intentional or not was trying to prevent me from taking my exit. Oh well just hit the power mode button and you're a rocket ship!
Storage is awesome. I can fit 2x4s PVC, doors, all kinds of stuff you wouldn't think would fit in the back.
Yeah it's not a dreadful car, I just wish I got more options like nav, leather, and sun roof. I just changed out my grey hub cap factory wheels for the black alloys factory and at least now it looks a little cooler.
I'm kinda of surprised though, we just got my mom a '14 Honda CR-V and it still uses an actual key. Some of the controls seem a bit wonky and it already needed a battery. I thought Honda was tops?
Yeah. I had some jackass in a lifted truck (that was stopped at the light, and it turned green while I was rolling probably 35-40mph, with a 3rd open lane (with it going to a 2 lane shortly after the light) and the idiot floored it and almost rear ended me trying to beat me to the merge point (he had no chance of actually doing that, but didn't stop him from trying).
Yeah, we were able to save on getting a bigger UHaul when we moved because we were able to load it up with a fair amount of stuff. I do notice it being much more sluggish when you get more than a couple of people in it, but its still not that terrible. However trying to keep up with my sister wanting to drive 85 when we had to take a trip last summer, I really wasn't wanting to try to do that with a loaded car. It still managed I think about 44MPG going probably 75-80. With another 50-100hp/tq I think the Prius could be a decently fun car especially if they balanced it where the max output isn't a huge boost, but it gets a stronger motor for stoplight getup and go, and more high end for highway when the engine will be running more (which is why the new Hyundai/Kia hybrids seem very interesting, where its got the benefits of in town driving, but have like an extra gear that helps on highway driving).
We got lucky in that the used one we found (saw several, but this one was the best of them) was the...think "touring" package that had leather and other features (NAV, although its ridiculously out of date) and I think higher end speaker setup. It actually can do bluetooth phone sync too although I didn't try it myself.
That's weird, but not too shocking. There was some other recent car that I drove that was still using a key and I was just like, WTF? I don't think Honda is even middling, but I recall they seemed to have taken a hit or something. As someone pointed out, the Insight (the 2nd gen that tried to just ape the Prius) was a dud. The new Insight looks interesting, although it looks like its just a Civic/Accord tweener (not a terrible thing, and I'd say it looks better than both of those, but it seems to be more of a typical sedan, although I might be wrong).
I'll give some anecdotal experience. I drive a BMW Activehybrid5. It gets like 1-3mpg combined more than a similar equipped 535i. The MSRP of the hybrid was 5-8k more than the non-hybrid. There is no way I would have got the hybrid for that price premium, calculating my ROI at like 25+ years of driving. The reason I got it? I got it for the same price of a non hybrid 5 series.
Now I ask you, do you have other reasons to own a hybrid other than the potential ROI? If you do, if those reasons are important to you (reducing carbon footprint, reducing fuel consumption, HOV lanes, less time spent at the pump), then yeah, go for the hybrid even at a higher cost.
If the ROI is more important to you and you don't really give a fuck about the other reasons (I don't), then go with the non-hybrid at a cheaper cost, unless you mathed out the ROI based on gas and it's within the years you are willing to wait.
Also, gotta consider at higher MPG, getting a higher MPG vehicle has a much smaller impact vs going from bad MPG to an ok MPG. For example, going from 15mpg to 20mpg is a much higher impact than going from 30mpg to 40mpg.
Good points. I think a lot of the hybrids don't offer enough to make them worth it. To me, I think the best sense would be getting a used one for relatively cheap as a commuter car, and then have a secondary vehicle for other uses (pickup, sports car, SUV, luxury car).
I thought so at the time of purchase but the hybrid is packing enough additional weight that I don't feel (using butt science) the difference.
The one thing I do LOVE is complete silence when pooping around town at low speeds in electric mode.
Yeah, the system doesn't offer enough extra punch to offset the weight probably (which also would hit the handling a bit, although if its got good regen braking setup it'd be nice for that; I seriously want every car to have regen braking, be it flywheel or whatever, as it reduced brake strain, while giving just a bit extra to get going from a stop).
Yeah. That's why getting a full electric would ruin anything but fun cars for me (where I want to hear the exhaust note), as the smoothness and NVH aspects are improved. I was going to say that might be a downside for people with babies/young kids, but then why don't they make vibrating little seats/beds for babies for that? Or do they and I just don't know about it?
when my prius dies I will buy another. it's "comfortable enough", holds a lot of shit, and has thus far for me been incredibly reliable. cents per mile is super cheap.
it's actually not the slowest thing in the world if you're willing to give up some gas efficiency and actually step on the pedal and/or use power mode effectively.
I would say I average somewhere between 35-40mpg. Rarely exceed 40mpg, but that's because we make it a point not to drive like most Prius drivers.
Its definitely won me over. To me, the Prius is the modern VW Beetle, has the hippy vibe, lots of people say its miserable, but lots of people buy them and then get won over by them because its just a solid cheap car. Hearing that Subaru is looking at doing a hybrid for the WRX STi, that sounds like it could be interesting. Which, I'd love a Subaru esque wagon, with AWD, and 200-250hp hybrid, with say 150hp engine, and 150hp motor (where combined you'd get 200-250, with the motor handling most of the getup from a stop, and the engine handling highway; eco mode maybe where you'd get 200hp combined, and then a sport mode where you get 250hp combined).
Holy carp man, you must drive the hell out of that thing. But you have a long highway commute around LA, right? So you're probably buzzing along 80-85mph for a fair amount of it? I don't hypermile in it or anything, but even with the AC blasting full bore, the lowest I think we ever got for any amount of time in it was 41.5MPG, and I think that was when we were moving, where it was loaded up with stuff and was 70-75mph highway in (so didn't get to regen the battery much) in late July (when temps were like 110F).