Driving a hybrid

[Porter]

I got to drive a honda Prius today. It was pretty cool, there's a lot of technology packed in that little car. My girlfriend's Dodge Durango blew a water pump, and so she rented the Prius.

It gets 50 mpg. Acceleration was moderate, but the strangest thing is when its running on the electric motor only. It sounds and feels like the car is off. I guess in a sense it really is. When you hit the throttle, the gas engine kicks in. Before it does, there's this slight delay of power, as it takes the gas motor a second to kick in.

There is a touch screen display, that shows when the battery is charging, when the motors are kicking in and how much electricity the car makes.

At the end of the day though, I still enjoyed crawing back into my Disco. It reafirmed that I need that thing for my type of lifestyle desipite high gas prices, gas guzzling characteristics, leaking gaskets, etc....

 

[LiveAtTheEdge]

the technology's cool and everything, i just hate the fact that the prius looks like a funny car going down the street with horrible styling and the wheels tucked right in and the tyres reeallly skinny. If they put that technology into more desirable car's tey'd sell more of them.

Cheers

Jack

 

[rover4x4]

I would most def drive one of those things. I am just not to certain on the longevity of that electric motor battery recharge stuff...

 

[Falconx84]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the prius is toyota. Honda has 2 hybrids, a civic and the Insight.

I think honda had higher ratings than toyota did on the hybrids. The prius holds ground because it's a little bigger and therefore more family-friendly.

 

[Landrovernick]

That thought that they need to be more family friendly is definitely becoming more important. now they have the ford escape hybrid coming out and i read somewhere that dodge is thinking about making a ram hybrid.

 

[Porter]

My bad, it is a toyota and not a Honda. The shifter is on the dash, and only has Reverse, Neutral, and Drive. The power button reminds me of the power button the laptop.

Maintaince on that thing would be a nightmare. Not only does it have a gas engine, it has a high voltage electric system as well with some type of hybid transmission. I was reading the owner's manual - and it says to contact the dealer if you need to disconnect the aux battery.

It would be cool as a commuter car, but that's it. there are no other frills. It truely is about saving fuel - and that's it. With all that electronics - it would have to be a toyota to last.

 

[curtis]

Consumer Reports just did a comparison of family sedand and included the Prius. They ranked it at the top. The "hybrid" transmission is actually a CVT and that is probably the future for passenger vehicles. Performance-wise it actually matched or came very close to the rest of the group. I forget which other cars they tested though. All of these family sedans look the same to me.

I guess in the long run I would consider one for a commuter car...Nah - I think I will just get a motorcycle

 

[Alan]

They'd probably sell more of these hyrids if they didn't look so goofy. Make them look like a regular car and I bet more people would consider buying one. I'm not all that enthusiastic about driving a bubble shaped golf cart. The smartcars that Mercedes has look better.

 

[campbell]

Interesting article on CNN.com today about Hybrids:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/05/04/hybrid.rescues.ap/index.html

 

[Mike_Rupp]

If I were in the market for a daily driver with MPG in mind, I'd get the Jetta TDI. It's a much bigger car than the hybrids, much better performance and still gets 50+mpg on the highway.