Prius. First Impressions

zpiloto · 09-03-2006, 06:18 AM

I went to pick up the Prius in Henderson TX Saturday. It was a fun FE weekend. I left Friday night with my wife in Casper for the 230 mile drive. This is the first real highway driving I done in the Mazda. The trip up was 36.8 running the AC. We pick up the Prius Saturday morning. I drove the first leg 120 miles with an FE of 60.0 MPG. We swapped cars and my wife drove the rest of the way home bringing her leg in at 48.8 MPG. My return with the Mazda was 39.5 MPG. Later that night we drove to the HS football game and got a chance to drive city mileage, Round trip 24 miles at 63.4 MPG.

The car is fun to drive with plenty of instrumentation to keep you busy. The visibility rearward takes a little to get used to because of the sloping roofline. The learning curve is steep and it will take awhile to get the techniques required to bust the big segment but I know the cars capable of it it?s just a matter of me getting it down. I was kinda of surprise that the underbelly is not very smooth. It has a little bit of pan in the front but the rear cries out for one. All and all I feel that I will be able to maybe catch up with METRO.

MetroMPG · 09-03-2006, 06:48 AM

You lucky dog - sounds like a very entertaining car to drive.

If they haven't already, Toyota should do a "trip A/B/C etc" gauge feature so you could keep a history of your own FE separate from other drivers in the household on a given tank.

schmeep · 09-03-2006, 09:12 AM

the prius is only offered in automatic, correct? is there any hybrid that is available with manual trans?

SVOboy · 09-03-2006, 09:14 AM

Looks like I'm about to lose my spot on the top 10!

Congratulations, Sir.

JanGeo · 09-03-2006, 09:15 AM

HA HA HA HA there is no such thing as a manual hybrid!!

You have to make one with an eCycle CMG replacing the alternator.

Impressive you got 60 on the initial drive!! Gotta learn some of the tricks to teach my friend who got a 2005 used last month - she is only getting 51mpg.

SVOboy · 09-03-2006, 09:18 AM

Insight came stick,

JanGeo · 09-03-2006, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Insight came stick,

OOH forgot about that one! Yeah the motor was snuck in there as I recall.

Anyway the point I was making is you can sort of make a hybrid out of any car if you have room for an eCycle CMG where the alternator resides - ends up being about 6-10kw motor or 400 amp alternator. Dan figured that one would fit in my xB when he popped his head under my hood on my visit last week. I didn't get a chance to talk to him about the controller to make it all work however but we are talking about $2000 plus batteries.