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Toyota Prius (First Generation)
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Comments
"Prius Owners Just Do It Battery" (groan)
"My Car Keeps Up with Current Events"
"I Get a Jolt Driving this Car"
Dan-o
http://popularmechanics.com/automotive/auto_technology/2001/2/new_toyota_technology/print.phtml
Have you seen the Letter from the Town Hall Manager on the Town Hall Welcome page? If not, you might want to follow that link to have a look.
And hang on to your seats. Change is never easy - for any of us - but resolving the Search problems we've had will be worth the pain.
Pat
Sedans Host
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2587-2002Jun5.html
A) Styling NOT a con - I am constantly getting praise for a cool looking economy car.
The reviewer has not driven on if he calls it weak performance. Its not head snapping, but torque and acceleration are more than adequate for all driving if you know how to drive it and are not afraid to rev it up.
C) The price delivers value in more ways than I can count. The Prius is comfortable to drive, can seat 5-300 pounders in comfort, and most importantly has a continuously variable transmission which is quiet and silky smooth. The CVT makes the car quiet and does away with all the jerks and grinds of an automatic low hp engine.
I am sure something better will come, but there is NO reason to delay choosing a Prius if you want a comfortable, capable, economy, SULEV car with cool styling - and it is less than 1/2 the price of a gas guzzling "cool" car such as a higher performance level.
Last month my girlfriend and I researched and test drove the Prius and the Honda Civic Hybrid (both with automatic transmissions). We bought the Prius primarily because it has much better acceleration (off the line, and at speed) and better exterior colors than the Civic Hybrid. After driving the Prius for a month, we both love it. If I had to change anything on the car it would be the brakes. They are pretty weak and grabby. You have to brake differently than with a normal car.
But now back to the 5-speed manual Civic Hybrid test drive.
The 5-speed version of the Civic Hybrid is only a little bit faster and peppier than the automatic version, but is still underpowered. If Toyota can make a peppy hybrid sedan, Honda should be able to also-- but Honda has fallen short of the mark with both versions of their current Civic Hybrid.
The colors are still plain-vanilla boring and awful. We got our Prius in a nice navy blue.
But get this! In the Civic Hybrid, there is an opening in each of the front wheel wells of the into the engine compartment! I didn't notice this on the automatic version, but maybe I missed it. The opening is about the size of a dinner plate and I was shocked. Having lived through 5 Colorado winters, and many more in the Northeast, I can't imagine all the saltly slush and icy crud that usually gets caked into the wheel wells now getting sprayed into the engine compartment! Are they out of their minds?
The Honda salesman said that the holes were for ventilation to cool the engine, but I think he was feeding me a line. If the Prius doesn't need dinner plate-sized holes in the wheel wells for "ventilation" why does the Civic Hybrid?
The ONLY things that the Civic Hybrid beats the Prius in is better brakes, and the convenience of standard Civic parts.
i didn't get a chance to read all the posts here ... hopefully i am not rehatching old discussion. i want to know if anyone has any experience with haggling down the price. my dealer won't deal at all. thanks
I am a new owner of a Hybrid Civic and have not driven a Prius. I bought the Civic because I wanted a 5 speed, otherwise I would have seriously considered the Prius. I like the looks of the Prius (sort of Echo like) but some don't. The Civic looks like a Civic- does that appeal to you or not? The Prius comes in more colors. The Prius seems to rely on electric power a little more than the Civic (others can correct me here). For example it uses only battery power in very low speed maneuvers, whereas the Civic does not. The standard Civic does better overall in crash testing than the Prius. That made a difference to me. The Prius has slightly more room, I think. I would call acceleration a toss-up with many disagreements among owners of each. I really think you need to drive both- I suspect they both take some time to get used to. Gas mileage between automatics appears to favor the Prius, though there is debate here and I am very satisfied with mileage with my 5 speed Hybrid Civic. I think both are good cars and they are both from good companies and cost about the same. I would guess that after you test drive both, your personal choice will be easy to make. Hope that helps.
Craig W.
I am new at this website and I am considering to buy a Prius. There are some questions I would like to ask the Prius people or anybody can help out : 1) I understand the Prius is targeted toward CITY DRIVING, best fit for STOP and GO. However, cruise control is now available for the 2002 cars.That means we CAN set cruise control on the freeway(let's say 65mph to 70mph), but for how long? 3 to 4 hours straight or 2 to 3 hours in order to keep the batteries "alive"? What is the safest time period for cruise control?
2) I will mostly drive in the city, but occasionnally, can I make a one way trip 100 miles with my Prius?
I appreciate any responses and thanks for your help.
What you've got here [and same for the Civic] is a car with a very small, very frugal gasoline engine, that by itself, isn't capable of providing much performance...but combined with the electric motor when you demand it, you get something approaching "normal" acceleration [0-60 in 12-13 seconds or so], but with supernormal fuel consumption. But these cars were not designed to be babied - buy it to do everything else you want to do with a car this size. Lots of people take them on cross-country trips.
just got my prius last night... it was silver and had 20 miles on the odo. i have enjoyed the car so far. however i do need a few questions answered by you experienced users.. do the switches around the window light up at night? same goes for the dimmer and mirror switches? with respect to speed, i have to struggle to keep it above 70mph, anyone else has the same concern? let me say that the car i traded in was a 2000 merc e-wagon. i need the prius to drive on the high-occupancy-lane. :-)
Also, how much for the 6 disk CD changer. Dealership had no clue.
Cliffy1?
Mark
i got my prius this june 30 (of course it was the last day of the month and quarter too). they gave me 500.00 off msrp. mine didn't come with a 6-cd just a single cd. he did quote me a price on a 6-cd but i couldn't recall. hope this help...
i do have question for others... does anyone know what all the blanks below the mirror adjustment and light dimmer use for. thanks
I'm trying to decide whether or not to purchase the extended warrenty that my dealer is offering (or should I say pushing). It covers parts going bad for 7 years, rather than the standard 3. It's about $1400.
Any opinions about this? Have you other Prius owners purchased this warrenty?
http://sweepstakes.benjerry.com/
I assume they realize the irony of this, but maybe not. Either way, it's good for a chuckle isn't it?
Anyways dealer mentioned to me that in MD there is no sales tax for this car, which is great, but also mentioned that there is a $2000 ish federal tax rebate that comes off your income taxes... anyone know anything about that?
Thanks
There are toyota dealers that sell warranties for less than others. Try this link for one dealer...I haven't figured if they are the cheapest. They sell genuine toyota platinum warranties. I would not recommend buying a non-toyota warranty or a weak warranty. You choose the number of months and the mileage so you can get a 6 year 100k warranty for cheaper than a 7-year 100 k warranty. This lets you match your annual mileage to the warranty. Remember, a warranty is just another product that dealers sell. I guess this dealer figures that they can make money on volume.
http://www.toyotawarranty.com/
Anyway, I'm considering a Prius as my next car, and I just wondered about this. Thanks!
I can only hope Canada will have something similar soon.
"I am leaning toward a hybrid vehicle as a daily commuter. i heard that one can drive singly on a high-occupancy-lane. is this true or just a salesman's trick? i couldn't find any confirmation on this issue. i live in dc metro area and the commuting is long." - generaltso
Answer from the Left Coast:
Salesman's trick. Or, at best, a poorly trained salesman. My sister bought a Civic Hybrid 2 weeks ago and the salesman told her the car qualified for solo commuters in HOV lanes. But he was WRONG (imagine that). In Calif. there is a specific ruling one can look up at the California Air Resources Board. Basically they say "no hybrids". Solar, electric, biomass, propane, any kind of alternate fuel you name is OK for HOV lane solo driving (but you need a CARB sticker first), but if it burns gasoline in any fashion then do NOT venture into HOV-land with too few occupants! Only Zero Emissions Vehicles allowed with solo occupancy. See for yourselves:
http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/carpool/carpool.htm
Buyer beware. Perhaps the rules are more relaxed in the DC area, but don't count on it....
By the way, my sister loves her Civic Hybrid just the same. She just has to live with her commute as it is. Am sure the Prius is just as good or better.
I personally believe that CA hybrids should be able to drive in the HOV lanes--especially now that they just installed new HOV lanes on the final 6 most crowded miles of my morning commute.
http://www.motortrend.com/aug02/hybrid/hybrid_f.html
http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/2002/July/ahead/green.html
"And seven states -- Arizona, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Virginia and Utah -- exempt clean-fuel vehicles from HOV restrictions"
However, you have to obtain special "clean-fuel" license plates before driving solo in the HOV lanes.
And this exemption is set to expire July 1, 2004 unless the General Assembly extends the law.
Source:
http://www.virginiadot.org/comtravel/hov-rulesfaq.asp
hov by myself.
regarding the posting on mpg, my car now has almost 5000 miles on the odo and i only get around 41.9 no matter how i drive with or without ac around town. i drove to nyc and back with around 41.5 (ac on in august 2002) and just recently went to detroit and back with 41.7 (no ac in oct 2002) (odo is reset on both trips). i am impressed with everyone who got close to 50 !! please tell me the secret
Thanks,
Fred
BY JOHN LIPPERT BLOOMBERG NEWS
Toyota Motor Corp., the world's third-largest automaker, plans to use gasoline-electric hybrid engines in all vehicles by 2012 to increase fuel efficiency and reduce tailpipe emissions, an executive said.
Traction battery: geek-speak for the high voltage battery, the larger of the two batteries located in the trunk. Various stickers in the engine compartment refer to the battery by this name.
The traction battery consists of 38 modules, each containing six NiMH cells, for a total of 228 cells. The nominal voltage of each module
is 7.2 volts, and they are connected in series to give a nominal voltage for the entire battery of 273.6 volts (although in actual use
the voltage varies from this figure quite a bit). The specified capacity is 6.5 Ah, and the internal resistance is in the region of 0.5 ohm. The battery can deliver a peak power of around 38kW, but in the Prius the maximum power is limited to 21kW.
The battery has an astonishingly high cycle lifetime - many hundreds of thousands of charge-discharge cycles. This is achieved mainly by
controlling the depth of discharge - the battery is not allowed to fall below 40% of full charge, and is not allowed to rise above 80%, with the preferred state of charge believed to be 56%. Accelerated lifetime tests have shown the battery to be comfortably able to survive for 150000 miles, with the longest real world mileage known to me being 175000 miles and still going strong.
The battery contains a computer known as the "battery ECU", and this provides quite a high level of built in test capability.
For diagnostic purposes the battery is divided into 19 blocks, each consisting of two modules (twelve cells). The battery ECU can measure the voltage of each of these blocks, as well as the current flowing into or out of the battery and the temperature at five locations throughout the stack of modules.
Diagnostic information is extracted from the battery ECU (as well as from all of the other ECUs in the Prius) using a special service
instrument called the "Toyota Hand Held Tester", which plugs into a white socket located below the steering wheel. Typical information available includes (according to a table in the repair manual):
o State of charge
o Current
o Voltage of each block
o Historical minimum voltage of each block
o Historical maximum voltage of each block
o Difference between Max and Min state of charge for each block
o Internal resistance
o Temperature
Several diagnostic procedures which can assess the health of the battery without removing it from the car are given in the repair manual. These procedures are not for the faint hearted, but here is an outline of one of them:
1) Park the Prius in a suitably uncluttered safe open place.
2) Apply the parking brake and chock the wheels.
3) Start the engine and allow it to warm up.
4) Command the hand held tester to monitor battery block voltages.
5) Put the shift lever into REVERSE.
6) Keep the brake pedal firmly pressed throughout.
7) Listen to the engine cycling on and off:
8) Press down on the accelerator when the engine is not running.
9) Release the accelerator when the engine starts up.
This procedure works by comparing the internal resistances between blocks. When the engine is running and the accelerator is not pressed, the battery is being charged. With the engine stopped and the accelerator is pressed, the battery is being discharged. While this is happening any difference in the internal resistance between blocks will show up as a difference in the block voltage. The maximum permitted difference between blocks at a given instant during the charge-discharge cycle is 300mV.
I imagine that if a battery were to fail this test, it would be exchanged for a good one and the defective one would be sent back to a repair facility so that the quality assurance people could get their hands on it.
Happy Thanksgiving all !