Prius - Yes, You Can Chuck It Around...

[atraindriver]

Having bought a used T4 7 weeks ago which then spent most of its time crawling in and out of Paddington down to the A3, I recently thought I'd use a long weekend to give it a bit of a thrash through some of the routes in the Peak District and around Snowdonia which keep coming up as 'best driving roads' in various motoring magazines and see how it did. Put simply, I was pretty gobsmacked...

Having thrown it around the A57 Snake Pass, the A 628 between Stockbridge and Hyde, A53/A54/A537 Buxton-Macclesfield, B547 Macclesfield-Whaley Bridge, then over to North Wales for the A4086 Carnarfon-Capel Curig-Pentrefoelas and the B4407 Ffestiniog-Pentrefelas, I was really amazed how (ok, once you got over the intermittent screams of the CVT on some of the very hilly bits) it performed, even in occasional rain...Had no problem keeping up (noisily, I admit) with an Audi A4 diesel between Llanberis and Capel Curig, especially on the downhill side, and the weight meant that it really stuck to the road on some of the mini-hairpins...With a lot of 50 mph speed limits on these routes, setting the cruise control to +/- 45 mph on the climbs and taking it off on the downhill sections even kept the economy up - in total the 733 mile roundtrip indicated an average consumption of 61.1 mpg on the MFD (probably equates to about 58mpg allowing for the 4% overread). Really was quite surprising. And definitely not just a city car.

A Train Driver

[Jan&tone]

Glad you had fun

Actually, I think you can pretty much treat the Prius just like any other car, there are a few major differences obviously but generally it will do anything an ordinary car will do, just more economically!!

[r04drunner1]

Nice one!

And the Gen3 should be even better performance wise, with the 1.8litre providing more torque.

I'm curious to know what happens in a Gen3 when the PWR mode is pressed, but while it's a related topic it's not quite the same thing. I don't want to hijack this thread so methinks I will start a new one.

[kithmo]

The tyre pressures make a difference to the handling on mine. The stock pressures of 33 psi front and 32 rear give it a slight under steer when pushed, if I up the fronts to 36 psi or more it has a sharper response to the steering.

One thing you have to watch with any car with weight at the rear end (battery) is the pendulum effect. The rear will grip well up to a point then let go altogether, rather than progressively, and then over correction leads to the rear swinging the other way, then the same back the other way and so on, ends up with you fishtailing along the road (providing you're still on the road that is).

[Jan&tone]

Nice one!

I'm curious to know what happens in a Gen3 when the PWR mode is pressed, but while it's a related topic it's not quite the same thing. I don't want to hijack this thread so methinks I will start a new one.

Lol, it goes like sh*t off a shovel

[timberwolf]

Not sure about the weight as I thought the Gen 2 was a feather weight...

My previous car was a Honda Civic and that felt heavy and sold - and IIRC according to the motoring journalists it had good dynamic feel to the steering. The funny thing is that the my light weight Prius with the feather light steering with no feel (according to the press), is easier to steer, it goes around corners better, but I'm saying this as an average driver (and not someone pushing the car to the limits of grip on a public road shared with other people). The Prius has VSC, TRAC, and other electronic aids that probably make the Prius feel more sure footed.

[johalareewi]

Have just been for a weekend in Devon driving around Dartmoor. The Prius (gen3) did pretty well. Yes the engine revs like mad climbing some of the hills and you can see the mpg drop but overall we managed 58mpg going up and down the hills. The main problem was the speed limits in the villages at the bottom of the hills. After using up lots of fuel to climb the hill, you couldn't make full use of the descent (in a glide) because you had to anchors on to get down to 30mph. The Battery spent most of its time fully charged!

What would be usefull is a special 'use up the Battery now because there is a long descent coming' button than you can press at appropriate moments.

[Fluffmeister]

My Prius has been around the Nurburgring, and whilst it raised a few eyebrowes, it did not disgrace itself. I have fitted the Cusco underbody brace to mine though (well removed it this weekend as it's being p/xd) and that made things even better.

It's not a bad handling car, and the steering always had plenty of feel for me. There's a great deal of prejudice about the Prius that will never be fully overcome, that aside however, I picked up a copy of the "TOp Gear" Road test directory and leafed through it and what is their reccomendation for a 5 door family hatch ........ Gen 3 Prius, I nearly fainted :)

I am picking my Avensis up next week, and the press slate that for steering feel and handling, on the extended road test I had, it was no worse than my mate's Octavia L&K, slightly light, nothing major and the handling was fine. All a bit bizarre to me, but I am used to prejudice as a long time Skoda fan, and previously owned a Fabia vRS and a couple of Octavia vRS's.

In summary, there's a lot worse out there than a Prius when it comes to handling :)

[Jan&tone]

My Prius has been around the Nurburgring, and whilst it raised a few eyebrowes, it did not disgrace itself. I have fitted the Cusco underbody brace to mine though (well removed it this weekend as it's being p/xd) and that made things even better.

It's not a bad handling car, and the steering always had plenty of feel for me. There's a great deal of prejudice about the Prius that will never be fully overcome, that aside however, I picked up a copy of the "TOp Gear" Road test directory and leafed through it and what is their reccomendation for a 5 door family hatch ........ Gen 3 Prius, I nearly fainted :)

I am picking my Avensis up next week, and the press slate that for steering feel and handling, on the extended road test I had, it was no worse than my mate's Octavia L&K, slightly light, nothing major and the handling was fine. All a bit bizarre to me, but I am used to prejudice as a long time Skoda fan, and previously owned a Fabia vRS and a couple of Octavia vRS's.

In sunnary, there's a lot worse out there than a Prius when it comes to handling :)

As has been said on here before, the Prius is not a racing car! for general day to day motoring by jo public it does what it says on the tin!

[johalareewi]

I picked up a copy of the "TOp Gear" Road test directory and leafed through it and what is their reccomendation for a 5 door family hatch ........ Gen 3 Prius, I nearly fainted :)

It did raise a few smiles all round when Top Gear announced it.

[fatboy_daveb]

My Prius has been around the Nurburgring, and whilst it raised a few eyebrowes, it did not disgrace itself. I have fitted the Cusco underbody brace to mine though (well removed it this weekend as it's being p/xd) and that made things even better.

Hey Fluffmeister

I have to know....what was your best lap time in the Prius? My pal wants to take his BMW M3 there and I jokingly said that I would take my Auris HSD rather than my Honda Civic Type-R.

Cheers

Dave

[Fluffmeister]

Dave, I was running high 11's, I was worried about a piston popping through the bonnet though, the B mode was useful in a couple of cases, could of gone faster I reckon but it was my daily driver and mechanical sympathy won over in the end.

I go a few times a year and have a ring card, the Prius jaunt happened because I was working 15 miles from Nurburg for the week and had some laps left on my card. I am faster around their in my MX-5 hairdresser mobile :), funnily enough I am faster in that than I am on my Bike, because self preservation kicks in.