So What Are Priuses Like To Drive

[Red diesel]

Ive never had the opportunity to drive a Prius

But i saw one taking off from a juction at pace the other week

and was kind of surprised at its pace from a standing start at

(i assume) full trottle. Ive since been wondering what are they

actually like to drive

Is there any actual enjoyment to be had from driving one or

is it all about the enviromental benefits.

Red diesel

[Jan&tone]

Mmmmmm, what is a Prius like to drive......

It rather depends on how you want to drive it really.

If you want a spirited drive push the pwr button and put your foot down. You will give pretty much most cars a run for their money from lights for the first few hundred yards, mine has easily surprised some yob in a golf gti who thought he could beat me from a standing start

If you want a sedate comfortable drive that wont upset Granny, the Prius can do that excellently too.

Its a comfortable family car with plenty of room for 4 adults, 5 if the extra one is not too fat.

I had the gen2 for 2.5 years and now have the gen3 and have no regrets at all.

The gearbox is smooth, absolutely no jerkiness at all and the change between electric and petrol power is seamless and imperceptible.

Hope this helps, but really just go have a test drive, you will be impressed.

[Ancient Nerd]

Ive never had the opportunity to drive a Prius

But i saw one taking off from a juction at pace the other week

and was kind of surprised at its pace from a standing start at

(i assume) full trottle. Ive since been wondering what are they

actually like to drive

Is there any actual enjoyment to be had from driving one or

is it all about the enviromental benefits.

Red diesel

It will leave most other cars standing at the lights if you want to do that. There is a lot of torque available at zero rpm. So while other drivers are slipping the clutch to start, you have already gone.

PWR mode gives very lively throttle response.

The acceleration figures are better than they look. Anyone can get the published 0-60 time with just a little effort not to invoke the traction control. On most cars (I am told), the published figures are obtained by gearchanges that come close to wrecking the transmission. Certainly the 10.4 sec 0-60 of the Prius doesn't seem any slower than the 8.9 sec of my pre-Prius Honda Civic 2.2 diesel. The Gen III has half the torque of the Gen II, but it is still up with the diesel, and well ahead of comparable petrol engined cars.

Overtaking is a doddle. The (sort of) CVT gives continuous smooth acceleration, without the gearchange jerks.

And the road holding is perfectly acceptable.

However, if you really want exciting driving all the time, the Prius is probably the wrong car. Fuel consumption will drop significantly, as with any other car.

Also if most of your driving is on the motorway at 70+, again, you'd probably be better off with a diesel.

But if you want a really relaxed drive, on country roads, in town, on motorways with regular traffic delays (think M25) then the Prius is a great car. It has enough power to overtake, keep up with traffic and get you out of trouble if necessary.

The running costs are very low for a car that is probably best compared with something like an automatic Mondeo or Avensis, not a Polo Bluemotion or similar. Servicing and insurance costs are low, fuel cost is (obviously) low, Road tax is zero. When I compared estimated total running costs, using figures from (IIRC) What Car, the Prius came out at about the level of a Nissan Note or Renault Modus.

If you drive in the Central London congestion zone, then it's a non-brainer. Any other car is insanity.

Forget the environmental bit. The Global Warming/carbon reduction scam is just a means of generating tax income. Climate "science" is dubious, secretive and not freely peer-reviewed. What does matter is that oil supplies are running out, so costs will climb steadily. Unfortunately, this isn't an income generator, so no politician takes it seriously.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Why not pop down to your dealer and go test drive one?

As the above posts indicate, the Prius isn't some slow dullard car for boring drivers. It'll shift if you want it to and it wil also return fabulous mpg's that even small, slow, manual eco diesels struggle to get close to.

Oh I notice you've got a diesel so you will really notice just how nice and quiet and relaxing the Prius is to drive. That was one of the reasons I got the car - it's just a joy to drive after sitting 10 hours a day in a rattling diesel.

[timberwolf]

Personally, I don't think the Prius is suited to a spirited driving style, acceleration wise it can do quite well, but you wouldn't normally drive the car that way because it isn't playing to its strengths. As for a boring drive, I think my Gen 2 is more fun to drive than any of my previous cars, but it is a different sort of fun where you feel relaxed at the end of the journey.

[Red diesel]

Interesting stuff indeed

I was just asking the question out of pure couriousity really to be honest.

Unfortunately i won't have the funding for a Prius for errr a long

time. In college now and in a few years i am hoping to put into reality

one or both of two business ideas i have on the go. Which is the reason im going

to college in the first place.

Thanks very much for the replies, the Prius club and the Aygo club

are the two most interesting parts of the site for me. And thats

down to enthusiastic owners - theres now a part of me that wants

to own a Prius and an Aygo at some point. This is a change around for me - id normally

have said id prefer to own say a Lexus LS 400 over a Prius (or an Aygo) but now im not so sure .

Thanks very much

Red diesel

[Cyker]

Anything with a decent electric motor should easily be able to out-accelerate an IC-engine'd car.

In all-electric cars, they're having to program the ECU to lower the standing-start torque because people couldn't cope with it!

But if the Prius is like other CVT-based vehicles, hard acceleration is something to be avoided, or only seldom done, as most CVT uses friction transfer belts/cones and these do not like having loads of torque forced through them on a regular basis...

(Hmm, I just realised maybe that is why nobody has made a diesel hybrid!)

It'd be cool if the next Prius/Auris/Whatever HSD used an electric motor as the prime mover, with the engine being just a tiny and super efficient diesel generator which just powers the motor and charges the Battery without being connected to the drive-train at all!

Then you could TOW stuff! :D

[Jan&tone]

It'd be cool if the next Prius/Auris/Whatever HSD used an electric motor as the prime mover, with the engine being just a tiny and super efficient diesel generator which just powers the motor and charges the battery without being connected to the drive-train at all!

Then you could TOW stuff! :D

Didn't i read somewhere that the Vauxhall leccy thingy works like that, the diddy engine charges the Battery which drives the car? 135 mpg i heard ... Think its called the "volt" ???

And Red Yaris mate, we have just your choice in the family The wife has the Aygo, I have the Prius and I get to drive both.... Aygo is great in the snow, Prius not so good, but both are great fun normally... The Aygo is like a cute go-kart and the Prius is a wolf in sheeps clothing that ain't very thirsty!!!!

[timberwolf]

But if the Prius is like other CVT-based vehicles, hard acceleration is something to be avoided, or only seldom done, as most CVT uses friction transfer belts/cones and these do not like having loads of torque forced through them on a regular basis...

It isn't, Toyota HSD transmission doesn't have a CVT gearbox or anything that resembles a gearbox, the variability is provided by the electric motors, petrol engine and electronics working within a sun and planet gear arrangement (but not used like it is in a conventional automatic). I think it was misleading for Toyota to even use the phrase CVT in their literature, or eCVT or Electronic CVT, as it is too easy for people to fall into the trap of thinking that the Toyota HSD transmission has a CVT gearbox. If I had more time before rushing out this morning, I would have posted a few links, but hopefully another member can post some links.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

But if the Prius is like other CVT-based vehicles, hard acceleration is something to be avoided, or only seldom done, as most CVT uses friction transfer belts/cones and these do not like having loads of torque forced through them on a regular basis...

The Prius doesn't have a cvt gearbox in any traditional sense of the word. The similarity to a cvt is that it is stepless but that is pretty much the only thing it has in common with a 'normal' cvt. The hybrid system itself is the transmission (notice I'm not using the word gearbox) or is the transmission the hybrid system? The transmission contains the electric motors etc and is the clever part of a hybrid car, yet clever doesn't mean complicated as it has much fewer parts than a traditional automatic.

Hence my suggestion to test drive the Prius rather than be put off by the fact that it has a cvt gearbox and therefore it would be horrid to drive. It isn't!

[Chris Dance]

Prius is the best car I have owned. Easy to drive economical and comfortable. It is also a safe car compared to other cars, coming out top in the safety league of cars. I still get amazed at how many folk do not have a clue of how a hybrid car works.

[johalareewi]

But if the Prius is like other CVT-based vehicles, hard acceleration is something to be avoided, or only seldom done, as most CVT uses friction transfer belts/cones and these do not like having loads of torque forced through them on a regular basis...

As has been said, the Prius (and Auris hybrid) doesn't have a conventional CVT. In fact it doesn't have a gearbox. It has a fixed gear system.

Check this little demo for how the Prius works.

http://eahart.com/prius/psd

It'd be cool if the next Prius/Auris/Whatever HSD used an electric motor as the prime mover, with the engine being just a tiny and super efficient diesel generator which just powers the motor and charges the battery without being connected to the drive-train at all!

The Prius does use the electric motor as the prime mover when it can. At other times motion is provided by a blend of electric and internal combustion engine. See the 'how it works' link above. Your suggestion about having an electric car with a diesel generator is pretty much what the new Vauxhall Ampera (Chevvy Volt) is (will be) like (or not depending on what GM say next).