Should I Get A Prius?

[mickythebricky]

hi folks newbie,as above thinking about prius for my job taxi driver.got a astra 1.7 cdti ecoflex at the mo getting good mpg put about £80 in it a week for about 650 to 700 miles,only thing putting me of is in the winter i will be sitting round with the heater on for long periods,any cab drivers on here with any tips? if it could do what im getting now out of my astra i would get one as my knee is starting to hurt with the clutch,cheers folks

[PeteB]

Hi Mick

I drove a 2nd Generation (2006/7) prius in London as a minicab for a year (46,000 miles, plus 7 in the 1st Gen Prius I owned at the time), and I can't think of a better car at any price (well, maybe a Tesla Model S). In fact I changed from a 30 year IT career to do it - no other car in the world would have tempted me to do that.

I now drive a 3rd Gen Prius, and after over 300,000 miles in Hybrids am still blown away by the silence and smoothness when stopped or moving slowly. Passengers are blown away too - I know after driving with me 10 people bought a Prius and probably nearly 100 more may have been influenced. Expensive Mercs and the like maybe well soundproofed, but you can still feel there's something rumbling somewhere under the seat!

Keeping warm in the winter (or cool in the summer) whilst parked is a doddle. Just set the climate control to the temperature you want, rest on auto, and leave the Hybrid system running (known as READY mode, because a green "Ready" light is on the dash all the time the system is active, so you know it will drive even when you can't hear the engine). The engine will fire up for a minute or two now and again, then go back to sleep. In the summer, the electric A/C compressor works off the traction Battery, and the engine will run briefly every 20 minutes or so to keep sufficient charge in the Battery. All this won't hurt fuel consumption too much. Pressing an ECO button will make the accelerator less responsive in the first half of its travel (helping smooth acceleration and economy), but also dulls the heating and cooling, so you may want to experiment with that.

Regards, PeteB

[mickythebricky]

thanks for that pete,ever had any probs with the gearbox or Battery cheers

[MEP's Yaris GS]

From what I've seen of Cab drivers using them there are very few Battery issues. Normally expect a good 200-300k miles out of them before getting to the point they need changing.

[PeteB]

Nope! Virtually unheard of.

I sold my last Gen 1 Prius nearly 4 years ago when it was 9 years old and had 163,000 on the clock. Main (HV - High Voltage) Battery was still good as new, and last I heard it was still in daily use. Even the 12 Battery had been in 9 years, but may have been replaced by now.

Beware of sitting in the car in accessory mode - the 12v Battery doesn't have to start the car, just work the computers, relays that connect the HV battery, door locks etc, and consequently Toyota speciaed a very low capacity one - some motorbikes have bigger batteries! Many people only get 3-4 years out of the 12v battery - flattening it a few times will certainly help towards an early demise.

In a strict sense, the Hybrid system doesn't have a gearbox at all. The main electric motor, engine and wheels are connected by a glorified differential - one speeds up or slows down, somthing else has to compensate. Noting slips, engages, disengages, swaps cogs or moves up or down pulleys. Beautifully simple and highly reliable.

Some complain it's noisy when they floor it, but squeezing the pedal rather than stamping on it will add refinement. I think the car's so quiet most of the time, when it does go above a murmur you notice it. Anyway, any auto kicking down into 2nd/3rd at speed will be noisier too.

[mickythebricky]

thaks guys,another thing is will i have to drive it eveywhere under 31mpg to get the full benifit? do you think i will get as good mpg as my astra

[DarrenM]

Any speed of driving will get the benefit of a hybrid, but slower speeds with more stop starts will see more of a benefit compared to conventional engines.

On short trips I see 70-80 MPG quite often. On hillier, faster trips I'll see 40s and 50s.

For a taxi, would an Auris Touring Sports be better? Basically a Prius estate (but a little less swish inside).

[kithmo]

A Prius+ 7 seater would be good for airport runs.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

thaks guys,another thing is will i have to drive it eveywhere under 31mpg to get the full benifit? do you think i will get as good mpg as my astra

No, you don't. People wrongly assume the Prius is electric under 30 mph and petrol over it. It's not. It's blended between the two all the way upto top speed. That's how you can get 55 mpg at 80 mph or 80 mpg at 50 mph. In fact, to get the best out of the car you don't want to encourage it to stay in electric longer than it wants.

I ran my Prius as a taxi and got an average of 49 mpg in a busy, congested town. Click on my fuelly link to have a good old nosy at 35k miles/12 months of hard taxi use fuel economy averages.

The gen3 Prius Battery is weaker than the gen2 but it should still get 150k miles out of it in town taxi work or 200k+ if motorway or long distance work. The replacement cost according to Toyota UK is £800 - about the price of a clutch on a manual. Also, if you get the car serviced by Toyota (and you really should as the car needs 0w20 oil plus software updates) they will extend the HV Battery warranty by 12 months/10k miles upto 10 years unlimited mileage! This is after the normal warranty has expired.

http://www.toyota.co.uk/hybrid-faq

"It is extremely unlikely that a Battery will need replacing. In the unlikely event that the hybrid battery does need to be replaced and the warranty has expired, the cost is approximately £800."

http://www.toyota.co.uk/insurance-and-warranty/toyota-warranty

"A Hybrid Health Check (HHC) will extend the Hybrid Battery Warranty by 1 year /10,000 miles. The HHC is completed as part of a service, free of charge. The HHC must be completed before the cars 10th anniversary of registration to benefit from the Extended Hybrid Battery Warranty."

[Cyker]

Unless you're mainly an airport taxi, I'd say the HSD's are about perfect; They don't burn anywhere near as much fuel in urban stop-start traffic and have IMHO the best automatic gearbox money can buy right now.

That we have a surprisingly large number of Prius taxi folk on here seems to bear that out :D

On a slight tangent, I do wonder what happened to that hybrid black cab that was being developed some years back. I've still yet to see one!

[Grumpy Cabbie]

This one?

http://www.newmetrocab.com/

It looks like it's being released for testing having only just been licenced for use.;

"Over the next few months we will run through the Trial. We will take the
feedback in and roll it into our final engineering design. There will be
vehicles starting to hit the road from late 2015/early 2016, and they
will become readily available by end 2016.

As to the price, unfortunately we are not at liberty to tell you
right now, but we can say this – it will be less expensive than some of
the higher price rumours circulating at the moment. We are aware if it
is too expensive they will not sell and are working hard to bring the
cost down.

The Metrocab will be in the same ballpark as the competition, and
this will be before government incentives. We are also lobbying hard to
ensure that the plug-in grant will not only just apply but will
hopefully by increased in value because of the high impact of a
zero-emissions capable vehicle in a city centre."

I'm guessing £40k. That's a lot of money to gamble on it being reliable. Some drivers pay over 10 years it's a lot of £7 fares.

[MEP's Yaris GS]

I'm guessing £40k. That's a lot of money to gamble on it being reliable. Some drivers pay over 10 years it's a lot of £7 fares.

How much do normal black cabs of equivalent spec cost new? I;m sure I saw somewhere they're something silly like £20-£30k fully kitted out?

[Grumpy Cabbie]

I'm guessing £40k. That's a lot of money to gamble on it being reliable. Some drivers pay over 10 years it's a lot of £7 fares.

How much do normal black cabs of equivalent spec cost new? I;m sure I saw somewhere they're something silly like £20-£30k fully kitted out?

Minimum about £35k for a real bare bones manual transmissioned model.

If you want a/c or auto then the price goes up and up. Seriously.

http://london-taxis.co.uk/build-your-own

[MEP's Yaris GS]

Makes £40k for a hybrid seem a bargain in comparison then.

[Cyker]

Wow, pricey... no wonder you're grumpy!

I thought it was an LTI jobbie but yeah, that looks like the one I was thinking of! Good find :D

I had thought they were further along than that tho', only now beginning trials?! No wonder I haven't seen one yet!

[Grumpy Cabbie]

The London Taxi (inc the MetroCab and Mercedes London Cab) are the only taxi available in London and half a dozen other cities in the UK. Elsewhere you have many more to choose from - Peugeot cab for instance. And most places allow any suitably sized vehicle to be used - such as a Prius or Auris Wagon.

London still insist their taxis have enough headroom for a gentleman to not have to remove his top hat! That's it. Quaint but mad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conditions_of_Fitness

One of the benefits of a purpose built taxi is the partition between driver and knife weilding thug at 3am on a Sunday morning.

[Cyker]

I can see why that would be a desirable feature!

The turning circle is a slightly more practical requirement of black cabs too (I so wish my Yaris could do that, rather than the comedically poor turning circle it currently has! )