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The Toyota Prius transformed the auto industry

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Re: The Toyota Prius transformed the auto industry

#81

Post by tasty_freeze »

fortran77 wrote: post #35

I hated the original Prius. It had no right to call itself a "hybrid". It had one source of power: gasoline. This seriously confused the market and the press when the Volt -- a true Hybrid with electric and gas -- came out. I wish regulators defined the word "Hybrid" and limitied its use in marketing. Family Guy got the meaning of "Prius--and the type of self-righteous person who drove it--exactly right.

I got my a prius in jan 2001. It was $18K and got 45-ish mpg despite that I didn't do anything to try to maximize my mileage. My previous car was a manual Sentra SE-R two door. Despite being a smaller car, it got about 24 mpg and was a similar price (time adjusted). But according to you, those things were not why I bought it, it was because I was self righteous.

Let's say you are right: nobody really cares about the Prius price or technical specs and bought it to be seen. Now imagine someone buying something other than a Prius, say a BMW, or a Lexus, or even a lower end car like a Corolla who might dither over the color or trim package. How much ire do you have for those people being vain in caring what impression their car makes?

If you don't don't care about the non-prius scenario, it means you don't really care about the vanity aspect of car purchasing decision. Inspect what is really driving your resentment.

Re: The Toyota Prius transformed the auto industry

#83

Post by Forbo »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #72
tzs wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How well do Prius Primes (or other PHEVs) handle long periods where one's daily mileage is well under the EV mode range and one is able to charge at home every night? I think it has been 5+ years since I've driven more than 25 miles in a day and even longer since I was away from home overnight. I've read ICEs can have problems if you go too long without running them. Will the Prime's software automatically run the IC…

The VW PHEV’s will run the combustion engine regularly, mainly to avoid the fuel going stale. I assume the Toyota does the same.

My friend's Jeep will give them a notice that it needs to switch to gas when it hasn't been used for a while, so it seems like a pretty common thing across manufacturers.

Re: The Toyota Prius transformed the auto industry

#85

Post by orev »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #41
jajko wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. Living in Switzerland, colleague has Model S, and over whole night plugged in his house he can charge only around 9km/h. That basically covers his commute but he can't build up charge for the weekend if he started week empty. Not even going into the fact that most folks here live in apartments and not standalone houses, and charging situation there is usually terrible and overhead of owning electric car i…

Is it that expensive to get an electric car charger installed? I just got two installed for $800, and the charger itself is $420 each. Even if a circuit panel had to be upgraded and some wire needed to be run, surely it is only a couple thousand extra at most.

Seems like you might have a case of SV myopia. The idea that $1640 plus “a few thousand extra” to be able to drive a very expensive vehicle would be not “that expensive” is pretty out of touch.

Re: The Toyota Prius transformed the auto industry

#86

Post by ZeroGravitas »

isignal wrote: post #69
sobriquet9 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody is interested in used EVs, therefore resale values are very low.

Resale values are lower in US because they factor in the 7.5k USD tax credit and the state tax credit mostly, there is plenty of demand for used teslas for example.

Similar in other countries but sometimes not as direct.

Various regulations set targets which gives manufacturers incentives to hit sales targets. This leads to discounts or great lease deals just before certain dates if targets aren't met through standard prices.

Re: The Toyota Prius transformed the auto industry

#87

Post by wat10000 »

Toutouxc wrote: post #54
sobriquet9 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody is interested in used EVs, therefore resale values are very low.

I’ve been hearing that for years now, and for years I’ve had an eye on the used EV market, and I don’t really see that happening here in Europe.

I think it was true, at least in the US, back then the Leaf was the most common EV. Their battery longevity was trash, they had poor range to start with, and tax credits pushed down the effective new price a lot.

Re: The Toyota Prius transformed the auto industry

#88

Post by lotsofpulp »

orev wrote: post #85
lotsofpulp wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it that expensive to get an electric car charger installed? I just got two installed for $800, and the charger itself is $420 each. Even if a circuit panel had to be upgraded and some wire needed to be run, surely it is only a couple thousand extra at most.

Seems like you might have a case of SV myopia. The idea that $1640 plus “a few thousand extra” to be able to drive a very expensive vehicle would be not “that expensive” is pretty out of touch.

Electric vehicles are not “very” expensive, even in Europe, and it’s a capital expense. That charger is going to be useful for decades to come.

And if electric vehicles pencil out in the US to equal cost of gas cars including oil changes and all that, then surely they do in Europe with their higher gas costs.

Re: The Toyota Prius transformed the auto industry

#89

Post by j_bum »

bison3 wrote: post #62

I love my Prius. What amazes me about the car is how “idiot-proof” or “smart” it is. I try my best to hypermile and squeeze out every last MPG, while my wife doesn’t make any effort to baby it—and yet, we both consistently get about 57 MPG combined. The car adapts to how you drive it, which is really impressive. I think Toyota deserves as much credit as Apple for its “it just works” ethos. The way they design the tec…

I love to hypermile my accord hybrid, but when my wife pulls the exact same mileage without doing anything special, it makes me feel so goofy.

I’ll continue to hypermile for fun anyway lol

Re: The Toyota Prius transformed the auto industry

#90

Post by warner25 »

janetmissed wrote: post #61
dtgriscom wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Terrible in snow and ice Are they worse than most front-drive cars? (And what about compared with a Trans Am?) > No way to defrost your windshield, unless you're already driving I've wondered about that. The Prius still gets its cabin heating from the ICE? > Poor rear window visibility Agree completely.

My experience with a prius in the north east was that it wasn't particularly bad in ice and snow and the few times I got caught in snowstorms it handled about as well as any front wheel drive car. I certainly wouldn't go out into a snowstorm with it if I had the choice, but thats true of almost any non-awd drive. The windshield defrosting situation was also a non issue for me. Man I miss my prius, I sold it when gas…

Agreed. I still have a 2008, and it has gotten me through a couple nor'easters. Even with the original Goodyear Integrity tires. One of them was on the rolling hills of I-90 and I-84 through western Massachusetts and Connecticut. On every uphill portion I'd pass people who had gotten stuck, until I finally reached a place to stop for the night and wait out the storm. The front wheel drive seems to make it better than a lot of other cars out there. Put some CrossClimate2 tires on it, and it would be even better.
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