Toyota
Prius Review
There are folks I
trust to give good and accurate reviews, Brian K is one of those DIYers who pays
attention to details and does a goodly amount of research before he makes an
investment.
So here it is… a
short review of Brian and Sue’s Prius, since they live in Maine where it gets
plenty cold, I think they have a better chance to see potential short comings of
the design.
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Hi
George,
We've had
the Prius for 2 1/2 months now and I've got a bunch of experience with it now. I
thought you might like to read of it.
First, we
LOVE the car. What a nice vehicle! It's a real nice ride. Everyone who rides in
it winds up loving the thing also. Toyota definitely did their job when they
redesigned the Prius in '04. Lots of passenger and stowage room, very quiet,
nice sound system (standard), great lights (option).
There is
all sorts of power, a really big amount of low end torque- it does push one into
the seats (if desired) from a standing start. Cruising at 75 is no problem, I
haven't tried to go faster, 75 will get me a big enough ticket if there is a
willing cop. At 75 mph on cruise control we got 48.x mpg on a 200 mile trip when
the car was brand new. Naturally, the more speed the worse the mileage, that's
standard for any car. The best mpg we've gotten is 64.x for a 25-30 mile pizza
run. Lots of uphill and downhill and in-town driving and the Prius thrives on
both of those. Last week I was on vacation and took two trips into the
"mountains" (hills really) of Maine. The first trip was 220+miles and I got 56.4
mpg. The second trip was 180+ miles and I got 55.x mpg. Folks on the 'net tell
me that the mileage will increase as the car breaks in. Too, I still have the
break in oil in the engine, I haven't gone to synthetic yet there should be
a small increase when that's in the engine.
Some
things we now have with the new car that are firsts for us are Anti lock brakes,
traction control, and electronic stability control. In early April we had a
really nasty spring snow storm. I was out in it so decided to test the new stuff
in an empty parking lot rather than being surprised among other cars on the
road. First the ABS. Entering the lot I feathered the brakes, then heavier
feathered braking, sure enough there was the ABS. No problem, feathering the
brakes still alows the ABS to work, cool. Next up, traction control. Stop and
take off with more power than I'd normally use. TC kicked in and I couldn't spin
a tire. Back off on the power and things return to normal or so it seemed. OK,
now ESC , this one is freaky. I started to move in a tight circle, accelerating.
I'd just begin to feel the tires losing traction and the vehicle heading into a
skid and the ESC chime would sound and the car would correct the skid and put
the car back on it's original track. Faster than I ever could have reacted the
correction was made and the ESC cut back out. On the way home all of these
systems came on at least once. Always faster than I ever could have reacted they
did their job and returned control to me. We live on an unpaved dirt road up a
hill. Under terrible conditions it's largely unclimbable w/o 4wd. This storm was
a pretty big test. TC came on at least once, VSC came on 3x, but even with
the OEM tires the car made it up the hill first try and without difficulty.
Amazing! The question I have is if they work this good with OEM tires, how good
will they work with a set of good studded snows?
The issue
of the traction battery came up once so far that I've read on the 'net. A woman
was trying to sell her Prius with 100,000 some odd miles on it. A gent called
and in the conversation mentioned that the battery pack would need replacing and
that it's out of warranty. Yup, on the out of warranty (8/80,000 Maine
warranty), but no on the placement. It's a "life of the car" battery and should
never need replacement for upwards of 200,000 miles or 18 years, or so Toyota
says. Folks just don't know that. Lots of BS is generally believed about the
car, I hear it all. Limited range of the "electric car", lack of power, traction
battery, plug it in for recharging, you name it. In time they'll learn. I even
had one guy at work tell me all about the car, he didn't know we had one.
Naturally all that the expert was telling me was pure BS, the typical BS. He
nearly $hit when I told him we had one and he didn't know squat about what he
was talking about.
I'm on
vacation next week, yes, yet again. If the weather cooperates I plan on taking
it up Mt. Washington to see how some other items work. What happens when the
battery is full and regeneration isn't available for braking? Does the Jake
brake take over? I'm told it does so automatically. How does the power plant
work when lots of power is needed for a long period of time? If there are any
surprises I'll let you know.
Later,
Brian
An added bonus! Following is an overview of how
this vehicle works by Brian K.
How doe the Prius work? The short answer is great! The
long answer is what this text is all
about.
To understand how it works we first need to understand what the designers were
trying to
accomplish. They WERE NOT trying to make a vehicle that gets great gas mileage,
that comes as
a by product of the design. Their primary design consideration was to produce a
vehicle rated as
SULEV (super ultra low emission vehicle) and PZEV (partial zero emission
vehicle). They
achieved both rather elegantly. The Prius has 90% fewer emissions than a ULEV.
The Prius is a
Gas/Electric hybrid only if the "electric" is silent. It's a gas hybrid. Gas is
the fuel that powers it.
Where does it get plugged in to recharge? Nowhere. If you want to plug it in
there is no provision
for it so you'd be SOL.
What they did was to design an efficient powerplant that you wouldn't want to
drive if it was
only driven by the ICE (internal combustion engine), frankly the ICE in the
Prius is a dog. But
it's coupled to an electric motor. Both the ICE and motor can be providing power
at the same
time, or each can have it's exclusive turn when the conditions are right for
that. It's easily
possible (and common) to cruise down the highway at 80 mph on only electric.
When a large
amount of power is needed both are used and from a standing start the
acceleration will push
you into the seat. It's an extremely fast car from a stop, and due to traction
control won't waste
power on spinning wheels. The ICE is a relatively low RPM (4800 max) high
compression
engine (13:1) and produces 80 some odd hp. I told you you wouldn't want it as
the primary
powerplant in a vehicle. It was designed for efficiency, not to power a sports
car.
The best analogy I've come across for the basic design of the Prius powerplant
and control
system goes this way.... If you had one pair of socks to wash would you throw
them in the washer
and run it? Of course not, that's not at all efficient. But that's EXACTLY the
way a typical ICE
powered vehicle works. Prius waits until it has a whole load to wash before the
ICE kicks in.
When that happens it can send current to the motor to propel the car, send
charge to the batteries
and also use itself to propel the car. A typical ICE powered vehicle is lucky to
achieve 27%
efficiency. Prius achieves up to 37%, so I've read.
In addition to an efficiently utilized ICE there are other design aspects
working to achieve the
design parameters. The next most noticeable one from a driving aspect is the
regenerative brakes.
Unless one panic stops, pretty much the brake pads aren't used. The motor is
used to generate
electricity to charge the NiMH traction battery. In an ICE powered car the
brakes produce heat
which is wasted to the atmosphere. Years ago my father taught me that braking
was a waste of
gas, meaning the heat thing. Prius recycles the kinetic energy into electricity
so that it can be used
to drive the car. The slower the charge rate the more efficient the charging of
the battery and the
recycling of the kinetic energy. Tests have been done by owners (the test I'm
thinking of had
sophisticated equipment monitoring "things".) And they found what I found just
by watching the
displays. This is one car that is OK to "ride" the brake on, well actually
feathering the brake
would be a better term. Basically, 2 mph/sec deceleration is most efficient use
of resources. The
actual test result was on level ground and showed that from 50 mph to zero
should take 24
seconds for maximum battery charging efficiency.
This car really loves hilly terrain. Briskly climb the hill to use the ICE at
best efficiency, then
back off (or off entirely) the throttle going downhill. At times the battery
will show a charge
being sent to them, at times the motor may come on to drive the car. If one has
to brake
(feathering!), a high frequency whine will be heard very faintly (a good thing)
indicating heavy
charge going to the battery. At 50 mph, going down a moderate hill, it's common
for me to bring
the battery from half charge to full charge just by feathering the brakes. On
that charge one can
ride for quite a distance without the ICE coming on, but one has to use the
throttle light to
moderately. Calling for too much power kicks in the ICE. So far the longest I've
gone without
using gas is cruising around town on a pizza run. We were in electric mode all
the time, probably
10 minutes total driving time at the speed limit of 25mph. On that 25-30 mile
trip we got
64+mpg. Oh, the way we know this is 'cause the Prius has an LCD screen that
shows just what
the car is doing (if you desire), MPG is one of the readouts. It's common to
gently accelerate to
cruising speed under electric as long as one isn't in a hurry. I've never been
able to get above 46
mph without the ICE kicking in. Then after it does it's thing I can go back on
electric as much as
circumstances allow.
On the mpg readout... There is no dashboard as such. There is a HUD just under
the windshield
with important info, like speed, fuel, what's turned on, important stuff, you
get the idea. Then
there is the LCD screen that controls everything else. Climate, sound, energy
display for the
drivers knowledge. The computers do the rest.
All of what goes on in the Prius might sound just a bit daunting, but the
engineers did their job
here also. It's totally seamless to the driver, just get behind the wheel and
drive after a short
explanation of how to start it etc.. It has no ignition. It has a power button.
It's extremely difficult
for a casual thief to steal. Let me digress. The driver only has direct control
of the steering,
everything else is controlled by computers. It's definitely "drive by wire".
Back to theft.... With
either key option the car detects a proper digital code telling it that a proper
key is in the car. At
that point the computers in the car allow the operator to drive it. Without the
proper digital code
the computers simply won't cooperate- and there is nothing to hot wire.
Sounds like a whole bunch of stuff just waiting to break down. I know, that was
one of the things
I thought of also. I did research on the 'net. The Prius has been out since '97.
I couldn't find any
major problem from owners, none. I found it very suspicious and continued to
dig. What I did
find was that Prius is one of the most reliable cars on the road. It has no weak
link that I was able
to discover. The dealer did tell me that every once in a while they find a
software glitch. The
early Prius wouldn't have worked for us, it was a sedan and too small. The
redesigned '04 and
'05 is larger, more powerful, is a 5 door and gets, get this, better mileage
while still being a green
car (SULEV and PZEV). One gent called it ugly, but we've always thought of it as
"cute". The
interior is well thought out and there is a huge amount of storage. People room
is more than
ample, folks riding in both front and back have commented on the large amount of
space. One
compared it to his brothers early version Prius and said the '05 had much more
interior room.
The amenities are very nice, climate control, everyone has a reading light, area
lights both front
and rear, 2 drink holders both front and rear, the standard stereo is a premium
unit- nice, since the
vehicle is so quiet. When folks experience the vehicle they always fall in love
with it.
Everything I've discussed so far is standard on all Prii. The options we got
were side curtain
airbags, HID lighting, vehicle stability control and smart key. George should
have posted my
much smaller review which covers the VSC, I'll never have another car without
it. The lights are
a must have for over 40 eyes. They aren't the early "blue lights" that have
blinded many folks.
The new ones are self leveling and don't have that problem. Smart Key hasn't
been discussed.
With smart key, one just possesses the key to gain entrance to the vehicle.
Don't put it in the "key
slot", just possess it to get the computers to start the car. If one should get
car jacked, just leave
and the car shuts down after a few seconds. In practice just keep smart key in
your pocket and
everything gets handled. The car can't be locked from the outside without smart
key outside or
with the smart key inside. Neat stuff. There are provisions for a dead battery
in smart key. There
is a normal key built into the unit that gains access to the interior, then
smart key acts as the
standard electronic Prius key. Insert it into the electronic key slot and the
car starts.
Ok. Driving sensation. Get behind the wheel, put your foot on the brake, push
the power button.
The car powers up and within 2 seconds tells you it's OK. Push the joystick to D
and release it.
The car is designed to imitate an ICE car with an automatic transmission and
without the foot on
the brake will inch forward; it also has hill hold if you don't want to keep the
foot on the brake,
but that uses electricity. Ok, take your foot off the brake and put it on the
throttle. Slightly
depressing it on level ground or downhill won't kick in the ICE, you're in
stealth mode. The only
sound is the noise of the tires and any airstream. Depress the throttle some
more and the ICE
kicks in to get you to speed. When the ICE isn't needed it shuts down, that's
perfectly normal. It
happens all the time, get to a red light and the ICE shuts down. Panic in an ICE
powered car,
normal in a Prius. You'll notice there are no shift points. It has a constant
velocity transmission-
it has a very smooth ride. At times, under heavy load, the engine noise is
discernable, most times
it's not.
Some folks ask, "How is cabin heat?". Great. We live in Maine and have never had
a problem.
Engine heat comes up quickly and is one of the design parameters. Remember it's
primarily a
SULEV/PZEV? In order for low emissions the engine must be up to temperature.
When the
engine is shut down the hot coolant is pumped into a thermos bottle where it
stays hot for up to 3
days. Start the car up and the hot coolant is pumped into the engine to heat it
up quicker. If that
wasn't enough, the engine will run to further warm it and to heat the catalytic
converters. The
engineers have done a great job with heat management with Prius, you won't be
cold. In fact that
is the only way I've found to get the ICE to come on when the car isn't moving.
Cabin heat
comes from the ICE so when the cabin needs heat the ICE will come on to provide
it. At this
point (I know I'm crazy- I did this) go outside and sniff the exhaust. Notice
that distinct lack of
any odor? It'll kill you from CO2 and CO, but way fewer emissions than you'd
expect.
Some other questions that are typically asked are:
What is the range before recharging? I already touched on this, it doesn't get
recharged and one
can't plug it in even if one desires it. The range on a tank of gas is ... It
has a 11.9 gallon gas tank,
using 50 mpg as the mileage close to 600 miles if you want to chance running
out. THBS, that is
the summer figure. The Prius has a bladder to reduce evaporative emissions
(remember it's
primarily a SULEV) and in cold weather it can take 1 gallon less. The wise Prius
driver sets one
of the trip odo's and gases up at 450 miles in the summer and 400 in the winter.
The gas gauge
isn't to be trusted because of the bladder. THBS, I've found the gauge to be
right on, though
other owners report it to be "off". I'll continue to trust the trip odo'. The
gauge is just a rough
idea.
"I couldn't drive a vehicle without power."... Already touched on. It isn't a
race car, but has all
sorts of get up for everyday driving. From a standing start it's incredibly
fast, and has all sorts of
power for passing. Toyota claims 110hp even though if you add the ICE and motor
specs it
comes to 130+ hp. It doesn't lack for power. THBS, Prius now claims the land
speed record for a
hybrid vehicle. The souped up version that got 130 mph on the salt flats. The
version you and I
can buy is claimed to have a top end of 105mph (Or is it 110?). Who cares? It'll
still get you a
ticket.
Why do "electric vehicles" always look that way? I won't touch the "electric
vehicle" misnomer.
It looks the way it does for aerodynamics. I'm a shooter and aerodynamic
projectiles look sexy to
me, the higher the BC the better the projectile looks, so the Prius is
incredibly good looking to
my eye. To my eye it looks something like the top half of a boattail bullet
(sliced down the
length). The wife calls it cute and I don't disagree, it has a very high BC for
a car. I'm working
from a notoriously bad memory for specifics, but I seem to remember .24 as the
number. It can
coast for an incredible distance because it looks the way it does. I like that
too. Note: there is a
very fine throttle point where the regenerative "braking" (coasting really)
isn't active and electric
mode isn't active either. At that very fine throttle point the car coasts even
though it isn't in "N"
on the "transmission". On even a moderate hill the car picks up speed for free
which can later be
turned into electricity (feather the brakes!). I love the aerodynamically clean
looks! I love free!
Where can I test drive one? I have no idea. At our local dealer we placed our
order and hadn't
test drove one. All Prii are pre bought (now spring '05) before they hit the
dealer. I did let my
dealer know that if there was a way to test drive one to let me know. We were
VERY lucky. Due
to circumstances, he had one that could be test driven- we were the exception,
definitely not the
rule. Don't expect a test drive. We placed our order in November, test drove one
in late
December and someone elses with the same option package we wanted (they deferred
delivery)
became available for purchase in early March we pre-purchased it then. We took
delivery in late
March. What we got as far as color wasn't what we ordered (seacoast blue- think
brushed denim)
but color wasn't important as long as it wasn't black or white- we live on a
gravel road.
When I was doing research before buying I read,"It will change the way you
drive.". I thought to
myself, "Yah, sure, what a load of BS. These folks are nuts.". I'm here to tell
you, "It will change
the way you drive.". Sure, I still get ticked off when every car is spaced out
just far enough apart
to inhibit entering traffic. I still have a vehicle that allows me to enter
between those vehicles
when I get frustrated. Other than those times my eye is on the LCD display to
see how I'm doing.
Understand I still have a lead foot at times, but other than those few times I
now drive for
mileage and it isn't at all painful. Does it bother me when someone cuts me off?
Or drives
aggressively? Not really, I'm getting 50+ mpg and driving a really nice car. We
absolutely love
our Prius! I've had many new cars but none have ever captured my heart as this
car has. I know
my wife feels the same way. Cars are cars, but the Prius is somehow more. It'll
do until fuel cell
technology and H2 filling stations come along.
Anyone having questions I didn't cover might find answers at this site. John is
the sole reason the
site exists, he has no corporate support. Lots of photos, lots of info and there
are links to other
sites. It'll be quite clear that John is definitely "a believer". Long before we
were I might add.
FWIW, He's way too busy to answer emails but his links lead to sites where one
can ask
questions.
http://john1701a.com/
Thanks Brian!
George B.
