Jalopnik 
Enter your username and password.
Detroit, 5:38 PM
Mon Nov 30
21 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@jalopnik.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Ray Wert | Email | AIM
Road Test Editor:
Wes Siler | Email
Weekend Editor:
Murilee Martin | Email
Associate Editor - Houston:
Matt Hardigree
Associate Editor - Detroit:
Ben Wojdyla
Editor-at-Large:
Mike Spinelli
Contributors:
Mark Arnold
John Krewson | Email
Andy Didorosi
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
03/25/09
03/25/09
Although Al Gore's son carved out some territory there first, I think.
03/25/09
Would like to see a back-to-back test of this, the Insight, and a Jetta TDI wagon.
03/25/09
03/25/09
03/25/09
03/25/09
At least I can say that I am recycling by driving my car while getting great mileage.
03/25/09
03/25/09
My arguments against the Prius (actually this translates really to my argument against all hybrids) are simple. It claims to be fuel efficient yet those numbers (maybe that has changed with this last generation idk) do not always translate to real world driving. At the same time I'm paying a premium for all the technology in the car at which point after 5 years, I will be lucky if I break even in my investment. Under the best circumstances, if I break even after five years, in another five, if the car hasn't fallen apart yet, I will have to replace the battery pack (Lets face it,I get two years out of a laptop battery before I have to switch), which will take away any savings I just earned.
More-so, because you drive a Prius, It does not give you the right to feel you are better than every one else as most Prius drivers do. They complain I am the reason Gas prices are high because I sit comfortably in my very capable Expedition. Here's the problem, I know what I bought. I understood that it would be more expensive to fill up. Thats a decision I made. But I do my share, I buy my gas at the same price you do, I just buy more of it. Its not that I get some type of bulk discount. Hell when I buy the car I get hit with a gas guzzler tax.
In the end, I don't hate prius' for their technology, I hate the snobbiness that goes with buying a completly useless car, a car that creates a bigger carbon footprint while its being built than some small cars during their lifetimes. It simply serves as a band-aid for the world to make it look like we are less dependent on oil. Heres the problem though. Fuel Efficient or not, if there no gas in a Prius the same thing happens when theres no gas in my SUV. Absolutely nothing. It's not going anywhere so its really no better. I would much rather sit comfortably in am SUV carry five people and two weeks worth of luggage down to florida (from NY) and get 20mph doing 80mph than do the same trip in a Prius.
03/25/09
why wouldn't you just get the Tahoe for hauling something if you needed to, towing something if need be.
and really, do you haul and tow alot?
the point is the H2 is EVEN MORE about "image" than the Prius.
at least the Prius has capabilities. you can get 50mpg if you need to.
03/25/09
Now, if you need to haul more stuff or people, than you might need a bigger car, but how often does that happen? Once or twice a year?
03/25/09
1. Before 2008, no car's EPA numbers were especially real-world. They're a lot closer now, but it's for purpose of comparison between cars rather than for real-world expectation.
2. "Breaking even" depends on your point of comparison. If you're going to use the Corolla, which is smaller and more sparsely equipped, it's not really a fair comparison. Regardless, if fuel hits $4/gallon again, you're going to get back your "$3k premium" back in under five.
3. It's not going to fall apart, it's Toyota's most reliable model. See my earlier comment.
4. The battery is warrantied for eight years / 100,000 miles, or 10/150,000 in California. They tend to last longer than that. The SOC (state of charge) is kept between 40-80% to maximise battery life; your laptop does not do that.
5. I don't feel better than you. It's a car.
6. Well under 10% of a car's carbon footprint is due to its production. The Prius, too. This "pays itself off" within a year.
7. I've run out of gas once and, while eventually I'm sure the result is the same, I had enough charge in the battery to get to the gas station about a mile away.
8. I carried four people between Virginia and New Orleans for a weekend, four people from Virginia to Ohio to Atlanta to DC over a weekend, and four people between New Orleans and Manchester, TN for a weekend. Number of comfort complaints: 0.
03/25/09
H2s have 3/4 ton running gear, locking differentials and slightly different suspension. There are real mechanical differences that make the H2 a halfway useful car in the dirt.
Unfortunately, they've got a body modeled after a pregnant sow in armor and were marketed to total douchebags.
03/25/09
03/25/09
03/25/09
03/25/09
Yes, the unpronounceable savior from the future -er- far east, Prius will save you from yourself even as you batter it harder and demand more. It will withhold when you seek greater expectations, it will deliver when you wanted nothing, and think better than you when it comes time to shift. Nothing can save the world quite like...PRIUS!
Screw that.
Hey, is the Fusion Hybrid out yet?
03/25/09
Unless you were on a closed course (or could plausibly place yourself on one @ 2:47pm on that day), in which case never mind.
Secondly, thank you. This is the sort of information we need. The sort of fuel economy numbers that we jalops (lead-footed as we are) can legitimately expect. 50 mpg in the city = don't care, 26.6 mpg at speeds that would land me in jail = now I'm interested.
Now the question is how hard is it to maintain that speed? Did you have to keep your foot planted to the floor in order to maintain it? Was it well behaved at that speed or did it feel like it was going to take you for an impromptu high speed crash test at any moment?
As for the engineers, perhaps they were ex-TRD guys?
03/25/09
As a Jalopnik, I'm tolerant of almost anything on 4 or more wheels.
As an old fart, or nearly so, I see things as not ever so simple.
The Priuses I see are usually hammering in the passing lane. They're not getting 60 mpg.
Old cars and trucks use more gas, but every year they roll, they are not taking the toll on the plastics and other materials, plus the energy, to make a new car.
But they are creating jobs in repairs etc. They are slowly recycled as new parts go on.
When gas use drops, prices get jacked up by OPEC.
While your budget might improve with the Prius at first, if we all doubled our gas mileage, the price of gas might double as well. It's just not that simple.
It's a long, long way to a non-gasoline world and maybe an impossible journey to a non-diesel world. These are very early days.
It's too early in the morning to fight.
Have some breakfast scotch!
03/25/09
But keep buying them, you self loving egotistical shits. That's just much more gas for me to uselessly burn up in my V8 while doing donuts and getting 2.5 mpg.
03/25/09
Call me a 'self loving egotistical shit' again. Please.
03/25/09
03/25/09
03/25/09
03/25/09
03/25/09
Their Drivers
Either you have someone driving precariously in a vehicle far bigger than what you need, or you have someone driving precariously in a vehicle that they bought just to say they're "green".
Yet as time goes on, both vehicles have improved, with SUV's getting better for using on-road with better fuel economy, and hybrids improving in price and drivability, making them a better choice for the average driver. Eventually the tools will have to shift to another stupid vehicle to annoy the rest of us with.
03/25/09
03/25/09
03/25/09
03/25/09
It's one thing to buy a $24k sedan that seats four comfortably and gets good mileage, or to drop a few extra thou on a GS 450h because it's quicker. Choosing diesel over petrol in non-stump-pulling situations is done for one reason and one reason alone.