I've had my vt calais down to 6.9L/100km on a trip from invercargill to christchurch, return averaged 7.5L. Around town, 11L/100km
mm12345,
Nov 21, 7:30am
That's really weird - it's more normal to get better mileage downhill.
a.woodrow,
Nov 21, 7:31am
I suspect it was tailwind vs headwind
mapman,
Nov 21, 8:49pm
Jazz, you are starting to sound like the little boy calling wolf with the troll word. Most people don??
kazbanz,
Nov 21, 9:04pm
Jazz I'm genuinely suprised that YOU of all people would be so one eyed about a manufacturer. It would be a true tragedy if everyone took your attitude regarding Toyota R and D. My reasoning is simple --What if its some now junior engineer at Toyota,honda, Ching chong cars or Fiat who works out a power system for future vehicles! I couldn't give a rats heiney what color/creed the guy is or who he works for. The day will come when we need his inventions.
jfp1,
Nov 22, 4:20am
Well here I am sitting at the airport in Los Angeles waiting for a flight back to good old NZ. Just spent 2 weeks with my buddy who brought a new Prius 3 for his missus about a month ago. She is away so we used her car extensively here. I was pretty sceptical about hybrids when I got here but after travelling about 2000 miles in 2 weeks here in everything from stuck in traffic jams to freeway blasts at 5.30am heading to various car shows, drags etc, I think I have a new appreciation for the car. The average fuel consumption display settled at between 51.5mpg to a best of 52.3 mpg and that being a US gallon works out to around 4.5l litres per 100km using this calculatorhttp://www.markporthouse.net/rangie/fuelconsumptionconversion.htm#. at times there were 3 adults in the Prius with no complaints about leg or head room. I think with the appropriate techniques for hyper miling, the fuel consumption could be improved. The issue of braking s being harsh or fierce is best understood when you realise that under brakes, electrical regeneration is happening and this causes the car to have an unusual feel when braking. Interestingly enough at LA Auto Show that opened on Friday last week, almost every manufacturer of note had a hybrid of some sort. Plug in cars have a way to go yet to be popular as their range is still an issue and the hydrogen fuel cell is still in the devellopment stage.In short, don't sell these things short. They give you a decent car that has lots of advantages under some conditions. Would I buy one! If I lived here in LA, probably. In Auckland maybe. I rural North Canterbury, No.
bob1088,
Nov 22, 4:27am
prius are good - in spite of what some say here (most of whom have never driven one) just had a customer in with an `02 done 260k`s and battery fine for 4.5 - good buying in my books.
bigfatmat1,
Nov 22, 4:30am
There are more hybrids on nz roads than what most think. the prius seems to be the only hybrid to most
mapman,
Nov 22, 6:04am
Great write up.
travis47,
Nov 22, 6:08am
I can see a time in a few years where everyone's second car will be electric at least. I know a guy who built his own, converted from petrol to be purely electric and he put the money into a jar that he would have spent on petrol and if he needed to go far he rented a car for the day. After 3 years he had enough to have a holiday in Rarotonga with his saved gas money.
richardmayes,
Nov 23, 4:31am
I've had plenty of rides in Prius taxis and I can definitely see the owner appeal, they drive like a proper car and they seem to have the grunt when you want it, and the interior finishes and design of the dash are much flasher than a base spec type corolla or whatever. The fact that they are silent when you stop at lights is quite a cool feature too. So they are expensive, but they are a good decent car. (albeit not a keen driver's car.)
I have read some very scathing write-ups of some of the super-economy little petrols and diesels. Bluemotion Polo seems to stand out as the worst of them, a tiny gutless little engine with no top end (or bottom end), mated to a ridiculously high-geared transmission that makes spirited driving impossible. All running on extra-skinny low rolling resistance tyres, so that if you ever do manage to wind it up to a decent speed the handling is dodgy as all hell. And these are a pretty premium price too. But unlike the Prius, they are just horrible little cars!
The other reason I'm a Prius fan is just morals. Toyota put the effort in and invented totally new stuff in building their high-technology fuel-saving car. The first hybrid petrol-electric car that you could walk into a showroom and buy, and it has sold in big numbers. that's a real milestone step in doing something about the world's oil consumption. I think it's quite rude the way a lot of other makers have tried to steal that thunder for cheap, by building nasty little conventional cars using the same old same old technology to skimp and save a couple of percent here and there, and trying to tell people this is an "eco" car somehow akin to the Toyota (and Honda) hybrids which have actually done something to push technology forward.
foxdonut,
Nov 23, 5:05am
Someone get this man a Pink Daquiri, a handbag and a Bichon named "Bugsy".
mantagsi,
Nov 23, 5:49am
I got to drive a first generation Prius many years ago, and yes, I found it underwhelming, and I didn't like it but I do agree with some posters that these are just a first step that needs to be taken. It hasn't put me off of electric cars; I do hope to build one / own one oneday when the battery technology advances, but for now I'll stick with what I've got
richardmayes,
Nov 23, 7:01pm
Although, I do understand that there are a lot of weak people around, who need some sort of tough-guy car (even when it's totally unsuited to what they're doing) to give them the sense of self-worth that is otherwise completely lacking in their lives.
Not that case at all. The modern common rail Diesels are much more hardy and long lasting than Diesels of old, you just have to avoid the japanese ones because they are a decade behind and don't have enough market to develop good ones.
Modern common rail diesels can have oil change intervals literally 10 times longer than the diesels of old and often are still running well with more than 1'000'000 km on the clock.
They are about as hardy as an engine can be.
Also, modern diesel technology actually tends to reduce the number of moving parts in an engine and increases reliability not decreases it.
richardmayes,
Nov 21, 5:27am
I heard the original mk1 kombi was designed in a wind tunnel. I guess those must be better than modern hybrids also!
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