Any one have good or bad experiences with the Prius or Honda Insight, not a die hard greenie but looking at one for fuel consumption. Mostly do some highway and city driving.
intrade,
Jul 9, 5:33pm
for a hybrid the best is the chevrolet volt ampera. that is a real hybrid driving 100% on electric and uses the engine just to generate power the electric motor. rats my thread has droped off the cliff i test drove one in europe when it came out and had a review on it.
henderson_guy,
Jul 9, 5:40pm
Unless you spend a lot of time on the great Auckland carpark, there's better fuel benefits to be had with conventional cars.
bigfatmat1,
Jul 9, 5:42pm
You mean just like the Prius does
intrade,
Jul 9, 5:43pm
re*3 yes hybrids cost loads to maintain and mice and rats and road stones gravel roads are deadly to these new fangle electronics. i see the volt sellers are still dreaming here like in my thread from years ago
intrade,
Jul 9, 5:46pm
does the new prius? when the volt came out it was the only hybrid only making electricity for its electric motor , prius was a normal car and only drove to 50kph on electric above that the normal engine drove the transmission. the ampera chevrolet Gm opel holden volt does not drive any wheels with its gasoline engine. the hondas had ima electric assist only also.
madaboutimps,
Jul 9, 5:54pm
Have viewed heaps of reviews on both Prius and. Insight and looked at diesels too, once you add in rucs for the diesels then they are all about on par. I guess it boils down to maintenance etc, do the batteries die faster on hybrids? Thanks for comments
intrade,
Jul 9, 5:59pm
if that is the aim lowest price then import a brand new dacia sandero base model 1.2 liter petrol they do almost 60mpg and have the same power output as a 1990s ford 1.6 diesel engine. www.dacia.co.uk
bigfatmat1,
Jul 9, 6:05pm
Yes 1 cannot remember about the first gen pretty sure it did it used a system called THS the second gen uses a refined version HDS hybrid synergy drive no mechanical connection between wheels and engine. The engine is there solely to charge battery and power the motors
bigfatmat1,
Jul 9, 6:08pm
you will find if you buy new the warranty is very good with a prorated battery warranty. Prius would be my pick of the two I am honda biased aswell.
skull,
Jul 9, 6:11pm
Ask any Auckland taxi driver running a hybrid, they have never had it so good. Toyota Camry and Prius are preferred, they're not racing cars, just comfortable to drive and cheap to run. An old customer of mine who had been running Commodores and Falcons most of his working life got himself a Camry Hybrid when they first came out, he's never had it so good. I'm sure there will be some tales of battery pack failures but very few and far between. The story is exactly the same for America as well, unbelievably low maintenance and cheap to run.
I'm with the fat man^^ Prius or Camry over Honda and I also like Hondas, just not their hybrid. Their Insight hybrid devalues very fast from new.
madaboutimps,
Jul 9, 6:13pm
Yeah I'm swaying towards toyota, never been a Honda fan, but they are a bit cheaper than the prius. The other thing I thought of was are the tyres a weird size and compound? Thus extra cost than normal tyres maybe, don't know so much to weigh up
brapbrap8,
Jul 9, 6:14pm
What sort of driving do you need the car for? I think you would find that for highway driving a diesel will be more economical in real world driving. The hybrid would be better around town as it gets lots of chance to recover energy slowing down for intersections and running on electricity at slow speed. Once they use up their electricity on the highway they are little better than any other petrol car. Diesels thrive on long, hot runs with constant throttle. Driving Auckland-Hamilton on SH1 would be better in a diesel I think. A diesel could be cheaper to buy as well, and there would be no questions about battery replacement so resale could be better.
msigg,
Jul 9, 6:38pm
Yes the taxi companies are all into the toyota, Its the best out there more multi purpose, The other total electric (which is probably not what you want) is the Nissan Leaf, that's plug in only. Each to their own.
madaboutimps,
Jul 9, 6:44pm
Only do 85 kms a day and some week end driving probably 200 kms max. My old mirage has 4560000 kms on clock so it's time to upgrade!
pandai,
Jul 9, 7:01pm
Whenever I get my Honda serviced they give me an Insight courtesy car.
I don't like it very much.
It's about as fun as a washing machine. And when I put the steering wheel where I want it, I can't see the digital speedo behind it (speed is a different place to the rest of the instrument cluster).
If fuel economy was an issue I'd rather have a Ford Fiesta Sport. Much, much better car. Though fuel economy not quite as good as suggested, at least around town.
nanju,
Jul 9, 7:57pm
I have had a 2005 Prius, a 2010 Prius itech and now own a 2013 Camry itech. Have had a brilliant run from all of them. Am really enjoying the performance of the Camry. I also have a Jaguar V6, but I prefer the Camry. To be fair though, all the Toyotas have been new, and therefore haven't cost me a cent in maintenance, but nothing has gone wrong either.
intrade,
Jul 9, 8:01pm
nanju looks like you buy a new car every 2 years. unless you had a moday car like a citroen then you wont usually have any problems on brnd new vehicles the problems come later with age.
thejazzpianoma,
Jul 9, 8:40pm
In real world NZ it's rare to find someone with driving conditions that will see a Hybrid Toyota noticeably beat the fuel economy you can get from a VW Golf. The likes of the Camry doesn't even come close.
There is no need to live with the disadvantages of hybrids, just get yourself a Golf and enjoy the fantastic safety, features, quality of ride/drive etc. Not to mention very affordable maintenance.
Also. what's your budget?
3tomany,
Jul 9, 9:00pm
I am with jazz get a golf
jmma,
Jul 9, 9:19pm
Oh every thread turning into a Euro thread again, mention Toyota and out it comes, Get a Golf blah blah blah. If they wanted one they would have asked :oP
stevo2,
Jul 10, 4:07am
Mrs Stevo bought a new car a week ago and one of the cars we test drove was a Prius C. Over our extended test drive it achieved a fuel consumption of 3.9lt/100km which is the same as stated by the manufacturer. The battery warranty is 8 years. I spoke to a friend that runs the service dept and he assured me that there are virtually no battery failures on Prius, these days, the exception being older gen1/gen2 cars used as taxis having done 300 - 400,000km. They cost no more to service than a standard corolla and have proved to be ultra reliable. We didnt go ahead with that car ($27k) because while we felt Toyota had made a good drive train etc, there was no money left in their budget to build the car so they used a lot of bargain basement parts to build the interior trim, hard plastics, budget switchgear, upholstery etc and soundproofing wasnt very good. The full size Prius was a lot nicer (and more expensive)
3tomany,
Jul 10, 7:20am
Fact is a euro diesel will use no more fuel than a hybrid for less cost & a far better car so why not mention them. The only downside is our stupid road user tax system that allows hybrid to have subsidised road tax.
skiff1,
Jul 10, 7:21am
We have a Camry hybrid as a company car. We do mostly highway driving and it costs about the same as my ranger to run. It's a waste of time.
timmo1,
Jul 10, 8:41am
HORSES FOR COURSES!
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