Prius. First Impressions
 

I went to pick up the Prius in Henderson TX Saturday. It was a fun FE weekend. I left Friday night with my wife in Casper for the 230 mile drive. This is the first real highway driving I done in the Mazda. The trip up was 36.8 running the AC. We pick up the Prius Saturday morning. I drove the first leg 120 miles with an FE of 60.0 MPG. We swapped cars and my wife drove the rest of the way home bringing her leg in at 48.8 MPG. My return with the Mazda was 39.5 MPG. Later that night we drove to the HS football game and got a chance to drive city mileage, Round trip 24 miles at 63.4 MPG.

The car is fun to drive with plenty of instrumentation to keep you busy. The visibility rearward takes a little to get used to because of the sloping roofline. The learning curve is steep and it will take awhile to get the techniques required to bust the big segment but I know the cars capable of it it?s just a matter of me getting it down. I was kinda of surprise that the underbelly is not very smooth. It has a little bit of pan in the front but the rear cries out for one. All and all I feel that I will be able to maybe catch up with METRO.:D

You lucky dog - sounds like a very entertaining car to drive.

If they haven't already, Toyota should do a "trip A/B/C etc" gauge feature so you could keep a history of your own FE separate from other drivers in the household on a given tank.

the prius is only offered in automatic, correct? is there any hybrid that is available with manual trans?

Looks like I'm about to lose my spot on the top 10!

Congratulations, Sir.

HA HA HA HA there is no such thing as a manual hybrid!!

You have to make one with an eCycle CMG replacing the alternator.

Impressive you got 60 on the initial drive!! Gotta learn some of the tricks to teach my friend who got a 2005 used last month - she is only getting 51mpg.

Insight came stick, ;)

OOH forgot about that one! Yeah the motor was snuck in there as I recall.

Anyway the point I was making is you can sort of make a hybrid out of any car if you have room for an eCycle CMG where the alternator resides - ends up being about 6-10kw motor or 400 amp alternator. Dan figured that one would fit in my xB when he popped his head under my hood on my visit last week. I didn't get a chance to talk to him about the controller to make it all work however but we are talking about $2000 plus batteries.

I've heard you allude to this idea a lot, perhaps it's deserving of it's own post with a little greater explanation, :)

The problem is, Honda is killing the Insight when the 2006 production year ends.:(

I thought they already killed it? Iono. When you sell 12 a month or whatev, can't blame ya for giving up, :p

But then again, it can be argued that they never made near enough to meet demand to begin with.


If I were Honda, I'd turbocharge the engine of the Insight so that it could accelerate like a Porsche Boxter. I've read of turbocharged Insights do 0-60 mph < 7 seconds, without any statistically significant fuel economy penalty under the condition you drive it as you normally would. A 65 mpg car that had that performance and only cost ~$20k? It would sell like mad. People who buy two seaters usually are looking for a performance vehicle. The Insight could have been that without any FE sacrifice.

Talking to a few dealerships about the insight I was told by all of them that they stocked them for a few years, never sold one, then had to send them back to wherever, :p

But anyway, honda will come out with something better!

Interesting. The dealerships I looked into all had a 6 month(or longer) waiting list. I hope the next Insight or replacement is a 100+ mpg performance vehicle. It won't sell to its maximum potential on economy alone if it's a two-seater.

Maybe use a design similar to the Opel Eco Speester and use the Accord's diesel engine with a hybrid drive setup like that of the Insight. Aim for a $25,000-30,000 0-60 in 4 second sports car that gets ~100 mpg and weighs < 2,000 pounds.

I'll take one. Where do I send my money?:)

Regarding the Insight, the replacement vehicle won't be anything like it. Honda is talking about a dedicated hybrid vehicle with 4 doors, somehow between the Civic and the Fit. (That will make for some tricky marketing, I think.) There's a car called the Honda City, which is rumored to be the platform. Don't quote me, that's just what the rumor mill is generating.

And regarding the new Prius, nice work! To be cranking out 60+mpg segments within minutes of taking delivery is pretty darned good by anyone's standards. I'm sure Dan will have plenty of input to help you fine-tune the driving technique.

Oh, and btw, the first gen Civic Hybrid came in a 5-speed too. That thing is good for some really excellent FE in the right hands.

Yeah, it seems like I was keeping an eye on one that was up for bid on Ebay. Went too high for my budget.:(

i thought that there was at least one manual hybrid available, btw, what model year was the gen 1 civic hybrid launched?

Honda Article.
 

Japans Version

https://world.honda.com/news/2001/4011213.html

U.S. Version

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Civic_Hybrid