Hybrids sound nice, but make me nervous.

[link|http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/roadtests/roadtest/43877/article.html|Edmunds] has a review of the Prius. Edmunds is also a good site for discussion about cars, info on prices, etc.

[link|http://www.caranddriver.com/xp/Caranddriver/roadtests/2001/March/200103_roadtest_prius.xml?keywords=Prius|Car and Driver] has a review. CandD didn't get very good mileage with it:

Alas, for Earth-firsters the Prius and hybrid Honda Insight represent irrefutable proof that cars can be practical, affordable, and stingy. We will not attempt to wrestle with that logic here, only some of the facts behind it. Over 900 miles of mostly typical daily commuting, our Prius motored an average of 35 miles and 844 feet on every gallon of gas. That's a zero-percent improvement over the Japanese home-market version we tested in February 1999 and 20 percent below the EPA's official city rating.

A Nissan Sentra GXE tested last June as part of a 13-car comparison of entry-level sedans turned in 28 mpg. Toyota's own five-speed Echo pulled a lofty 33-mpg on the same drive while offering nearly identical interior space, a 0-to-60-mph time 4.2 seconds quicker, and an as-tested price $6591 lower. And both do so without the motive aid and expense of an electric motor, a generator, a very nifty continuously variable planetary gear transmission, and four computers to run this sausage factory.

Toyota said it was a function of the cold weather...

The Honda Insight gets better mileage, but is much smaller and only a 2 seater.

I worry about the cost of replacing the Ni:MH batteries and none of the reviews I've read talk about it...

Good luck.

Cheers,
Scott.

IIRC too, some previous econo-VTEC Honda Civics of ~6 years ago, beat the magical 50 on hiway, only sl. less so-called town..

I too would worry about the inherent complexity of two not-quite independent power systems. In fact the performance demands their rather complex interaction:

making use of the 'max torque at 0 rpm' of the electric + the usual torque curves for gas but: modifed engine / cam and timing - to exploit near-constant RPM efficiencies.

Were it 'disposable $' (Hah!) I'd be sorely tempted by Prius also. It would bother me though, likely being unable to get a schematic, detailed manual for it all.. I suspect they made some proprietary test-boxes for dealers; nada for owners. Still, with a scope + schematic - nothing which the boxes do for illiterates: you couldn't psych out (with schem. also of the test boxes and the specs).

Still and all - MTBF of TWO systems yada yada; likely many cheap e- items are encased in welded expen$ive alloy boxes, just as with the other rip-offs for modern look-alike cars:

Sometimes a mere thermistor! resides in such a box and costs $175. The computers for these cars likely have ProLiant prices too :[

Ignorance kills but also bankrupts - just look at yer local NT server farm.. (AS-400? "many instances of *nix"? what's That?)

Nice try though..

A.
skeptical applause for both mfg.

Ashton

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