Anybody Else own a Hybrid?

[dogfriend]

I bought a Prius back in February. I hijacked this thread:

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151910

so I could tell people about it. I am still keeping the Explorer, although I haven't driven it for awhile, with the price of our gas in Nor Cal (about $3.20 for 87 octane).

I'm getting about 45 -46 mpg with about 3300 miles on the car.

 

[Tbars4]

i got to tell someone and this is probably the thread...a couple months back i went up to big bear and wound up racing a prius up the hill...i was going pretty good, let's just say it was all i could do not to break tire traction with the asphalt and that dam prius was right beside me all the way...i know they are suppose to get good gas milage but they got some scoot in them too...

 

[dogfriend]

A guy in a 1st gen Explorer tried to race me from a stoplight a couple of weeks ago - I beat him easily - the Prius has a lot of torque from the electric motor and it weighs about 1200 lbs less than a 4wd Explorer.

 

[Tbars4]

1200 pounds? wow...i forgot to mention they had a passenger and my co-pilot weighs 4 1/2 pounds, lmao...i am impressed on how quick they move for a hybrid...does the racing them make a hell of a difference on the fuel, like half the milage?

 

[BrooklynBay]

A neighbor of mine has an older model Prius. He gave me a ride in it a few times. It's hard to tell how it drove since I was only the passenger. He is very happy with it. I guess the Prius will have a lot of competition with all of the new hybrids hitting the market.

 

[dogfriend]

1200 pounds? wow...i forgot to mention they had a passenger and my co-pilot weighs 4 1/2 pounds, lmao...i am impressed on how quick they move for a hybrid...does the racing them make a hell of a difference on the fuel, like half the milage?

The car has an instantaneous fuel gauge on the MFD (multi function display) , so you can see the results of racing. If I start accelerating hard, the mpg will drop, but it comes back up as soon as you let up the accelerator. It also keeps the average mpg from each tank. When I start driving hard, the average mpg will dip down to about 40. If I drive carefully, I can get the average above 48.

The worst mileage that I have gotten so far was going from my house (~250 ft above sea level) to So. Tahoe ski area (Sierra at Tahoe ~ 6800 ft above sea level) I got 38 mpg according to the MFD for the 100 mi uphill. On the way back, I got over 100 mpg for about 20 min of downhill. For the 200 mi trip, my average was 48 mpg.

 

[Tbars4]

wow, now if they could do something with the f-250's i would be set....

 

[BrooklynBay]

I get an average of 48-60 miles on $20 worth of gas which is what it costs on an average week. So I get about 7-9 MPG (8 average).

 

[Tbars4]

thats what i get in my 250's, 10 mpg city 11 hwy...thats why i drive my ranger now....

 

[dogfriend]

A neighbor of mine has an older model Prius. He gave me a ride in it a few times. It's hard to tell how it drove since I was only the passenger. He is very happy with it. I guess the Prius will have a lot of competition with all of the new hybrids hitting the market.

I had a co-worker (now ex-co-worker) that had the older model (called the Classic Prius on priuschat.com). I didn't have enough headroom in the passenger seat in his car. I rode in it a couple of times.

I actually think the older ones are better looking, but the newer models (2004 - 07) are roomier and actually get better mileage.

I have a 2nd Gen Explorer and a 2nd Gen Prius.

Yep, it seems like almost every company has plans to bring out a hybrid. Toyota plans to have a hybrid model for each major vehicle type. They already have a Camry Hybrid, a Highlander Hybrid, and a couple of Lexus Hybrids. They are all based on the HSD (Hybrid Synergy Drive aka THSII) similar to the Prius.

Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner Hybrids are also based on the same design concept but use Ford designed powertrain, IIRC.

 

[Tbars4]

i actually have seen most of those tested on the freeways out in l.a. i think ucla test them ...thanks to toyota being such a hot seller, others are jumping on the bandwagon..if i'm not mistaken, ford is actually using the patented toyota engineering and i think they are like leasing the info...i seen something about it, especially when it comes to the escape hybrid...

 

[JIGAWHAAT]

I do not own a hybrid but I do infact own a hyyoowww the hell did it just cost me $10.00 in gas to go to the video store and back.
5.0 + 33x12.5 = empty wallet... no jive

 

[dogfriend]

Our gas was $2.68/gal when I bought the car; now its about $3.15 - $3.30/gal. The Explorer was getting about 230 - 240 miles per tank (about 15.5 -16 gal refill). With the Prius, I'm driving about 350 - 400 miles and then filling with about 7 -8 gals.

The Prius has an inner "bladder" inside the fuel tank to prevent gas fumes from forming and escaping (its part of the AT-PZEV emission system). The bladder makes it difficult to get the same amount of gas in every fill up. So, its actually more accurate to use the MFD to get the mpg.

 

[JIGAWHAAT]

now its about $3.15 - $3.30/gal.

Wow I did not realise you guys on the left coast were paying that much more then us over here per gallon. I get my gas over in mass now for $2.89 a gallon. Not at all good, But it sure as hell is better then $3.30.
Myself I am a glutten for punishment. I ***** about gas prices but on the other hand I love my 302 powered big tire'd truck. Well I guess if I really want to save on gas I could always drive the old harley around. Well that is if the snow and rain ever ends around here.

 

[dogfriend]

http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_gastemperaturemap.aspx

also http://www.fuelgaugereport.com/CAmetro.asp

 

[Lefy]

I like the idea of hybrid but... that dam Pruis has to be the ugliest vehicle next to the first gen rav4s.
My plan I to get a new vw diesel jetta once out of school.
that or a grand cherokee the one with the benz diesel.
I don't see gas prices dropping anytime soon. so I'm just gonna suck it up and get 210 miles to the 16 gallon tank roaring round on 33s.

 

[dogfriend]

Its not as ugly on the inside.

Plus, it kinda grows on you after awhile.

 

[GJarrett]

I owned an '87 Honda CRX HF. That thing looked great and got an honest 40+ mpg in town and consistent 48+ mpg on the highway. Twice I actually got the 53 mpg it was rated EPA (but that was with very boring 50-55 mph on the highway just to see if I could actually do it). I put over 270,000 miles on that thing and I NEVER not once had to fill up its little 10 gallon tank before going at least 400 miles on it.

It wasn't hybrid and it looked good too. Too bad they can't match twenty year old technology anymore

I know some of the reasons/excuses - nowadays there's so much more extraneous crap that an auto is required to have that something that light can't be made anymore - but I still think it's kinda ironic that no one can make an auto today that can compete with one made twenty years ago.

I wonder what a hybrid CRX would have gotten for MPG?

 

[BrooklynBay]

How many miles were on it when you got this kind of mileage? I've noticed that mileage decreases as the engine gets older.

 

[dogfriend]

I wonder what a hybrid CRX would have gotten for MPG?

I think the closest thing to the CRX is the Honda Insight which was discontinued this year. It is a hybrid, but the powertrain design is different on the Honda hybrids compared to the Toyota hybrids.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Insight

What did the CRX weigh? I seem to recall that they weighed about 2200 lbs. The Prius weighs 2930 lbs and has more interior room than the Honda. The Prius is a little larger than a Corolla and a little smaller than a Camry with respect to interior space.