When we went to the launch of the latest generation Prius in November of 2015 we were shocked at just how good the car was. In the past it was a car that we genuinely hated! This review, shot in May of 2016, has us driving the car for a week, and on this episode of Rumblestrip.NET and Ten Minute Test Drive, we find out if we still have the same high opinion.
Reviewed 2013 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid
Another review of the fall of 2013 from our recovered videos, this time it’s the 2013 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid.
With higher CAFE standards on the way, automakers are doing what ever they can to increase the MPG’s of their fleets. The Sonata Hybrid takes a solid mid sized family sedan and incorporates a good, though not great Hybrid system into it.
Does they Hybrid system take away from the Sonata, does it make it a better car? That’s what we find out on this episode of Rumblestrip.NET and Ten Minute Test Drive.
Walkaround: 2011 Chevy Volt
There has been a lot of contriversy about the Chevy Volt, it is an electric car, is it a hybrid car, is it something inbetween. Who cares, what it is, is brilliant! We are in the middle of our week with the car, and we think it’s a 5 Star kind of car.
We will have more in a few weeks, but what we want to do now is take your for a walkaround of the car and have a look at some of the features and highlights. This video is a bit long, but it is very through.
Our thanks to Scott Vandekerckhove from ESI for helping us out and walking us through.
Quick Drive 2012 Prius v The Next Car In The Prius Family
Hybrid sales in the U.S. account about 2.5% of total sales, of that amount, 53% of those sales are Toyota Prius’. There are 16 other car companies building hybrids and 30 other hybrid models on the market, but none of them can hold a candle to the Prius when it comes to sales and market acceptance. The next question then becomes, is this level of sales all the market will hold, or are their opportunities to expand, sales and a brand. Toyota is setting out to answer this question with the Prius v.
There is no doubt, and Toyota executives acknowledge the fact that the Hollywood crowd had a significant impact in getting mainstream people interested in and purchasing Prius’. However, as families grew, many outgrew their Prius and needed something with more space for said family and their related gear. Sure some moved up to Toyota’s RAV4 or other crossovers and small SUV’s, but Toyota wanted an option for those that still wanted to drive a hybrid, or something with superior fuel economy.
What they have come up with is the Prius v, the first extension of the Prius family. While the Prius v looks very similar in size to the current Prius, it is actually larger. The Prius v has a three inch longer wheelbase, is six inches longer overall, 3 inches taller and one inch wider. This all adds up to 58% more cargo space for the car which equals or exceeds 80% of CUV’s and small SUV’s in the market. The extended wheelbase has a noticeable effect on rear seat room. Rear seats can move forwards and backwards to alter legroom and or cargo area. With the drivers seat adjusted for a 6’4” person, there is still plenty of room behind the drivers seat for that same 6’4” person to ride comfortably. The Prius v weighs in at 236 pounds more than the current Prius and has an drag coefficient of .29 versus .25 from the standard Prius.
With additional width and height of the Prius v it makes a difference in how airy the cabin feels. There is plenty of headroom for front and back seat passengers and the additional shoulder room is welcome. Three adults should be able to fit comfortably in the back seat.
A few other things of note in the interior. The Prius v carries the first sunroof offered in the line. It is made of a resin that is 40% lighter than conventional glass and reflects 99% of all UV rays to keep the interior cooler and materials from fading. The seat material used is a synthetic leather like surface that has a good feel to it yet is 50% lighter than conventional leather. Toyota have also worked with JBL Audio on the sound system. Not only are the related amps and speakers lighter than normal, they also draw less power. At 100dB, a conventional system might draw 7.6 amps of power, the JBL Green Edge system only draws 3.9 amps. If you crank up the volume to 105dB that difference grows to 11.7 amps for the conventional system versus 4.8 for the JBL system. JBL claim that the 120 watt system available int eh Prius v is equal it a 600 watt conventional system.
Also debuting on the Prius v is Toyota’s new telematics system called Entune. It works with iPhones and Android devices to provide connectivity for the system. There are apps built into the Entune system, Bing for searching the navigation and other apps, but not the internet, Pandora, Open Table, iHeart Radio and others. Entune requires that you download the corresponding applications onto your smartphone and then syncs them together to work seamlessly.
If you’ve driven the current generation of Toyota Prius then the driving dynamics of the Prius v will be very familiar. The Prius v does seem to ride a bit better, tar strips, bumps and pot holes don’t seem as noticeable, the Prius v also rides a bit quieter as well. We did notice a difference in sound level between the drivers seat and the passengers seat. In the drivers seat we noticed more wind and road noises then we did in the passengers seat, and the person we did the drive with made the same comments.
Both of us felt that a big culprit to the ride and noise issues were the tires selected for the car. Just like the standard Prius, the Prius v has low rolling resistance tires that aren’t the most compliant of rubber. We’d like to see what effect to the mileage a set of “conventional” tires would have, and what difference that would have for the ride and comfort of the car as well. Tossed into corners the Prius v understeers as you would expect and the back end can get a little light as well, but we don’t believe anyone has illusions of this car being anything resembling sporty.
The Prius v has electric steering and while providing a very light feel, provides little feedback. The front end of the car feels “out there” as in, input goes into the steering wheel and the car turns, but there is no connected feel.
If you like and enjoy the current Prius then you will like the Prius v as well. If you are a fan of the Prius, but your family needs more cargo space and room, but your don’t want a traditional crossover or small SUV then this might be your answer. The Prius v is rated by the EPA at 44 city, 40 highway and 42 combined. The Prius v is also classified by the EPA as a midsize wagon. In our 40 mile loop of two lane back roads we saw 41 mpg, and we weren’t taking it easy.
There will be three trim packages available the 2, 3 and 5 which correspond to current Prius options packages. Other markets will see the Prius v sold as a seven passenger vehicle, but not in North America, Toyota’s market research said that people were more interested in cargo room then extra seating. Also by going with a five passenger rather than a seven passenger configuration, Toyota were able to charge several thousand dollars less for the vehicle.
The Prius v will go on sale in the fall with mid October being the target time frame. Toyota believe that they will be able to sell 25,000 to 30,000 of the Prius v’s a year without having any impact on current Prius sales, pricing when it goes on sale will be slightly higher than the current Prius, but no official pricing has been announced.
If you’d like to see the rest of the photo’s for the Prius v please check out the photo gallery
Reviewed: 2011 Toyota Prius – The Hyper-milers Bugati Veyron
The Toyota Prius is an interesting vehicle in that it draws very strong reactions. For certain group of enthusiasts the Prius is a coming sign of the apocalypse, for another group of enthusiasts, it is as if it came down from the hand of the Almighty himself. For yet another group of people, it is a tool for them to shout out loudly that they are morally superior to everyone else in the world, because they drive a hybrid.
Believe it, or not, the Toyota Prius is a hard-core enthusiast machine. It just doesn’t happen to be the hard-core enthusiast machine one would think of if you come from a traditional gearheads mindset. And yet, it is to the hyper milers what a Ferrari 458 or Bugatti Veyron would represent. Go to a gathering of hyper-milers for any competition they put on, and you will find people who have tricked out Prius’ just like a hot roder might trick out a 5 liter Mustang. The funny thing is, the group of people who would trick out said Mustang to run 10 second-quarter miles on pump gas hold as much disdain for the Prius and its owners, as the Prius owners do for the Mustang crowd. And yet, their passion, their ingenuity, and their commitment to their cause is exactly the same, it’s just that they come from totally opposite ends of the spectrum.
The Toyota Prius has come a long way in the decade plus it is been on the market. Even in the last couple years, before this current iteration, while one could marvel at the engineering of the car, it felt as much like an appliance, as it ever did in automobile. Because the focus was always on engineering and fuel mileage, everything else took a backseat. The exterior design was often best described as awkward, and the interiors used more plastic than the Fisher-Price aisle at Toys “R” Us. The latest generation of Prius’ has sought to fix some of these issues. The exterior design of the car has certainly been crafted in a wind tunnel with little regard for aesthetics. That said, the unique shape of the Prius makes it stand out, which from Toyota’s point of view, may have been the point from the start. When you see a Prius go down the road, you won’t mistake it for any other car. To the douche bag crowd it screams, “look at me look at me I’m driving a hybrid!” These are of course the same people who drive their Prius Hybrid in the HOV lane, by themselves, at 85 to 90 miles an hour, not exactly being kinder to the environment than the four people riding in an SUV.
Compared to previous generations the interior of the current Prius is light years ahead. While it still contains quite a bit of plastic it is of much higher quality and much more tastefully done. In fact, the quality of materials inside the Prius are almost up to the level of what one would expect in this price range. It’s still a bit stark, but it no longer feels like a low-grade appliance, it feels like an automobile interior. Some of the materials feel a bit thin the layout of the center console is still a bit odd the placement of the switches for the heated seats is a head scratcher, placed as they are in an open space underneath the console between the seats.
The dashboard arrangement itself is a bit odd, rather than instrumentation being in front of you, it’s off to the center, not exactly in the direct line of sight. If you are trying to keep an eye on the power meter to maximize your battery usage, or see how high you can keep your instant fuel economy, it’s difficult to both do that, and pay attention to what you’re driving down the road. If any vehicle called for a heads-up display the Prius certainly has to be at the top of the list. The quote enthusiast unquote who try to maximize mileage i.e. the hyper milers, pay attention to this power meter more than anything else in the car. This means, that they aren’t paying attention to what’s happening on the road in front of them. It becomes a bit of the video game, and that’s not exactly what you want going on as you’re driving on the road.
The whole purpose of owning a Prius, is very high fuel economy. In the time that we spent with the Prius, the mileage that we got, was ordinary at best. Ordinary, from what the EPA sticker says it should get, what the hyper miler enthusiasts get, and what a comparable modern clean diesel can get. We put over 700 miles on the Prius during our time with it, and what we saw on our highway runs was a high of 44 miles to the gallon. In the city where the Prius should get better mileage we saw about the same number. While 44 miles to the gallon is nothing to sneeze at, we can think of other cars that can get the same or better mileage, that we would prefer to drive. Our 44 mpg on the highway was with the cruise control set at 75 mph. Some will claim that if you wanted to maximize fuel mileage that speed is too high, and that you should not use the cruise control. Perhaps they have a point, but in us reviewing the Prius, our goal was not to drive it for maximum mileage, rather, it was to drive it like any other ordinary car, and see what the results were.
Because every effort was made to maximize mileage in this car, it’s not the most comfortable highway cruiser. The car is sprung rather stiffly, and the low rolling resistance tires mounted on the car don’t exactly provide a supple ride. In fact, you pretty much feel every expansion joint, pothole, and road imperfection, transferred right into the seat. Also, in an effort to save weight, there is not an abundance of sound deadener in the car. While level of road noise transferred into the car is not objectionable, it was more noticeable than other cars in its peer group.
One very positive note we have for the Prius is that it can haul quite a bit of stuff. We had our Prius over the Christmas holidays, and it handled not only all of our luggage, but quite a few packages and other related things that we needed to take along with us. With the back seat folded down, which do fold flat, there is a very useful amount of cargo room in the Prius, even with the hatchback cutting into some of the room.
No one can deny that the Prius is a very successful car. In the US market, hybrids account for 2.5% of all vehicles sold. Of that 2.5%, the Toyota Prius accounts for 50% of those sales, 50 percent! In fact, the Toyota Prius sells about 125,000 units a year, that is nearly half of the total volume of sales for the Camry, which is the best-selling car in the United States. The Prius also has a very loyal ownership group. Most of the people who have owned Prius’ have bought or will by another one. So in this matter Toyota knows exactly what they’re doing and is executing well on it. The question then becomes, can they expand sales of the Prius and the Prius brand to more than this segment of the market? Toyota is certainly going to try as the Prius V will be coming out in the summer and Toyota also looks to expand the Prius brand with other models in the very near future.
The Toyota Prius is certainly a remarkable feat of engineering and a brilliant bit of marketing. As we have said earlier, to a certain group of its ownership it is the ultimate hard-core performance automobile, just not the hard-core performance automobile that would typically come to mind. The problem for us is that we are the traditional gearhead, so this car is a bit lost on us. While we certainly can acknowledge the feat of engineering, for us, and this is the most important point, we can find no passion in with this car.
While it certainly has come many steps forward from literally being an automotive appliance, we just cannot find any enthusiasm for the car. That does not mean that the Toyota Prius is a bad car, because it’s not, it does exactly what it’s supposed to do, for the group that it’s intended to. And, based on the passion and loyalty of its owners it’s right on target. For us, we are not in that target market and no matter how objective you try to be, you are who you are. For us we would bypass the Toyota Prius for several other options, but for the group of people, and they are a large group of people, who view automobiles as nothing more than a tool, the Toyota Prius is an excellent vehicle which has great versatility for hauling the family around, commuting to and from work, and being a fine all-around car, and it also get very good, though not spectacular fuel mileage. You certainly could do much worse than the Toyota Prius.
If you would like to see the full gallery of pictues just click this link
Five Days With The Ford Fusion Hybrid
When we drove the Fusion Hybrid back from DC, we liked the car very much as you can see from out earlier review, the question was how would it be on a day in and day out basis. While five days isn’t very long, driving it more surface streets, running errands and such gave us a clear view. Have a look.
Insight On The Honda Insight
Our friends Mark Charmer and Joe Simpson of The Movement Design Bureau have spent some significant time with the new Honda Insight. They offer the European perspective on the whole hybrid movement. Some really good thoughts here, and why I’m not alone on the island thinking that modern diesels are a far better solution than hybrids.
Enjoy!
Interviews With Sherif Marakby & Wayne Gerdes
Last week when we were in Alexandria, Virginia for the Ford Fusion Hybrid “1000 Miles On A Tank” event, we had the opportunity to sit down with two people who were very important to the event.
First was Sherif Marakby. Sherif is the Chief Engineer for Global Core Hybrid and Propulsion System Engineering for Ford. He not only quarterbacks much of the development for the Ford hybrid systems, he also drove over 10 hours as part of the team in the event. Sherif stated that there were many reasons for not only doing the event, but doing it in the shadow of the nations capital. Ford were out to make a statement that (a) they ARE a different kind of car company and (b) that CAN compete with the worlds best on the world stage.
Ford took a car off the dealership floor and with no other special prep than inflating the tires a bit higher than than normal and removing all the stuff from the trunk, they went for it. There was some neutral coasting, but no key off moments. He also stated that the metric of how long they could go solely on battery wasn’t a major issue for them.
Have a look at the video portion of our interview:
Next we spoke with Wayne Gerdes. Wayne is a legend in the hypermiling community and was brought in by Ford to lead the team for this event. He spent time with all the team members training them in his way of driving to maximize milage, and drive them to reach for a higher goal than even they had looked to achieve.
Here is the video portion of our interview:
After 10+ years of interviewing people you think I would learn my lesson, but I’m sorry to say that after we stopped rolling the video portion of the interview we spent twenty minutes more talking with Wayne, getting to know him, and I didn’t record any of it! DOH!!!!
It turns out that Wayne is a big proponent of modern clean diesel technology, even though he “made his bones” with the hybrids. Wayne is a hardcore enthusiast, just in a different manner than we would normally associate that term with car people. He is as hard core as the guy who drive a high 8 second street strip car with a .750+” solid roller cam on the street. It takes a special kind of person to do that since many times it’s not the most comfortable ride, but you are doing it to prove a point.
You can find out more about Wayne, his adventures and his cause at www.cleanmpg.com