i want to know more about the toyota prius?

36 people and counting have been killed by Hybrids. Imagine reaching in and touching a circuit with over 255 volts with enough amps to kill you instantly. Battery Li-Ion costs over $5000 and I don’t know the proper disposal procedure. Double complexity internal combustion and electric drive train. Electric braking system and A/C compressor electric power steering and only fuel saving around town because the engine can shut off. Run the heat or run the A/C the internal combustion motor must run much more. So what are you left with a small car that costs over $30,000 with hard skinny tires and heavy battery’s that does not handle very well. That gets 47 miles a gallon around town and the same fuel mileage as a internal combustion engined Camry on the highway. Until the second and third generation of plug in electric hybrids become available there is no real Advantage for highway driving public that drive more than 30 miles each way on mostly highway. Around town shopper hopper types will see great advantages.

Just remember, on the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.

In other words, just because someone SAYS that they are a hybrid specialist and a master technician, that doesn’t make it so.

36 people killed by hybrids? I spent some time searching for proof of that and came up empty. I wonder if the master technician has any documentation to back up that claim.

A hybrid specialist would know that no current production hybrids on the market today use Li-Ion batteries. They use Ni-MH. And they are fully recyclable, with Toyota paying $200 for the return of any of the battery packs from their hybrids to help make sure that they get recycled.

A Prius with every available option will cost about $30K, but there’s no need to spend much more than about $22K. But I guess it’s unreasonable to expect a hybrid specialist to know that either.

A Prius gets 48mpg city, 45 highway, 46 combined; the 4-cylinder Camry with automatic transmission (non-hybrid) gets 21/31/25, respectively. It looks like the hybrid specialist got that wrong too. (These numbers are from the new EPA tests that are much more accurate than the old tests, by the way.)

Go to Toyota’s web site and read plenty more. Or one of the handful of other companies that build hybrids now too. (Why didn’t the hybrid specialist mention his company’s information? I listed it below if you want to see it for yourself, and it even says that it uses a Ni-MH battery, not Li-Ion. Imagine that.)

Edit: The comment about “On the Internet, nobody knows your a dog” — that applies to the engineer that just posted too. There’s plenty of different types of engineers in the world, and just calling yourself an engineer (or even actually being one) doesn’t mean that you know anything about a hybrid car. If he had said he’s an automotive engineer, PERHAPS that might make his comments more credible, but again, maybe he’s just a dog.

Or maybe I’m just a dog.

Years and years to make-up the price difference? Bzzzzt. Wrong answer. Try *one* year. Consumer Reports, October 2008. Thanks for playing, Vanna will give you some nice parting gifts on your way out the door.

Whatever. My 6-year-old Prius, which gets lower claimed mileage than the newer models, still reliably gets mileage in the upper 40′s. And while I usually do not speed, I also rarely drive below the speed limit either.

Turbo diesel? Sure, if you’re in Europe, where the fuel is cleaner (hence the emissions are too) and the price difference between diesel and gasoline/petrol makes it a reasonable alternative. Not so good in the US where diesel is “just now” being made cleaner, but the fuel still costs 50% more per gallon than gasoline.

I’m in UK. We can get a car for half the price of a Prius with fuel consumption which is just as good.
All that extra electrical kit on the Prius takes energy to manufacture, even if it can be recycled.
May be better to wait a very few years until the full electric vehicle arrives, we have got the technology and although the range will be limited it will be enough for most commuters, school/shopping runs etc

Hi,

I will answer your questions and then give responses to a couple of the complete inaccuracies posted. This will be detailed because an educated decision in the best decision, especially on a major purchase. Stay with me for a full answer.

First, I have posted extensively in the past on the breakdown of maintenance and fuel costs for the Prius and it breaks down to .11 cents per mile with fuel at $3.00 per gallon and .12 cents per mile with gas at $4.00 per gallon. This is with all services being performed at a Toyota dealership, including all oil changes, tires, and everything else for each 100,000 miles. Do a search here in Answers and you can see that complete breakdown and use it to compare any vehicle you are considering.

Second, I have also posted extensively on the myth of the Prius not being environmentally friendly and the myth that it creates more pollution to create/produce/dispose of a Prius than a standard vehicle. Once again, search here in Answers for those posts. The minimum $200 bounty from Toyota is correct and each nickel metal hydride (NiMH) hybrid battery is marked with an 800 number for Toyota.

Third, in the US, the base Prius can be purchased for $22,720.00, according to the Toyota.com website. This figure includes the destination charge (destination is charged by every manufacturer).

A fully loaded Prius with every option from the factory would run just over $30,000, but that would be with leather, navigation system, Smart Key, and a long list of other options.

Fourth, as far as independent verification of how much fuel the Prius uses in real world driving, Google “2008 or 2009 Prius fuel mileage”. Consumer Reports lists the Prius as the number one vehicle in fuel economy in their long term tests, 44 mpg in mixed city and highway driving. This is better than any other vehicle, including the smaller Aveo, Civic, Yaris, Versa, or any other.

Being realistic about fuel prices, we’ll use $3.00 per gallon as an average knowing that fuel will go up.

Take the EPA combined numbers for any vehicle and divide that into the cost of gas or diesel. That will give you your per mile fuel cost. Multiply that times the number of miles you expect to drive each year and you will have your cost per year for fuel. For example:

EPA combined for the 2009 Prius is 46 mpg.

$3.00 divided by 46 equals .065 cents per mile, rounded up to .07 cents.

.07 cents times 12,000 miles (average miles for an American driver) equals $840.00 per year for fuel cost, or $4200.00 over five years.

Since another company was brought up by a different poster, let’s use their highest mpg vehicle in the US. According to the Nissan website, the Versa 1.8 SL with CVT (same type of transmission as the Prius) gets a combined EPA mpg of 30 mpg.

Using the same formula for the Versa that we used for the Prius, the Versa costs .10 cents per mile or $1200.00 per year and $6000.00 over five years in fuel costs, $1800.00 higher than the EPA for the Prius.

Thats the EPA difference from 30 to 44 mpg. I personally get 51.7 mpg as a year long average in the Upper Midwest which means my average fuel cost is $696 or about $3482 per five years.

$2518 less than what a compact vehicle like the Versa would cost for the same period. And a Versa 1.8 SL hatchback equipped as closely as possible to a base Prius costs $19395, or $31 more each year after my fuel savings (Prius @ $22720 – Versa @ $19395 – $2518 = $157 more over five years / $31 per year).

Fifth, it is a fact the Prius has no starter, no alternator, no mechanical power steering pump, no steering belt, the brake pads will probably never need replacing due to the regenerative braking system (I’ve seen pads at 98,000 miles with almost no wear), the CVT is a sealed unit and the fluid is not changed for 90,000 miles vs. a regular transmission changed at 35-40,000 miles, and no timing belt in the gas engine.You will never have to replace or maintain these parts like you would in a standard vehicle.

Sixth, Toyota produces their vehicles so that almost every component can be recycled (especially the Prius) and nine of their plants in the US alone produce absolutely no landfill waste. Look at the 50 environmental reports on Toyota.com for more details.

As an educator for Toyota in the Chicago Region (Upper Midwest) it is part of my job to research and present hybrids to the public.

It is also part of my job to present hybrid safety and accident procedure seminars to fire departments, first responders and the general public.

It is COMPLETELY FALSE that any Toyota or Lexus hybrid has ever killed or injured anyone. Period. That is in the almost ten years the Prius has been in the US and with over 1.2 million Toyota and Lexus hybrids on the road. Anything else is simply wrong.

It is part of my job to present the diagrams, specifications and electrical and mechanical failsafes of all Toyota and Lexus hybrids to professionals whose job it is to be the first on an accident scene and extract people from a Toyota or Lexus hybrid if necessary.

My standard response is to prove it with one verifiable, documented case of a Toyota or Lexus hybrid causing an injury or death because of the hybrid system. It simply doesn’t happen.

http://www.toyota.com/prius-hybrid/

It’ll take years and years to offset the cost of the car. Production and disposal of NiMH batteries is not environemtnal friendly in any way shape or form. The materials used are steel, plastic, rubber…just like any other car. Basically, if you want to THINK you’re making a difference when you’re actually not, the Prius is perfect for you. You know the drivers who take 10 years to get up to the speed limit after a red light, and consistently drive under the speed limit? those are the ones getting 47 mpg in a prius. I’ve driven one. I just drove like a normal person. Not fast, not slow – normal. It’s all about how you drive, not what you drive. I get 30 mpg out of my 335i if i just drive responsibly and make sure to keep the lead out of my shoes. A small turbo diesel is more efficient and gets better mileage than a Prius, that would be a more cost effective and longer lasting option. I’m sure I’ll get e-mails from hippies all over the world telling me i’m wrong and that the prius is the future and we should all buy them – don’t bother, i don’t care. I’m an engineer and i’ve studied the prius, and i know exactly what it is. Just another car, with a nickel based battery that is too small to be of much real benefit. So basically, it’s just a 1.6L petrol car. And not a very good one, at that.