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Old 06-11-2016, 09:09 PM   #6 (permalink)
Vman455
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Location: Urbana, IL
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Pope Pious the Prius - '13 Toyota Prius Two
Team Toyota
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90 day: 51.62 mpg (US)

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Quote:
Originally Posted by mcrews View Post
no it's not worth it.
The immeasurable increase wont translate into enough $$ to justify the cost.
Also, the reduction in ride quality and instant depreciation in value cant be recovered.

But do what you want.
a body kit would do more good and gain the same if not more "slight" increase in mpg. AND (most importantly) not hurt the quality of the ride.

Airing up the tires to 40+ psi would probably give you more mpg than lowering. (and that is free!)
Body kits for the Prius are several times more expensive than springs.

Toyota hired Ansys to do CFD analysis of the Prius Plus package, which included lowering springs, small front outboard airdams, new rockers, and rear bumper airdam. Ansys and Toyota claimed a drag reduction from the kit, but it's hard to say how much is from the reduced wheel gap and how much from the body pieces:



I put Tein H-Tech springs on mine, 1.5" front/1.4" rear. They're only marginally stiffer than stock (120 lbs/in stock front vs. 130 lbs/in; 154 lbs/in stock rear vs. 170 lbs/in).
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