Here is what happens if you ask to buy / import a Canadian vehicle

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

Not seeing how the boost battery set to 80% is going to do anything until the main battery drops below that value. Not having one of these prius things, I have no history of data gathering, but in the volt pack I have, you don't drop to 80% system voltage till you're gone a fair distance even accelerating up a hill in the winter.

Just did the math, 80% remaining is lower than my recharge point.

The stock NiMH battery in a 2nd gen Prius will run the car about 1 mile in EV mode. (EV mode was not available as a stock feature in the USA). A 2nd Prius only uses the SOC range between 40% - 80% of the Ni-MH battery. So targeting 80% SOC means the car will be switching to the piggy-back battery about the time it leaves the driveway (assuming the car returned home with the stock hybrid battery fully charged).

The basic premise is to supply power through the stock battery and keep it in the range that EV mode is enabled by the ECU. It isn't a great system and doesn't provide nearly the capability of a factory PHEV like the Volt. It was a way 15 years ago to create a PHEV before any were commercially available.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Is the oversteer gradual or does it come on all at once?

If you're expecting it to be anything closer to the VW Beetle, maybe trying an overloaded FWD Brazilian coupé-utility while on vacations in Mexico might give you a better baseline for comparison

[freebeard]

I've got an XFi parked right alongside the SUPERBeetle. The understeer on long, sweeping off-camber curves freaks me out.

That battery pack is lighter than it looked.

[JSH]

I got an interesting email today on this topic. Our Canadian dealers just got another reminder that they cannot import a certain combination of vehicle and engine that is compliant in the USA but not in Canada and if they do they are responsible for making it compliant with Canadian emission regulations.

(Canadian regulations uses different GVWs for vehicle classifications which puts this vehicle configuration in a different class in Canada vs the USA and different classes of vehicles have different emission regulations)

[freebeard]

Problems whichever way you look at it?

[JSH]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Problems whichever way you look at it?

There are zero problems if you buy the vehicles certified for use in your country. It only becomes a problem if you start looking for "forbidden fruit".

[freebeard]

My first Chevrolet came from Canada.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by freebeard

My first Chevrolet came from Canada.

And yet the same vehicle is for sale in the USA so what was the point of going through the hassle of importing it?

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by JSH

And yet the same vehicle is for sale in the USA so what was the point of going through the hassle of importing it?

If I could import a 2023 Prius Prime from Canada after exchange and other yeah buts I end up saving $8000, assuming there were inventory which there isn’t

[JSH]

Originally Posted by rmay635703

If I could import a 2023 Prius Prime from Canada after exchange and other yeah buts I end up saving $8000, assuming there were inventory which there isn’t

How does that work? Toyota Canada shows the base 2023 Prius Prime SE at $41,364 ($31,356 USD) and Toyota USA shows the Prius Prime SE at $32,350.

Then there is the car that Freebeard was talking about - a used Geo Metro. Why bother to import it?