Shopping for Prius, any trouble to watch for?

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Xist

A friend posted "Love my new car, didn't use any gas this morning coming to work, my old car I would have used a quarter of a tank of gas!"

.....

After my friend mentioned it was a Prius several times, one of her friends asked if it was a hybrid.

How do you live under a rock, but still have Facebook?

How did the Prius use no gas? I can't imagine any commute that uses a quarter tank of gas being completed by even the Prime on EV alone.

Also, a person that doesn't know if a Prius is a hybrid would likewise not know what it means to be a hybrid vehicle. Maybe the question was in jest.

[jcp123]

Originally Posted by elhigh

'09 Prius, no fancy equipment. No touring package, no built in nav (and with smartphones, who cares?), none of the bells or whistles.

And that's how I like things. The less geegaws there are, the fewer geegaw breakages I have to contend with.

That's how I like mine, too. My Honda was that way...was low on my priority list too but heck, it has (factory) manual steering! I took it home. Solid and simple, should usually mean sturdy and long-lasting.

Originally Posted by Xist

370,000 miles on the first model year? You are replacing it because of fuel economy? That was my thinking with my '99, but I eventually realized I spent more on repairs than gas.

That was before the head gasket replacement at 120k.

Well, I got rid of my Echo for a similarly light reason. I'd been wanting a new driving experience anyway. Plus wife was pushing me to get something else. Getting a different car doesn't always have to make perfect sense.

[Xist]

All that I know about the Kardashians is that one time I was hurrying through Walmart and one woman shouted to another that they had the Kardashian's new line of make-up.

I imagine the family would be happy to take their money, but might not want to interact with them.

I once had a school bus driver claim that idling his bus (with the air conditioning running) did not use any fuel. My Forester would have used half a gallon without air conditioning. How could you possibly notice a difference spread out over two hours.

My friend, though, well, I shared that example because it did not make any sense whatsoever. If the Fiesta used 1/4 of a tank, the Prius should have used 3/16ths.

[elhigh]

A school bus with air conditioning? I never had such luxury.

In fact, my schools didn't have air conditioning. I remember a few years where we missed part of the first of the year because it was too hot, and the school was deemed uninhabitable until the temps came down.

[jcp123]

Originally Posted by Xist

I once had a school bus driver claim that idling his bus (with the air conditioning running) did not use any fuel.

In his defense, diesels are good idlers. "My" 14.8l Detroit Diesel burns, according to the readout, .3gph without AC, and .5-.7gph with AC running depending on the cooling fan cycle. Fun fact: at cruise RPM, the fan takes 50HP to run, according to Detroit's own literature!

[Xist]

Only our special needs and events buses had air conditioning. I usually drove a special needs route, but the AC never blew on me, so while the kids did okay, I was soaked.

I wanted to open the window, but I did not want the students' cool air blowing out my window.

This is according to the EPA. The worst idler uses less than a gallon an hour.



While I drove on days that were 110° or even 115°, opening the windows hardly did any good when the bus was parked. Whatever wind there might have been blew over my head.

I tried to not run the bus just for air conditioning, it seemed like a ridiculous waste, but the alternatives were waiting in the sun or hanging out in a solar oven. However, we often had four buses waiting together, and at least we could turn off three of them.

[jcp123]

Interesting. I can prove otherwise for tractor-trailers :P or at least those with a DD15 engine.

[Xist]

Pics or it never happened!

[elhigh]

I just went to the page hosting Xist's example and while it doesn't list the size of the 80,000lb truck's engine, you can bet it's well in excess of 10 liters. An idle fuel consumption of .64 gal/hr is nothing to sneeze at, but it is also only four times as much as a vehicle whose engine is probably less than one-fifth as big.

And of course, being a non-trivial amount, that's exactly the kind of consumption the IdleAir company was created to get around. Instead of spending $30 to get through the night with your air going, fire up the IdleAir for $10 (or however much it is) and get air plus internet and TV piped directly into the cab.

Or the APC. I've been seeing more of those, too.

[jcp123]

Live data from my truck. Left is with AC and rad fan running, right was with it off.

I badly wish I had an APU or the ParkSmart battery operated AC system. My first truck had the latter. It was imperfect but very workable.