New Prius launched - Idiots please form queue
 

BBC NEWS | Business | Toyota unveils new Prius hybrid

50 mpg average. :wonder:

Absolute crap! That's better than a normal car of the same size exactly how then?

How much do these sucker-mobiles cost anyway? £20K? More?

It's the Thrid generation of them now, they should be upto 70MPG at least but they are stuck at the same as the first one was :rolleyes:

I thought part of the main drive for them was getting down carbon emissions also. I don't know the figures, but if they are worse then a 'normal' car then they certainly need a talking to.

Diesels have been doing 50MPG for ages. I have had 3 succesive brand new VW ones since 2002 (130bhp, 140bhp & 140bhp common rail). Most reasonable journeys gave 50 - 55 MPG in these big Passats, only dropping into the mid/high 40's for urban trips. Not slow and torquey as well.

The Prius is a joke aimed at the idiots you mention, who just swallow the PR guff without checking the alternatives.

A bit like those people who think that their expensive pixelated flat-screen tellies give a better picture than my old CRT one!:lol1:

JC said it best - when you take into account how a Prius gets made its more damaging to the environment than a landrover discovery. :rolleyes:

In CO2 terms diesel is worse than petrol (2.7 kg / litre vs 2.4 kg / litre), so a diesel car actually has to be doing about 56 mpg in order to produce the same CO2 as a petrol car doing 50 mpg.

Not sure why nobody has yet made a diesel hybrid TBH. And why aren't there any hybrid buses out there? Lots of urban start/stop driving, they're already big and heavy with lots of room and they have the whole eco-bandwagon in their favour. I can feel a business plan coming on...

I've always wondered why they don't do a derv hybrid.

I think it's because diesel is seen as dirty so wouldn't get as many browny points amongst the weekend-eco warrior chelsea set that the prius is aimed at :rolleyes:

Didn't they prove on Top Gear that a BMW M3 is more economical than a Prius :D

Diesel hybrid makes perfect sense

Or a fully electric driven car with a diesel engine genset for power (like the Chevy Volt, but diesel not petrol).

The Prius makes no sense when a Mini D does 60mpg (that Ford/PSA 1.6d engine is pretty impressive for such a small diesel engine ). It not even any more environmentally friendly due to the materials its made of.

I was overtook by a Prius hammering it round some country lanes. I couldn't help but laugh as he was probably using more fuel than I was in my R32 :lol1:

Presumably all those battries must take some lugging around

I read in a motoring journal (can't remember which one) that the Landcruiser sales subsidise the cost of building each Pious.

Makes a mockery of the whole green issue.

I remember reading some place the best "dust to dust" car that's cost to build/scrap/melt down was the Jeep Cherokee because engine/drive train/ ect are all used in lots of other vehicles and its steel so it can be re used easily and the Prius was awful because it was expensive to build difficult to recycle and like you all say its not that amazing mpg...So go out and buy a Cherokee lol maybe not.... but i suppose we have to start some place.

Charlie

Wonder how many trips it would take into the congestion charge zone in order to pay for itself?

If electric cars survive then this sort of technology has to come sooner rather than later .... BASF to develop 350-mile e-car 'super battery' ? Register Hardware

Even then, it's just an 'evolution' on what's there now. And where does the leccie come from even then???

Dave

I never understood the appeal of the Prius. Its marketing hype and the "right on cool I believe Im doing something for my kids future Earth" brigade.

I can think of plenty of cars that will beat the fuel consumption of the Prius.

Toyota marketing dept must believe they can sell ice to Eskimos. May be they can use that in their next campaign......Buy a Prius or we'll have to sell ice to Eskimos........:Whatever_