OT: Toyota Prius---Driving Like a Fogey

[Derf]

Back on sound (or lack of sound) with hybrids. The Feds are getting concerned about the possibility of pedestrians getting hit by the car they didn't hear coming, and are considering requiring a minimum sound level. To extend the idea, you would be able to choose the sound characteristics of your hybrid much like downloading phone ring tones. Hmmm, a hybrid that sounds like a 68 hemi or a Ferrari... Maybe you want that perfect dry clutch Ducati!

John

I am a cyclist and I do a lot of commuting. Even in electric mode, you hear an hybrid coming, even with the wind in my ears, because of the noise of the tires. I think most of the noise modern cars produce comes from the tires. To not hear an hybrid coming, it has to go around 10-15 km/h and at that speed, there is an impact, but not that big.

[Justin A.]

Im with Darth Jack, except I want my horn to sound like R2-D2

I notice the "there's no replacement for displacement" thing every day. At m college, every time a small car or truck takes off fast out of the lot, at least one person says "woah man, take it easy on her, she's only a four/six".

________

Vaporizer Wiki

[pm_wizard]

The concern is for pedestrians, who don't hear it coming creeping behind them through an intersection. But just think of the possibilities (replete with irony) of a lumpy big block idle as you nudge a pedestrian through the cross walk!

John

[Allee]

Not at all ... maybe it's just that having had cheap gas for so long, a lot of North Americans (including Canadians) still regard it as a right. There's an awful lot of noise being made at present about how the Feds in Canada should scrap gas taxes to keep the prices down. Or, people could buy more fuel efficient vehicles and drive less, but that doesn't seem to be a very popular option.Seems like the Europeans "got smart" quite a while ago.

Like I said, choices have to be made. If you don't mind spending $100 a week to run your truck, good for you. A lot of people have better things to do with their $$.

We all have a responsibility to look after the environment, not just North Americans. Unfortunately, it's a hard sell message. I wonder what the world our kids grow up in will be like.

[C5 Golfer]

Sweet. My hybrid is going to sound like an Imperial Tie Fighter.

Allee... let me get this straight... are you saying North Americans are genetically predisposed to be careless about their environment?

Hmmmm.. I think I will opt for the M60 Abrams tank with a simulated howitser. The way some people drive here in the mornings is scary.

[marz]

How about pedestrians LOOKING before they cross, instead of blathering on the PHONE!!

Honda's Hybrids are known as partial/mild hybrids, any time the car's moving the gas engine is on, not as efficient or clean as Toyota's Hybrid System.

The Ford Escape uses the 2nd gen. hybrid licensed from Toyota. Not as good as the latest Synergy Drive Toyota kept for themselves. Thats why it gets the same MPG as the much bigger/more powerful Toyota Highlander Hybrid!

The hybrid Toyota Highlander ROCKS!! Same mechanicals as Lexus 400h, AND cheaper with more space. They're the only vehicles on the market that have an active stabilty control that can apply POWER to either or both rear wheels to help avoid a skid. I could use that on my freestyle board! :lol:

It's a 7 passenger midsize SUV, 0-60 in 7 sec. same as the BMW X5 4.4 V8, AND gets 32 mpg instead of 15. The perception that hybrids are slow is wrong. Electric motors have large torque #'s at low rpm. That's why Lexus is coming out with high performance hybrid cars, not just for fuel economy & low emissions.

Buy the way, the Prius is MIDSIZE, with more space than a Mazda 6 hatchback & similar 0-60 times as 6, Accord, & Camry. Yeah I could drive a used Echo/Corolla for less, but I have ALOT more space for kid/dog/gear with 90% lower emissions! AND the SAFETY of ABS, Traction Control / Stabilty Control, Side Air bags/Curtains not available on older cars.

Oh Yeah I get about 20 mpg better than my Echo! All this for about the price of a Camry or Accord, plus it has Smart Key like the $65K Lexus LS430. ;)

I consistently get 60 mpg without driving like my grandma!My customers average 45-55 mpg, most just under 50mpg.

The other misconception about hybrids is that you have to accelerate sloooowly. You need to think ahead while you drive; traffic, terrain, stoplights. Holly, best efficency is with quick acceleration to just above the speed limit, off the gas, then eeeease onto it to keep it in electric to maintain your speed. It's known as "Pulse driving".

Check out PRIUSCHAT.COM for lots of helpful & geeky info. It's the Hybrid version of BOL. :D Some guys just got almost 1400 mi. on a 12.5 gal. tank, 109 MPG in a stock Prius!

[bartron]

Back on sound (or lack of sound) with hybrids. The Feds are getting concerned about the possibility of pedestrians getting hit by the car they didn't hear coming, and are considering requiring a minimum sound level.

I heard of that before as well.

To extend the idea, you would be able to choose the sound characteristics of your hybrid much like downloading phone ring tones.

We already have that. It's called a car stereo blasting with the windows rolled down. We've had it in Montreal for many years ! :)

I dread the sounds some clowns will come up with. Hopefully they'll market and price it so that only families would buy one. But then again, given how many kids love to hear the Barney songs...

Here's one: the sound of a guy yelling "Get the hell outta the way !!" at the top of his lungs. Actually, it that would be more suitable for the horn sound.

I honestly think that after a while people will start praying for silence, believing it would be worth the risk of getting run over.

[Hagen]

Isn't odd that most high end gas guzzling cars come from Europe? Maybach, Mercedes, Rolls, BMW, Ferrari, Maserati, Jaguar, Aston, Lamborgini, Porsche. Weird, must be some money over there somewhere that could care less about $7 gal. Most of the above build SUVs even tho they are built in USA.

You are forgetting all the smaller cars that they build over there and that don't make it over here. Also most European cars that they sell here are only sold with the bigger/biggest engines...

Here are a few examples of cars that you can't buy here - Audi A2, BMW 1 series, Mercedes A-class, VW Polo and Lupo.

Diesel engines also became quite popular in Europe - because of the better gas mileage. In Germany over half of all new cars sold have diesel engines... ...but here you can only get a few. In California they don't even sell the VW TDI models... :(

...and I would think that people who buy the brands that you mentioned really care about the high gas prices. Chances are that they make some extra money becaus of the higher gas prices.

[pm_wizard]

I hired a BMW 118 diesel in Berlin last week. I put 486 km on it in two days, and it took 30.8 li (at Euro 1.05 I think) of diesel to refill the tank to brimming. On top of that I was travelling on the AVUS at 175 km/hr much of that mileage. A very impressive performer even with 4 adults in it.

On the other hand, we already have the Smart car in Canada, and the B series MB is coming soon.

John

[Gecko]

Sweet. My hybrid is going to sound like an Imperial Tie Fighter.

Jack is a geek

[pm_wizard]

Isn't this whole board filled with geeks! Of course some geeks drive big gas guzzling vehicles.... To each their own.

John

[C5 Golfer]

I have a friend who has a Prius and he drove to Spokane last weekend and he said his gas tank had more gas in it when he arrived than when he left. Sometimes you have to take these high mileage figures with a grain of salt.