My Gen 2 Road Test Notes

[timberwolf]

One of topics posted today reminded me of my road test notes that I wrote up after my test drive two years ago. I think I posted a bullet point list before but not these notes. Sorry about the English, and it does tail off a bit at the end :o

Road Test Notes

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I've recently taken a two hour test drive of a Prius T-Spirit and here are

some of my observations as best as I can recall them.

Firstly, I am not the sort of person who can hop into a different car and

feel at home in it that quickly. It usual takes me a few days and upto a

week to become happy when driving a new car.

As I find driving stressful at times, I planned my test drive to start off

with some quiet A and B class roads, then to head towards the town, and

finally some motorway driving. (As it turned out, I didn't plan a long

enough route).

The test drive starts with the salesman driving once around the block so

that he can demonstrate how the car operates and talk about the

information displayed on the screen and showing what the hybrid system was

doing. I noticed that the salesman apparently set off quite slowly from

junctions, but then we seemed to get up to 30 mph as if by magic - I guess

this was because the clues such as a changing engine pitch were not

present (not that I could tell when the engine was on).

After an introduction of the controls and a few questions the car is mine

for the next couple of hours.

The accelerator and steering were very light (and going back to my own car

afterwards it was amazing how heavy my Honda Civic felt). Like the

salesman, I also found that I was setting off slowly although at the

dealership I started off at snails pace because I wasn't sure how hard to

press the accelerator - crashing the car before my test drive had even

begun wouldn't have been the best experience.

My first part of the drive was on A and B roads, and I am lucky because

the driver immediately behind me was staying well back, so I can travel at

what ever speed I feel like because I'm not being stressed out by someone

behind just off my rear bumper. I did wondered later if they were hanging

back because my initially braking wasn't that well judged and I realised

that early on in the test drive that the Prius didn't brake like my car

and I thought I wasn't going to stop so I then slowed down a lot more

sharply than I had intended (it was not an emergency stop though). I don't

think I truly mastered the braking in the time that I had, it didn't seem

to work if I only I pressed the brake lightly, but if I pressed harder it

braked too much (I don't recall my observations about the braking later on

during the drive, but I am not sure if that was due to me getting use to

them or because I changed my braking/approach to the cars ahead to

compensate for my initial lack of control of the Prius braking system).

The accelerator peddle was very light, I found it was so light that I was

initially oscillating above and below the speed that I wanted to travel

at, and the steering was also light, which to me made the car feel sort of

skitish and bouncy. At 30 mph, it was not easy to keep at 30, I found it

went up to the low 30s without me being aware of it, except by checking

the speedo. I really liked the digital display of the speed, big digits

and easy to read.

At this point, I haven't gone above 50 mph, in fact I'd rarely got up to

50 mph, and the ride was pretty comfortable apart from it being a bit

bouncy. It seemed to me that the Prius had a Jekyll and Hyde personality

for its suspension - driving over some manhole covers were not noticeable,

but (I have a theory) if you hit a manhole cover while the suspension was

also changing to a different road camber then it couldn't cope well and

jarred the whole car. (My theory of course could be utter rubbish and

that I just happened to go over a manhole cover that had sunk much further

down into the ground that Prius suspension is not designed to handle

well).

Once I felt confident enough to be distracted by the MFD display, I

changed the display with one of the steering wheel buttons to show the

bars and average mpg info. The display showed an average 43 mpg, I figured

that was previous driving data, so on the next long straight section of

road I pressed the reset button on the MFD screen.

I've been on A and B roads for 30 minutes, and I turn off into a

supermarket car park to see what the reversing camera was like. The

reversing beep wasn't too bad, annoying but I think I could easily live

with it.

I also took the opportunity to set a destingation on the sat-nav (in

hind-sight I wish I hadn't because I couldn't remember how to disable it

later on). I'm following the sat-nav although I know the road well, it

does seem to give some confusing instructions about what lane to be in as

I proceed to the motorway junction. Acceleration down the ramp is good but

once on the motorway the car seems naturally to want to go slower than 70

mph, also I think it is a bit windy because the car feels unsettled.

I came off the motorway a couple of junctions later, and noted how well it

went around a particular bend at 30-40 mph, it felt very composed and sure

footed, and I didn't feel thrown around at all.

After a little more A road driving to try a longer down hill section, I've

exhausted my planned route and took the car back to the motorway.

Accelerating hard on the motorway produced a lot of noise and some

vibration. I only tried accelerating hard the once.

The Prius really did not like a concrete section of the highway and there

was a lot of vibration which shook the whole car - observing that the

whole dash also shook fairly violently.

Right at the end, just as a test, I tried accelerating a bit harder to get

out of a junction which didn't seem to make any difference as the car

seemed to waft out the same slow way it had during the entire test drive

(I didn't press the peddle all the way to the carpet).

The traffic was light during my whole drive and apart from having to stop

at junctions, traffic lights and my stop in the supermarket car park, I

drove for about 1hr 30 mins - I got bored at the end on the motorway and I

decided to go back with some time to spare.

Personally, good mpg isn't that important, I'm attracted to the technology

and the possibility that the car can be silent at times. I'm not currently

doing enough annual mileage to worry about mpg, but according to the MFD

display it claims that I managed just over 60 average mpg.

I enjoyed driving the car.

[Jan&tone]

Nice road test report, it's a pity that journalists aren't that honest

[Bazza66]

Good test report there! I got my Gen 2 Prius T4 yesterday and so far I love it. The only things I'm not sure about are the wawawawawawawawa sound it makes when the engine is charging the Battery, and the lack of a power outlet on the dash is annoying. But other than that I love it.

Oh, and first trip from the dealer in Northwich to Liverpool (30 miles), 56.1 MPG!

[timberwolf]

Welcome to TOC.

For the UK Spec, we only got the one aux power outlet on the gen 2. On my car, the armrest has enough flexibility and gap to allow the 12v accessory cable to feed out under the armrest. I've only hooked up a power cable twice, I don't like dangling wires across the dash, and the cable always seem to get in the way of something, often the gear selector.

Identifying a noise from a written description can be a hard thing. I don't recognise the noise but that could be because I'm used to various noises that the Prius makes - the Prius is usually a quiet car except when pushed.

[Bazza66]

Thanks for the welcome Timberwolf! I took my Prius out for a spin just now and the noise is mostly at motorway speeds and all it seems to be is that it gets "boomy", as if I'm driving in third gear. I think it's just the normal Prius noise; its just that after years of driving non-hybrids, it's all very new to me.

As for the iPhone, what's needed is a Brodit Proclip. It can fit to the side of the stereo quite nicely. For listening to music I can keep it in the armrest, but I also use it as a Satnav where it needs to be permanently on charge, hence why I need a holder nearby.

[Bazza66]

I thought I'd give a report on my Prius after owning it for a little while and now I am commuting 55 miles a day. My first full tank of fuel resulted in an average of 55.5mpg which, given I'm new to the whole hybrid thing, I am really happy with. The thing I noticed was that the commute from Liverpool to Northwich, via country roads really boosts the average but as soon as I indulge in a few local trips, it takes a knock. It always feels you have to work harder to make the mpg go up, but it doesn't take much for it to drop. But that's true of all cars to be fair. I'm now used to driving the automatic way having always owned manual cars though my left leg doesn't know what to do with itself! It's actually not too bad pressing on on country roads and is surprisingly agile. Everybody who's been in it complement the car on its silence and comfort. A work colleague who owns a Mini Cooper was well impressed with it which came as a shock because he's a petrolhead! I'm forever finding new places to store things (including a secret drawer at the front of the armrest... very handy!).

I've got used to the engine noise though it is very busy at motorway speeds. I actually love the warp...warp noise it makes when its regenerating the Battery. The EV button is well useful and really fun to scare the willies out of cyclists who don't know you're behind them!

I'm a confirmed fan of the Prius now.