So much for a Nissan Leaf!

[SirReal63]

To each his own. A car that does 0-60 in < 6 seconds is of zero practical value to people not driving on a race track. 0-35 in < 10 seconds is rare in the "daily driving" world. Yeah, yeah, I know "fun to drive". Except most of us drive on roads with speed limits and other vehicles. Fast acceleration and cornering might be a rush to some, but you don't get where you are going any faster than the "boring to drive" car. You just use more fuel and wear your brakes faster. Find a go-cart track if you want "fun" driving.

I would consider your cake to be a "fruit cake". Some people like them, I do not I am a practical person, I would NEVER buy a car that did not have folding rear seats. Can you put a bicycle (both tires on) in a 335D, trunk lid closed? Can you carry 8' long dimensional lumber IN the car, trunk lid closed? Heck, how many of you with trucks can carry 8' dimensional lumber INSIDE, even with a cap? Lots of < 8' beds out there. How about 10' dimensional?? True, I can't carry many since they have to sit up on the passenger side dash, but they are INSIDE, out of the elements. How many of you put "fun to drive" at the top of the requirement list for a new tractor? To me, the "cake" is the practicality, the "beaters" are the "fun to drive". Find me a "fun to drive" car that has the practicality and MPG of a Prius, as well as similar purchase price, and we can talk.

Besides the purchase price of a 335D (which BTW BMW is not selling any more), diesel fuel here is 40+ cents a gallon more than regular gas. Thus a 33 MPG 335D costs 12.1 cents/mile in fuel ($4/gal) a 33MPG gas car costs 10.9 cents/mile ($3.60/gal). The cost to drive the 335D a mile is much higher, especially so when you consider the much lower MPG compared to the Prius - 6.5/mile, with summer 55 MPG average. Each person has their priorities.

If you don't like the 335d, try the test of the Prius vs. the 520d in a real world driving scenario where the 500lb lighter Prius got worse mpg's than the BMW. Add in the ride and luxury appointments of the 5 series and it is hard to want to drive a Prius. For the record, my truck has an 8' bed, can haul 4,000 lbs in the bed, tow 12,000 lbs and guzzles gas like a marathon runner guzzles GatorAde. My truck can haul your Prius, can your Prius haul my truck? This is to be expected since it is a work truck and is totally irrelevant to the discussion. There are some people for whom the Prius is perfect, then there are the rest of us who drive a lot of road. The Prius isn't made to do that, it is a city dweller car and doesn't really shine on a 100 mile daily commute. To each their own, I would own a VW TDI long before I ever owned a Prius.

 

[DarkBlack]

AND they probably make enough money that they don't qualify for the deduction. So they are buying it for one of several reasons:
- they want to minimize their environmental impact
- cache - "I have an electric car"
- they are tired of the high price of gas in the area
- they would rather spend their "fueling time" doing something other than spending any amount of time in a gas station
- they would rather not spend any amount of time at the dealer for routine maintenance
- they want HOV access

I didn't know battery cars didn't require maintenance.

 

[DarkBlack]

Back on point...

At 7:45 am this brand new Mercedes Sprinter FED-EX kind of truck pulls up the loading dock at work with a priority delivery.

The noteworthy part is this very large commercial van is all electric... battery powered for a greener environment written across the sides.

I've seen electric mail trucks in the past... never something as large as this...

FedEx Introduces First All-Electric Trucks To Be Used in the U.S. Parcel Delivery Business | FedEx Newsroom

FedEx hopes electric trucks will deliver savings - SFGate

We've had USPS trying/using Segway 'scooters' in some cities around here.

 

[houstonscott]

Thirsty Prius | Videos | Top Gear | BBC America

LOL

HS

 

[SPIKER]

Thirsty Prius | Videos | Top Gear | BBC America

LOL

HS

lol beat me too it, I was going to post the same thing. Love the show too btw

In real world driving one of the sales men who visit me regularly got a NEW (at the time) 2011 Prius. His OLD car was a last year Ford 500 (2007 or so) with just under 300K on it (oil changes w synthetic at 10K intervals tires brakes and a wheel bearing was it's repairs in that time.) Average MPG for that bigger car was upper 26~30MPG (good) according to him.

The Prius was getting around 32MPG for him last time I rode in it with him (he bought us lunch.) He had, by that time close to 50K on it, but with all the stops & starts in summer was OK, his first winter had LOTS of heating issues. His general driving was trips of 3 to 15 miles stop for 20 to 45 min, then off again to next company. Doing this for 8+ hrs a day 5 days a week, 1K miles a week was regular according to him & had a good number of 1500 mile weeks when running parts between the major stores (Cleveland, Akron, Ashland, Wooster, Canton and Columbus & to assorted companies they serviced!...) As an outside salesman he sure put the miles down... They FIGURED the Prius would save them a lot in gas, turns out not so much. Most of the time the engine was running not many traffic jams usually open country roads/ highway jumps and into industrial parks...


I ought to send him a Email and see if he's still driving it and how it has been, had a couple HARD winters now...


Mark

 

[bruceha2000]

Clarkson is right - driving style is all important. Sure, you drive a Prius at max speed (don't know what that was on the track, but 104 MPH is the mechanical limit) and you will get sucky MPG. The Prius gets good MPG because it has:
- a small gas engine (not suited to high speeds)
- a planetary gear transmission (not suited to high speeds)
- an electric motor and relatively small battery (not suited to high speeds)
- is driven on roads, not race tracks

Those things combined in normal driving, a Prius will beat any ICE based vehicle other than a scooter or small motorcycle.
My sister lives in So. Cal. She gets only 45 MPG in her Prius. WAY too much traffic to drive efficiently. But 45 MPG combined is still better than any other car.

The Top Gear "test" ran the battery to "0" (which would actually be about 40% because the computers won't let it go lower) in the first few seconds. Clearly there is no efficiency with the accelerator floored.

And yes Spiker, lots of cold start short trips will not yield good MPG in a Prius ... or ANY OTHER vehicle. As will lots of cold start trips in warm weather. But the Prius will still have better MPG. And yes, when it is cold, the Prius engine doesn't shut down even at lights if the heater is running. The percentage winter hit in a Prius is higher than it is for other vehicles.
Put it on the road, 65 MPH for hours and it will get 50 to 55 MPG assuming you aren't going over the Rockies.

 

[bruceha2000]

I didn't know battery cars didn't require maintenance.

It is true, you do have to rotate the tires. But we swap summer and winter tires where I live so even tire rotation is not a maintenance item unless you drive a LOT of miles annually

 

[DarkBlack]

Thirsty Prius | Videos | Top Gear | BBC America

LOL

HS

Sometimes reality is stranger and funnier than fiction.

I guess "Top Gear" is one group our subsidized tax dollars hasn't bought off in the big battery car push.

 

[DarkBlack]

It is true, you do have to rotate the tires. But we swap summer and winter tires where I live so even tire rotation is not a maintenance item unless you drive a LOT of miles annually

You don't really expect me to believe that...

 

[mikehaugen]

- a planetary gear transmission (not suited to high speeds)

Can you show me another automatic that does not have planetaries in it?