I think my new Prius rides pretty harshly--especially when compared to my old Camry's famous Toyota ride. I now have a little over 2,000 miles on it and (it could be my imagination) but the ride seems to have softened a little bit during this break-in period. Does it get any softer as the miles rack up or does it just stay harsh and choppy?
That may be due in part to the stock tires. You could go with an alternative type to improve ride and handling at the cost of a couple of MPGs.
It does seem to ride better with more miles -- at least our 06 did that. What seems to make the most difference is tire pressure, however. We go with the recommended pressure to get maximum gas mileage (and tire pressure does make a difference); but we've noticed that when the tires are a pound or two low, the ride is better.
TKM
One can get noticeably higher MPG by inflating the tires over the needlessly low 'recommended pressure'. 42 front and 40 rear is what I use. The tires wore out perfectly evenly at 48K miles. Yep, I feel the road more, but I grew up on GM cars (as opposed to mushy Ford) so I like that feel. This is one of the reasons (among other reasons) that I like Toyotas, they have a similar road feel in my hands to the old GM cars. Tomes
Interesting. I thoght the Prius tire pressure emphasized gas mileage over ride at the recommended values. I did try over-inflating the tires on my 94 Volvo (that's the Volvo before Ford meddled with it). Handling was fine and gas mileage improved; but I lost more wheel covers and suspension parts seened to wear faster.
TKM
Yeah, that's one of the cheap 'mods' on the Prius list, like sticking hot water pipe foam insulation in the grill slots in the winter to get a lot more MPG. Tomes
Can you switch to petrol or is it gas only?
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