A good argument against hybrid cars

Damn right - if encountering one makes you use emoticons like that then they should definitely be banned...

Toyota prius: They look like a good buy to me, cheap to run (60 mpg upwards) can run silently for a short distance. Very cheap road tax. No congestion charge. £1000 grant from the government, 8 year warranty on all electrics. Every mod con you could ask for. Extremely low emissions.

Compare that with the diesel VW: Full road tax and congestion charge, no grant. Very good fuel economy on a run. Stinky old diesel. Noisy. £900 for a new set of injectors every 70k £1000 for new injector pump every 100k. £650 for new turbo every 70k etc. etc. The diesel vw was very impressive, till it went wrong. The Toyota is the future.

MrCheerful

That, and they're slow and all look daft. I bet with all that extra s**te, they weigh a tonne and handle like shit as well.

Wonder what the results would be with an ordinary diesel if they employed the same weight and friction saving techniques? And how much a new battery pack costs when it fails - as it will?

They are normal weight, have a 0-60 of about 8 seconds and 106 mph flat out. I agree the first model looked a bit odd, but the prius 2 is quite normal.

MrCheerful

I think it's also a post that shows that animated smilies are a bad thing.

--Nick.

Full road test in Autocar last week, and they quite liked it. But you're a bit off the mark with the performance figures - the 0-60 was 11.9 secs and the top speed 101mph. The maximum torque - that of the combined IC and electric motors is only available below 22 mph, so performance at higher speeds suffers - the 30-70 figure at 12.1 secs is some 50% worse than a Focus diesel which also managed better fuel consumption under test than the Prius - it got nowhere near matching the maker's claims.

It's also got a CVT transmission which is quite enough to put me off on its own. ;-)

What a load of old tripe you spout! On properly maintained engines the injector pump lasts almost forever, and you only need to *recondition* (not replace) the injectors every 60-70k if you are concerned about top-notch fuel economy and minimum emissions. In reality the engine will run fine to well over 100k on the original injectors. A friend of mine has an Escort with about 130k with the original injectors and pump. It starts and runs perfectly, and on the last MOT he told me the smoke emission was only

1.3ppm, compared to a limit of 3ppm. Oh, and the original turbo is still working perfectly too.

Several people I work with have got old diesels and I've heard very few complaints from them.

James of Sunderland

I can only go by personal experience of the engine in question. Since it is reality it cannot be tripe, so piss off.

MrCheerful

If I understand correctly your observation is based on one (1) example!!! Just because one diesel engine performed way under what is expected of it does not mean that all of them (millions?) will also perform the same way. In general diesel engines are pretty reliable. Of course there wil always be the odd example which is lousy. The same goes for petrol engines and electric motors as well as all parts the car is made of.

"MrCheerful" schreef in bericht news:kdPYb.2197$ snipped-for-privacy@news-text.cableinet.net...

ooh, so no one can read the section in the owner's manual that explains where the dead 12v accessory battery is, where the jump points are, and how to jump it? That the tow truck driver and/or the dealership is clueless? it's more sad, than funny.

(anyone can run their car's 12v accessory battery dead. just leave your headlights on overnight. however, the 12v accessory battery on a Prius is smaller than on an ordinary car (closer in size to a motorcycle battery), so it's easier to run down. The 12v accessory battery is only there to power up some computers when you turn the key/press start (depending on what model year this Prius was), and then run the radio/lights/other usual 12v power draws. After the computers are turned on, they hook up the big 200+ v hybrid traction battery, which is what actually starts the car. since the 12v battery doesn't start the engine, it doesn't need to be big, but it can be run down easier than on a traditional car, which will leave you with a dead car until you get a jumpstart/boost.)

On all Prius, the 12v accessory battery is stored under a carpeted panel in the trunk/boot. On the new 2004 Prius, there are additional jump points under the hood/bonnet (so that the tow truck guys aren't so confused anymore that they have to go to the back of the car). Jump start it/boost it like you would any other car. If you want to play it safe, just slow-charge the 12v battery on the Prius for a while, then disconnect the donor car, and start the Prius, leave it in READY for a while to charge up the 12v battery. heck, I've heard of people using the batteries from cordless drills or other household tools to jumpstart their Prius - it doesn't take much.

Nothing inherently wrong with the car in the article. Everything wrong with the tow truck driver, the referenced dealership, and the author that can't find the jump start section in the owner's manual...