This is the first time I have done anything more than drive it a few miles around town. Let me start by saying I'm used to driving my 330 HP Trans Am and my 260 HP HHR SS. That said, the car is amazing. It took me about 45 minutes of tweaking the seat to get comfy and from there on it was no issue. Of course I screwed it all up for my wife..... The car is plenty quick when you need it to be and had no trouble passing cars on 2 lane winding roads. I used cruise on the highway which was 3/4 of the trip, and had cruise at 75. I kept up 75-80 on the winding roads. My calculated gas mileage was 49.4. :rockon: I will say the handling leaves a bit to be desired compared to what I normally drive! The one thing I just don't care for are all of the buttons on the center console. I'm a knob guy. I'm sure if I drove it every day that I would get used to it. All in all it's a great car and could replace my HHR next year except that I'm still wanting a new Camaro or Mustang. I guess it depends on what gas does in the next year.
I just did a Montreal - Chicoutimi trip. At least half the trip is up & down mountain terrain similar to northern Maine. My average for the trip, 1020 km's, was 4.8l/100km, which is 49 Mpg. My previous 2006 Prius would have been 5.2l/100, 45 Mpg, for the same trip & driver. I don't need to point out that I wasn't aiming for MPG numbers - but getting there as fast and safely - not to mention fun. I sure love the Pwr mode button. The car is more responsive than Eco mode. When I had passed all the slower cars, I would hit the Eco mode, and accelerate down the hills and glide up the next incline.
I am glad that you had a good time. I had similar feeling when I started to drive the Prius. I have Audi A3 which is not as powerful as yours. On the highway once Prius gets up to speed (70~75) it is very smooth, but if the traffic slows down for any reason I found it has hard time to catch up specially when I am on the left travel lane. Don't know if you have experienced this kind of situation? So now when I am driving the Prius I have to keep telling myself not to get into the left Thanks
Last Aug we drove 18 hours from Cleveland, OH to Winter Haven, FL. It was a nonstop trip except one stop in Charlotte NC to get gas. I left the car running. The average MPG was around 55. The car did great job going down all the big hills.
