Recently, I took a Honda Civic Hybrid to a get-together at a friend's house. My friends are all gearheads, and they know gasoline cars inside-out-and-backwards. But to my surprise, the little Honda had them stumped, and they had numerous questions about it. If a car buff's mystified by a hybrid, I reasoned, many casual car buyers will be, too; here are some frequently-asked questions regarding this relatively new method of transportation. Full Article
Mostly right when you consider she's smearing at least two very different hybrid systems together. It's much like a write up to describe how a manual/automatic transmission, or a gasoline/disel engine, works without any specific details.
It's the last FAQ that I'm raising an eyebrow. Wouldn't the lead-foot driver still get better mileage in a hybrid then in a regular vehicle? I know a friend of a friend of mine who has a Prius and gives no regard to fuel economy. He gets 8L/100km. That's better than the official Transport Canada rating for an automatic Corolla. Imagine if he was driving the Corolla instead?
An article like this combined with something like the '10 myths' thread that appeared in Prius Chat recently would be a reasonable intro for a lot of people. If they get intrigued, then, there are LOTS of places to get more details, including some easy-to-read 'presentation-style' sets of information with attractive graphics that can teach them more before they start getting into the denser pieces of information available in lots of places. So I agree that the article is 'mostly right' and won't quibble - it serves a purpose and is far more accurate than many other newspaper and magazine artilces I've seen about hybrids!
heavy foot driver hear... 40+mpg .. sure.. they can race me.. they can beat me.. but i'll still drive farther while doing it.
Most days I care about mpg. I used to have a Mini Cooper s rated at around 25 mpg city. Most days I was able to achieve that or better. On the days I felt like having some fun I was lucky to see 15 mpg. With my Prius and fun days I can still see numbers in th low to mid 40’s. so I am getting good mileage and having fun. I went out with friends late one night, my friend was driving his truck and I was driving my Prius. We drove (speeds of around 80- 95mph) for about 25 miles. My friends truck used a quarter of a tank, my little Prius (which kept up very well I might add, on occasion being the lead vehicle.) used maybe a half gallon at most. I love this car for that, it can be economical and fun when you need it. my only complaint is the handling in tight corners can get a bit squirrelly. Then again you really cant compare the Prius handling to that of a Mini. Now a Mini hybrid that would be something. A car that can handle and get up and move when it needs to that can get great gas mileage. I would trade in my prius in a heartbeat.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(V8Cobrakid @ Sep 19 2006, 09:15 PM) [snapback]322104[/snapback]</div> I drive like a maniac on the SoCal freeways (when I can) rarely going under 70 (when I'm not stopped) and leave my car on while I eat lunch every day so the AC can cycle on and off. "Pulse and glide" sounds like floor polish to me. And I'm getting between 46 and 48 MPG consistently.
