And noise. Direct injected Lexus model also have port injection so they start easier and idle quieter. Toyota's Twofold Strategy | News & Analysis content from WardsAuto
There are benefits, but a lot of long term issues with direct injections system. Mostly has to do with carbon build up behind the valves, it's a huge issue on cars with some miles on them. Mainly due to the crank case ventilation system (Crankcase ventilation system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) it brings carbon deposit back into the intake manifold and to the valves, with the older injection system the injectors is right above the intake valve so it washes the carbon down the cylinder, direct injection sprays fuel direction into the combustion chamber, so no more washing away the carbon deposits on valves. If you google direction injection problem you will see a whole list of them. Another problem I've seen are the direction injection injectors themselves go bad, BMW had a rash of them. I was one of the victim. Due to the high pressure of the system everything have to be very precise and tolerances needs to be very tight, one little burr on the injector pin, there goes the system. Personally I believe the gasoline also play a huge factor in the injectors themselves failing. Especially in California where we get a stupid summer blend with more ethanol in the mix. So, personally I prefer the traditional fuel injection system. For the sake of saving fuel, it didn't help me much with the X5M. After all that I am still averaging 15.4 mpg on my best day.
Yep. Compare Side-by-Side has mpg values for all 3 gens, w/the 1st two having undergone adjustment to the MY08+ test change. Car also got larger from Gen 1 to 2. Gen 1 was classified as a compact while Gen 2 and 3 as midsized (see specs tab). Re: direct injection, the article I linked to at Car and Driver: The Future of the Internal-Combustion Engine | PriusChat discusses it and some other technologies. I wouldn't be surprised if we see it on Gen 4 Prius. Toyota's been using it on some cars now.
Sorry. I will never dispute you again. You made claims that John was not a good hypermiler when he purchased his first Prius, which is not born out by his data. You make it sound as if it will be easy to find owners of all three generations, and I doubt that as well. I can live and let live.
I'd recommend comparing the MPG's of the Gen I prius vs the Prius C. I think they are more similar in size and horsepower than comparing a Gen I to a Gen III. Source = Fuelly Gen I average mpg = 42 Gen II average mpg = 45 Gen III average mpg = 48 Prius C average mpg = 50
This first part of this statement confuses me. Toyota made the car larger, increased the horsepower enough to move that larger frame faster and improved the overall MPG's by about 15 - 20%. It wouldn't be unfair to think that with the hybrid technology in its infancy, that as the technology developed, MPG's would improve much more significantly than the 15 - 20% shown. But Toyota took that strategy that people would want a larger car that performed a little more closely to sedans on the road today, rather than a smaller car that could gain another 5 mpg.
