Yesterday I was overtaken on the M3 by a brace of Priuses (Prii?)
I was making what I like to class as keen progress. They were doing a minimum of 90mph.
I wonder just how self-satisfied they felt at being in an eco-wagon and saving the planet at that speed? The physics is incontrovertible. The only source for the power to keep them cruising at that speed on the motorway was petrol, so they were exactly as inefficient as any other car at that speed, aerodynamics notwithstanding. i wonder what the "smugness" meter on the dashboard was showing? (I assume they have one).
Or am I missing something. Were they saving the planet more than me in my Jag 2.5V6 gas-guzzler? Should I be racked with guilt?
V
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Yesterday I was overtaken on the M3 by a brace of Priuses (Prii?) Or am I missing something. Were they saving the planet more than me in my Jag 2.5V6 gas-guzzler?
How economical is your car at 90, compared to one of those things?
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There is no reason for Prius owner to feel smug about saving the planet at all. The mpg figure is not stunning, and the eco-impact of the battery manufacturing process has to be borne in mind. All a Prius does is reduce fumes in stop-start city centre motoring, which is a good start, but nowhere near carbon-free motoring.
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" The mpg figure is not stunning, ... All a Prius does is reduce fumes in stop-start city centre motoring,
And on long journeys there are heavy batteries and electric motors to carry around.
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" The mpg figure is not stunning, ... All a Prius does is reduce fumes in stop-start city centre motoring, And on long journeys there are heavy batteries and electric motors to carry around.
Makes little difference for long journeys...
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Makes little difference for long journeys...
Sorry? On motorways the heavy batteries and electric motors will increase fuel consumption without any gain.
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Sorry? On motorways the heavy batteries and electric motors will increase fuel consumption without any gain.
By how much, then? Very little - unless you know better. Stop/start, yes. Near constant speed? No.
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Sorry? On motorways the heavy batteries and electric motors will increase fuel consumption without any gain.
But not much actually. Once the thing is up to speed keeping it there, except on rare very long steep hills, is limited by aerodynamics, good in the Prius's case. The problem is having to haul it back up to speed when some fool quite unnecessarily gets in the way. That's what costs the money, time and opprobrium...
I'm serious here. If people were less pink, fluffy, cube-shaped and covered in dots the whole thing would be immensely faster and more enjoyable and economical and stuff. But I mean wha...? Not worth the er....
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Guilt, Yes shoulder it all vin - you will burn in hell for your sins
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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More innefficeint by my book as they're dragging a load of batteries around
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Is a tall Prius likely to be less aerodynamic than a low-slung cruiser, as well?
Pruis: replacing smog with smug since 2001.
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Seriously,
consider prii drivers as testers, guinea pigs of alternative technology, that might one day be viable and sustainable
One should not not knock prius drivers, or any other alternate technology driver. What harm are they doing? how is it incoveniencing you? In fact what business is it of yours what they drive or how they drive it?
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Seriously, consider prii drivers as testers, guinea pigs of alternative technology, that might one day be viable and sustainable One should not not knock prius drivers, or any other alternate technology driver. What harm are they doing? how is it incoveniencing you? In fact what business is it of yours what they drive or how they drive it?
Quite right. I see Prius drivers as testers myself and look at the over inflated prices they pay to feel green! These wonderful people are doing us all a favour by testing the technology so that one day, it will be affordable for everyone and likely to be far more effective.
As far as travelling at 90 goes - cruising, even at that speed, doesnt use as much fuel as gunning it down a B-road. The Prius is an economical petrol fuelled, automatic family sized car, and at that, its ok. Give it and its owners a break - atleast they are trying.
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Seriously, consider prii drivers as testers, guinea pigs of alternative technology, that might one day be viable and sustainable
Like the forthcoming PSA diesel hybrids? Due 2008/9? Now those might make a lot more sense.
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One should not not knock prius drivers, or any other alternate technology driver. What harm are they doing? how is it incoveniencing you? In fact what business is it of yours what they drive or how they drive it?
There are photos on the Internet of the devestation that the production of these machines has caused. Not good!
Erm, how they drive it is a very serious issue, especially if they are driving dangerously.
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There are photos on the Internet of the devestation that the production of these machines has caused. Not good!
If those are the pix of the nickel mining town in Canada, then
1) Priuses are not the only or indeed a major consumer of nickel
2) Toyota doesn't own the mining company
3) The photos predate the existence of the Prius, or if they don't they might as well.
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But it was in the Mail on Sunday, so it must be true... They wouldn't post an outright lie with 13-year old pictures, oh no...
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If it's around the Sudbury region, the original deposits were formed due to a meteor impact many millions of years ago. Imagine the devastation that caused!
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Should I be racked with guilt?
Yes. It is now your duty to commit ritual suicide, but only after scrapping your Jag prematurely to prevent any more nasty climate changing emissions coming out of its ecologically ruinous tailpipe. ;-)
How do you live with yourself?? ;-)
Cheers
DP (hoping tongue in cheek sarcasm comes across OK)
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>Were they saving the planet more than me in my Jag 2.5V6 gas-guzzler?
Saving it more, no. Damaging it less - possibly, given that a 1.5 engine (which I think is what powers a Prius) probably uses less fuel at speed than a 2.5. It's also unlikely that their journeys consisted entirely of that motorway blast, and if they ended in a city-centre crawl, they'd have used a lot less than you over the same distance.
No car user can afford to be smug - personal motorized transport is a huge luxury, not just in terms of fuel burned but of road space used, blight on towns choked with parked cars and so on and on. I save my smugness for when I've done something useful without using any fuel at all - drying the washing on the line, or mowing the lawn with my Ransomes Ajax Mk.V. Now that does feel good!
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or mowingthe lawn with my Ransomes Ajax Mk.V. Now that does feel good!
A Mk V ! modern rubbish! doesn't have the same cutting performance as a well maintained Mk2( the connoisseurs choice!) .
If you want to save yourself one shilling this link gives the handbook(with the price as 1/-) and parts list is also available.
www.ransomes-jacobsen.biz/specifications/technical...f
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Brilliant - just what I needed! Thanks, Cardew. I can now work on its grease nipples with confidence before giving it its first outing of the season.
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or mowing >> the lawn with my Ransomes Ajax Mk.V. Now that does feel good!
A Mk V ! modern rubbish! doesn't have the same cutting performance as a well maintained Mk2( the connoisseurs choice!)
Quality engineering! No chain drive, a good set of gears and a split land roller for fast no skid cornering
You get what you pay for. They don't make em like that anymore.If you want to save yourself one shilling this link gives the handbook(with the price as 1/-) and parts list is also available.
>>
Thanks for the link.
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Thanks for the link.
You are most welcome - I am so excited to share my enthusiasm with a fellow aficionado.
The Mk 5 is nice, if a little - shall we say too modern for my taste - the problem was they cut corners(pun intended) in build quality over the Mk2.
Really important items like the Mk5 has cheap rubber grips on the handles, whereas the Mk2 has proper wooden handles(Part No NAX51 if you want to retro modify your Mk5) . These handles can be highly polished. Whilst there was a huge after market in customised handles, mahogany with inlaid silver - that sort of thing; they now find more favour in the USA market(particularly Texas) and are rather vulgar IMO.
Incidentally I was a little perturbed at your reference to 'Grease Nipples'. You do of course appreciate that they are oil lubricators(Part No GSF 2542AC) and only oil S.A.E.30 is to be used - none of this modern semi-synthetic rubbish.
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>Incidentally I was a little perturbed at your reference to 'Grease Nipples'. You do of course appreciate that they are oil lubricators...
Don't worry - I was just wondering how many times we could sneak the word 'nipples' past the moderators. };---)
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>>I am so excited to share my enthusiasm with a fellow aficionado.
From the Maintenace section
"At the end of the cutting season.... before putting the mower away.... this will ...prevent......
Make occasional checks to ensure that all nuts and bolts are securely tightened.
I now have this image of regular trips, in the dead of winter, to the heated shed, to check (under the fitted cover) on the condition of the Mk 2 ;-)) >
And asking for S.A.E. 30 oil " obtainable from any garage"
Will the Prius last as long and be so loved?
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When it comes to hypocrisy, this bloke is hard to beat.
Don't know how to shorten links, sorry
www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/article-23390848-de...o
Fantastic stuff. He produces 100 times as much carbon as the average Joe. Good for him.
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Hollywood, dont'cha just love it?
Other scientologists have Priuses there. Indeed this fellow may have one himself.
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he could be a senior politician with morals like that
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Tautology rules "he could be a senior politician with morals like that"
Or is it an oxymoron?
A senior politician does not possess morals. (a fact proven by experience)
madf
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A senior politician does not possess morals. (a fact proven by experience)
therefore westpig's statement, "he could be a senior politician with morals like that", agrees with your statement !
:: ;-) ::
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Back to the Prius (sorry, I've chaired too many meetings!) - there are other reasons for considering one rather than been green and smug (not a pretty sight....).
I'll look at it because you can get better economy than with a similarly-performing petrol engine (maybe not quite as good as a diesel) without the godforsaken noise that many 4-cylinder diesels make.
It has plenty of room for people -- a rather shallow boot but good space under the boot floor for laptops etc. - and it seems to be reliable, probably more so than anything that may come from PSA where they seem to expect their customers to finish their R & D for them when they bring out anything innovative (the most recent example being the 206 CC's steel roof).
I'm not definite about it but it'll be on my shortlist.
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To steal a line from Jeremy Hardy, I presume the Prius manual has a number to ring if the owner is not completely self -satisfied?
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Good line Leif.
>>the Prius manual has a number to ring if the owner is not completely self -satisfied?
What nobody seems to have mentioned about the Prius (aka Pious) is it's appalling ride quality, quite the most
dreadful I've experienced for some time, it seems to have wood instead of springs.
The economy 'myth' about the Prius will also , surely, one day be exposed. If it's used in anything but the 'classic'
approved urban/suburban test regime it's no better than a mid-90's diesel - let alone being able to compete with
a late hdi or similar. The interior has more scratchy & brittle plastics than Pop Idol, with a one-size-fits-all driving
position.I got quite enthusiastic when I read HJ's road test report, but after extended driving of a 2004 & face-lift 2006 version
can only assume some are more easily pleased than others. Dreadful little car.
Moral of the story, for me, don't take too much notice of magazine/web journalist type reviews, except for basic facts & figures - & dyor.
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My comments under Ashok's thread of 20 March still apply. The 57 mpg long-haul was re-confirmed yesterday when we travelled around 300 miles generally at about 65 mph [ speed limit here 100 km/hr = a tad over 60 mph]. Returned 57 mpg. I drive at approximately the speed limit because the required donations to Treasury for exceeding same are quite outrageous.
I find the Prius quite comfortable for long-haul use, but then, cars for the New Zealand and Australian markets have their suspensions adjusted, or, in some cases, re-built for our roads, which are not quite as nice as yours. An unmodified Jap car is very softly suspended, and wanders around on our roads, even without cross-winds to assist.
I deny being a tree-hugger, but plead guilty to resisting payments to Treasury of sums greater than absolutely necessary. The distances that I drive will pay off the premium in price quite nicely.
Appropos of nothing in particular, Ashok's article included a statement that tests are now carried out at acceleration of 8mph/sec. That is a 7.5 second 0 - 60 mph run. According to H J test data, that is Beamer 325 territory !! Ehhhh!!??
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We run two of these Honda IMAs as pool cars. (old shape), better fuel economy from a similar sized diesel, the stop start system is a nuisance if not dwonright dangerous if it's not your everyday car.....
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