Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Driving a Prius?

Watching all the severe weather in the Northern tiers, I just wonder how the Prius and other electric or part-electric vehicles are making out in the snow and cold.

The hybrids are actually heavier than their counterparts, so given proper tires, they should do OK. The Prius, however, has tiny tires on it, so it's pretty common to see them struggling in the snow. It was a few degrees below 0 today, and I saw a lot of them on the freeway. They appeared to be keeping up with traffic. I'm not sure how they'd do in really cold temps, like 40 below, but I've seen them in the work parking lot down to the teens below. It has to be chilly in there with a 1.3 liter engine kicking out the heat.

Mines got 2-70 lb bags of sand in the back & gets around nicely in the snow; the sand helps at higher speeds as rear used to get loose. It handles beautifully at slower speeds even in deep snow.

It's older (2nd of 4 or 5 generations) so mileage isn't near the newer ones and drops a lot in the cold; typical is 46-ish, but in these sub-zero temps it's been 33MPG.

Heat is slow in comin!

Anybody figured out how they're going to dispose of those batteries properly yet ?

....or does the American taxpayer get stuck with more of this "Superfund" bullchit ?

HTC

They didn't seem to spin their tires too much, as I was passing them in my Hummer....

One of my friends has a lexus hybrid. On a recent trip to minnesota, it wouldn't do anything. Temp was -30. Couldn't jump start it. Towed to dealer. Warmed up and ran fine. No thanks.

+1


maddog

Just a WAG and I bet use of your google-foo would prove me right, but the answer to that question is likely the same as it would be for any car battery... recycling. There are many companies nationwide who are in that business.

Cars are for folks what live in town!

Not that I'd buy one, its as polluting to create the electricity needed to charge them, and we already have brown outs so there is a shortage of power at times...

I would drive one though if given to me.

RE batteries, yep, simply recycle. Of course its battery replacement cost thats scary.

I have appx 350K miles on my explorer right now.... I wonder what a Prius would have cost in batteries by now...

Jeff the Pruis is a hybrid with a gas engine, not a straight electrical car; its battery runs the same way as yours and is not plugged into an external power source.

I never would have actively shopped for one but had a deal dropped into my lap that I couldn't pass up. I am a sales rep who puts a fair number of miles on my car, and the one I got had recently gotten a new battery around 100k. I bought it for $3800 under blue book at 120k miles, and have done nothing but put gas and oil in it up until now with 170k on it.

I'd buy another without question. It has far more room than I anticipated, and runs wonderfully as one would expect from a Toyota. The rep these vehicles have as the choice of greenie weenie busy bodies is legit, but that doesn't mean they don't make sense for people outside that rather narrow demographic.

And yes I'm a city dweller but anyone who gets off this board to hear about hunting in General Big Game knows it's been all over the country loaded down with an awful lot of meat.

Doesn't the prius need to be charged at times also? Or does the engine do all of that?

Engine; no external recharge. At least not in my experience.

thats not so bad.

I have nothing against getting high mileage. Thtas never a negative.

Long as it is safe, has enough power and is cost effective.

Can I ask what top top end speed is? I respond to emergency calls a lot and sometimes speed is needed.

Don't know, but down in Texas it had a couple hundred lbs in ammo, a hundred more in guns, and same in meat, and didn't have a problem doing the 89 MPH I asked of it on 20 & 30.

Got the wife a Hybrid Camry in 2013. Excellent car by any measure. Fast acceleration too! No plug in. 45,000 miles and no problems yet.

Thats about fast enough anyway... I generally run 80-90 on bad calls trying to get there, you don't live wihtout CPR after 5-6 minutes... or if your car is on fire... or house... minutes matter...

Thanks, Jeff