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

You really have to be careful. If you have trouble and get stuck along the road, Bikers will stop and steal your Birkenstocks and eat all of your Tofu sandwiches

I think the newer Prius is a plug in. Seriously thinking about buying my wife a new Prius-V to replace her 2002 Windstar. Looks to be roomy enough and I like the fuel mileage aspect. Might even be able to use it my self, now and then.

If the new Prius is closely related to my 2004 Tundra, I'll be happy. It has 250,000k on it now and no major trouble, just maint. Not looking to get rid of it yet.

A couple years ago when gas was just about 4 dollars a gallon one of the testing companies did a test about the Prius. It ended up saying you had to drive the Prius 300,ooo mles to break even with just purchasing the regular non hybrid toyota. Toyota says the life of a Prius in the real world is 180000 miles.At current gas prices it would never pay the difference.My question is why would anybody buy a new one knowing these facts. ED K

Thats the stuff you have to research.

To sell what you have and buy a brand new one, and hope to recover the cost difference, you can buy a TON of fuel for that cost...

Its like buying a 15,000 dollar new boat motor to get from 1mpg to 3mpg... or such...

My daily driver see's around 300-350 miles a week and also has to haul the kiddo around. Plus, I use it to hit some fishing and hunting spots.

I'd buy a Prius in a heart beat if they were AWD. Instead, I got a Lezbaru. It's gayer than a unicorn with a cock growing out of its head, but what the hell. I get 25+ on the highway, it's roomy, cheap, and the AWD kicks azz. Apparently safe to. I totaled my last one when a kid pulled out in front of me when I was traveling 50+. It did great, so I bought another.

The Prius are cheaper than a Camry hybrid and get better mpg.

MM we're secure enough in our masculinity that don't need big trucks to make up for a shortcoming elsewhere.

Hah- I have the big azz F250 if I need to burn up barrels of gas and wear out expensive tires. Usually it just tows a boat though.

Well I have not notice them much were I live in CT so far in the last month we gotten 72 inches of snow and its going to be record cold tonight! And the Coldest and Snowiest Feb on record, I drive a Subaru Outback its 1996 2.5 L while its not the most fuel efficient auto I ever owned, I have to give it high marks for handling the heavy snow and steep hills to my place, on the back roads that get cleaned off last! I have not gotten stuck, and it starts with out a hitch, I have a block heater in it, but have not pugged it in! I gotten to like AWD! Right now my tires are not very good, I will be putting a good set on soon! I will tell you this, it would take a lot of driving to get me out of it and into more fuel efficient car, I don't owe anything on it, I made some repairs, I excepted that when I bought it! No car payments and not much for property taxes either! And there is a lot of them on the road here!

This... F350 here for the boats, travel trailer etc.... LOL.

Prius would not bother me at all. Subaru either.

Would have to find a cheap one though.... 96 explorer still gets over 20 mpg, did 26 or so at its best...hard to try to expend cash while its still running...

Yep. Both of mine have been 15 year old cars.

Sub's definitely are not the most fuel efficient, but are a good combination of economy, cost, size, and ability. Gayness not withstanding, of course.

after coming home from a 800 mile road trip this weekend and seeing a camry buy a mule deer....I am happy with 18mpg in my excursion. I know that it is not the 30-40 mpg of the prius, and my tires and fuel cost more, but hauling 3 kids and a dog with room to spare, the comfort of knowing that we will likely win any battles against wildlife and the value of a dignity seem to make it worth it.

18mpg is pretty damn good for an Excursion! Even a diesel one. What's it get running around the city?

Those would be 'bicyclists', not 'bikers', per se...

I looked at the sippers, and ended up buying a Hyundai Elantra hatchback a couple of years back. 36 MPG, 100,000 mile warranty and $18,000 out the door. When you do $40,000 plus miles a year, a truck is just not a viable option.

Never did do the complete financial analysis, but I can't imagine the Prius being a much better choice financially, even with tax incentives.

Subaru has a good safety record, something I"m really conscious of since I cut folks out of cars every so often with jaws of life...

I could give a flip less about supposed gayness.

I guess I"m not so worried about external appearances. Evidently lucky my wife is the same since she agreed to marry me. LOL.

Overall fuel mileage is not always the key. I see folks running around in stupid cars( they are called smart cars) and I would hate to see that in a wreck. I dread that day. I've seen a couple of newer VW bugs in wrecks and it hasn't been pretty.

So somewhere there we all have to compromise.

At least the power systems on the electric ones are supposedly color coded so we can see we are about to cut in the wrong place....

I average ~40,000 miles per year and my preferred (only) vehicle is a 2006 Tundra with the 4.7L V8 averaging 22mpg.

I need a pickup in a lot of my ranch activities and can't see owning two vehicles to get it done.

Ed

There's at least two Prius' in Dubois Wy driven by retired cowboys. I pulled both of them out one snowfall in October. about 4" of snow, but the drifts were hard as hell. They both would bottom out in about an 8" drift. They claimed they were decent winter cars, kicked out plenty of heat. Batteries never were replaced, I think one had well over 100k miles on it. My 3500 pulled them out and I couldn't even feel them. However, I bought a hell of a lot more fuel than they did, and fuel is $$$$$ in Dubois. Every vehicle is a compromise, I would drive a Prius if I needed 2 vehicles.

I have done as poorly as 12 in town in the winter and average 14-15 mixed town type drivng.

Is that a 4wd tundra? I didn't think the v6 4x4 Tacomas would average 22.

What I do with my Prius is my own business.

Rost- I've been in a few wrecks and that Subaru did damn well in that one.

I center punched that kid, don't know impact speed, but I was an easy 50+ when I saw him and my skid marks were awful short. Worst damage I had physically was burns/abrasions/bruising from the belt and airbag. Made me feel good about driving my kid in the car.

Would I prefer to ram into people in my F250? Sure. But I can't afford to put gas in the damn thing with as much driving around town as I do.

You're right though, it's all a compromise, one way or the other.

Let me rephrase that: the car gets 40,000 miles per year. The three pickups, the two ton and the semi get another hundred thousand combined.

If you need the truck for no more than 10 or 15,000 miles per year, having a sipper to drive around will save you a LOT of money, especially if you have low registration fees and multiple car discounts on insurance. On my car, the depreciation and maintenance is running at $0.09 per mile. Insurance: $580 per year. $60 in registration. Plus, most of the time, the car gets me there quite a bit faster, because I don't hesitate to put the cruise on 83 and fly low all the way.

absolutely my favorite Dun Ham skit!
think of it every time I see o Prius.

Doesn't the cold reduce the capacity of the batteries?

yep see my initial post re: fuel economy.

Just because someone is wearing a cowboy hat does not make them a cowboy and Cowboys never retire they just get too old to be useful!!!!!! .