About the Prius Hybrid (17hrs on the road)

9/26/11

Today we drove 1000 miles from Grand Teton to Redwood National Park.  We left at 5:30am and arrived at 11:00 pm. It took us 17:30 hrs to get here.  We passed Idaho and  Oregon  before arriving to Cali. Idaho was uneventfully, although when passing by, we recalled Napoleon Dynamite which was mostly
filmed there in 2003. Oregon was unexpectedly dry but had a beautiful mountain range.

What you do when you can't shower

For this post we decided to talk about the Prius Hybrid.

We are really pleased with the Prius hybrid. To the people who suggested the car was not going to be adequate in space and power we are sorry to disappoint.

A hybrid car has 2 power sources,
1. the gas engine+gas tank
And
2.  the electric motor+battery

The gas powers the gas engine and the battery powers the electric motor. Both electric motor and gas engine are able to turn the transmission on, at the same time or individually in a -parallel hybrid- which is the Prius design. This allows flexibility for the Prius to either perform as an only electric, only gas or Eco mode. Eco mode uses both at the same time. 

The way the Prius saves money is partly by having a smaller engine compare to gas cars. These engines have smaller parts, are lighter and only hold 10 gallons. Since the -turning on - of the transmission is shared the car uses less gas. 

The battery of the Prius is also different to a normal gas car. These batteries have been design to have a dual job. One is to serve as a generator to power itself and the other to turn on the electric motor.

The way the Prius leaves a smaller carbon footprint is by using less gas, therefore is green and good for the environment. 

We rented the car for a month, a longer rental would fall into a lease contract and be much more expensive.  Renting cost 1,000 for the month and 0.10 cents after 4k miles. Our trip will be around 8,000 miles so you do the math. 

So far we have gone  2724 miles at an average of 45.2 mpg. Therefore we have used  60 gallons of  gas which at a $3.60 rate would be around 216 dollars payed in gas. We expect our average milage will change as we drive, for example, on the parks we go at a optimal fuel efficiency rate of 55mph which pumps the average mpg up. In the highways where you can go more than 85 miles or so the mpg goes down at about ~33 which is still better than 20, the mpg our Grand Vitara gives. If we had driven the GV we would have spent $490 so far.

I'm going to describe some features of the car that are cool and practical.

Keyless ignition
You just have to push the button and have the sensor "key" on you. It took some getting used too and sometimes we still leave the car on because it does not make the traditional on/off sound of a only gas car.

Effortless gear shift (automatic)
The gear shift does not require any force to move and does not require to be kept at a certain position. Instead you shift it and it immediately bounces back to main position. When in reverse it makes a noise like if you were backing a huge truck a feature Paul dislike.

Well thought layout
Although the car is small the layout inside is really comfortable. Look at pictures.

In addition, it comes with satellite radio which pleases my husband.