Mechanically, they are simpler, but to compensate for that, they have additional complexity in electronic controls and battery, so I would consider it close to wash
Prius has quite ingenious mechanics layout, much much more simple than automatic transmission one. Youtube is full of videos explaining how it works, Iâve also provided one of the best educational links on how it works inside up in this thread.
Latest Honda design is also very simple mechanically. I own one, but I also have to admit that in the past Honda managed to spoil its reputation in hybrids, so they still are to prove they did it right this time.
Yes, indeed they have it, but it is a fail-safe for high torque situations, it is not getting used normally. It is only a torque limiter.
My wife used to have 2013 Sentra. CVT failed hard at 42K miles. This it quite usual for that vintage, per dealer repair department they have a flood of repair work.
Toyota âsynergy driveâ system has engine connected to the system all the time.
Honda new system and to the be best of my knowledge Volt have a âsequential hybridâ model, where engine is detached from the transmission and it uses generator to make electricity, then it is going to the torque motor/battery
Unlike Volt, Honda has a direct clutch to lock engine to the drivetrain at a higher speeds, so it can bypass all the electronics inefficiency at 45MPH and higher. It is indeed âone speedâ I drive it every day and transition is almost perfect, you can barely detect how it gets it connected and disconnected.
I would suggest you review Volt reliability very carefully, as it was a limited production years and if it was good, probably GM would not dump that design.
No, not driving in crazy urban stop and go where a 30 mile commute can take close to 2 hours you donât. When I lived in the Seattle area fully half of the cars that came to the shop needed brakes by 60K, and if they didnât we werenât looking.
Iâm not sure why we see fewer mechanical breakdowns on Priuses than on other cars. Maybe they are just better built cars. Maybe Prius owners take more pride and care in car maintenance than others. But they are among the most reliable cars out there.
Absolutely true. You want to kill a Prius, park it for a week and then take it for a Sunday drive. You want it to last, put it in service as a taxi.
Hybrids arenât for everyone, true. I wouldnât get one for mostly highway driving, or for occasional use.
My hybrid (MKZ) has a warning not to let the car sit for more than 30 days without use:
âYour vehicle must be started and run for a minimum of 10 minutes once
a month in order to maintain the high voltage battery charge. This will
maintain the high voltage battery but it is not enough to maintain the
low voltage (underhood) battery and additional low voltage (underhood)
battery charging may be required after 60 days.
If your vehicle is to be stored for 30 days or longer, the low voltage
(underhood) battery negative terminal must be disconnected. Failure to
do this could damage your vehicleâs batteries.â
If you mean a 12V charger for the 12V battery, no, that doesnât help the high voltage battery. There is no way to charge the high voltage battery on a âregularâ Prius without driving.
Between getting guidance and instructions on Priuschat online and autobeyours.com I was able to save a lot of money- I am remembering now I had two or 3 repairs between the two Priuses we had. On the first one, the MFD (multi-function display) went out and had to be replaced. Dealer quoted something like $1,200 for it, and Steve at AutoBeYours sent me one with a 30 day guarantee for $300 or $350, if you send yours back to him, for him to salvage. First one I put in worked, then stopped working a week later, and he sent me a 2nd one, no questions asked, and that one worked until my wife got in an accident and the insurance company totaled the car. On one of the cars, the headlight leveling sensor went out- it adjusts the headlights to be level in case you put 3 big adults and 400 pounds of fertilizer or sandbags in the back -an almost useless feature, since if the sensor goes out, the default is for the headlights to aim down 10 feet in front of the bumper. Dealer repair would have been $300, and for like $25 Steve sent me instructions with pictures on how to bypass the sensor and adjust the headlights with a screwdriver like almost every other car. And when I had to replace the High Intensity Discharge headlights, dealer cost is like $700 because they have to take the bumper off, and replace the bulbs at like $100 each- might as well do both as long as the bumper is off. But guys on the Prius chat had pics/instructions to show how to do it without taking the bumper off, and why cheap Chinese lights were actually a better match for the circuitry than what Toyota engineered- replaced headlights for like $25 in the end, and they lasted till we got rid of the car.
No, I see on Priuschat where people go 250K and 300K miles with theirs, but we just were ready to go all electric, and my wife has a long commute and was ready for a new car. Plus she has free charging at her school- hard to beat. I could have gotten a reconditioned Prius battery with a guarantee from AutoBeYours for $1,300 or $1,700, I forget, but then we got the new car bug and a federal tax credit and didnât look back.
Prius has a special on/off button under the steering wheel to disable its proximity based access control system, as it it a major energy drain on 12V battery.
Still, 12V will discharge even from its own internal self-drain.
High voltage battery has its self-drain too.
As I was refurbishing my battery pack, I finished elements capacity/resistance calibration, but did not have time to assemble everything back together as I needed to go on 2-weeks trip.
Upon returning, I re-measured elements capacity and I found a number of them to loose a substantial portion of their charge (more than 50% to their âfreshâ capacity).
Under the âtaxi drive cycleâ these elements would continue working just fine, but with extended storage periods they would be the reason for the entire pack to fail at some point, so I replaced these too.
As far as I know, all vehicles actually made by Toyota are reliable. I have been watching for a good used Prius for five years. The ones in my price range have at least 200,000 miles and generally have at least one of the following: salvage\restored title, bad transmission, or bad traction battery.
However, I hardly see bad transmissions anymore.
The Gen1 Insight was an engineering marvel. It was the most aerodynamic production car for at least ten years. Almost the entire car is aluminum, but the oil pan is magnesium. The version with a manual transmission had lean burn and was an ultra-low-emission vehicle. Hardly anyone liked the wheel skirts or lightweight and aerodynamic wheels, but they helped make the car light and aerodynamic.
The Gen1 Prius was a rather uninspiring thing.
The federal government changed emission standards and the Insight went from ULV to illegally high. Hardly anyone wanted the suprisingly expensive funny-looking two seater, even if they rarely had two or more passengers.
I would choose a Gen1 Insight over a Gen2 Prius any day.
I drive it every day and transition is almost perfect, you can barely detect how it gets it connected and disconnected.