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The Toyota Prius transformed the auto industry
- epolanski 2y agoProbably the most influential vehicle in the last century along the Model S.
- actionfromafar 2y agoLast sliding window century?
- cmcconomy 2y agothe definition of century would have have to include the release date of the prius and the model s, hope this helps
- epolanski 2y agoYes, otherwise none can match the Model T under some "most influential" umbrella. I agree it was somewhat confusing taking a "sliding" century as to mean century, should've said something else.
- hedora 2y agoAlso, the minvan (suv), and probably other body styles. When were pickup trucks introduced?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- gnkyfrg 2y ago[dead]
- khana 2y ago[dead]
- blackoil 2y agoHope Toyota get their mojo back for EVs.
- Cumpiler69 2y agoKinda doubt it. They also suffer from large company inertia where their hybrid powertrains gave them a market leadership, similar to German cars and diesel engines, making difficult to pivot to a market where there's much stronger competition and they don't have the crown anymore.
- hedora 2y agoMy German EV was introduced a decade ago, and it’s still great! I think a better comparison is to the Italians. Stellantis bought up a bunch of iconic brands when they got Chrysler and then integrated a bunch of new technology from Fiat. Since then, they’ve focused on creature comforts and margin expansion, but neglected everything else. They recently realized their sales projections are headed for a cliff and unceremoniously fired their CEO.
- jfim 2y agoWhat EV model would that be, out of curiosity? I wasn't aware the Germans were making EVs back then.
- ncruces 2y agoOr an e-Golf.
- cowsandmilk 2y agoBMW i3 came on market in 2013
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- kla-s 2y agoYeah its a mixed bag in germany in my eyes. All of the big brands have a real electric platform minus BMW. 800V isnt pioneered with them either. VDA is pressuring for HVO100 bs. Mercedes just pulled back on the electric only strategy. I guess they figured that most of the added value is with the batteries and being deeply integrated there and thats not really their cup of tea, so far at least. There where Taycans for 30k$ which was a real great deal if your the second buyer and not the first. On the other hand the id family looks ok, facelift good. The a6 is pricey at 100k but is the first really capable german highway ev, not as premature as the eqs…
- coffeebeqn 2y agoI recently bought the 2012 Prius and at least in Europe it has features that not many 2024 cars have here. HUD, backup camera, regen breaking, automatic transmission, multiple digital displays, Bluetooth, stop-start at lights, EV drive mode on the tiny battery for a few minutes..
- jonathantf2 2y agoAbsolutely love my 2014 PHEV Prius, will do about 7 miles on battery which will get me to the shops and back. Never had a problem with it, about to hit 200k miles and still pretty much perfect
- gcanyon 2y agoThe new Prius is really good-looking (to my eye at least), especially in person: I don't think the photos (I've seen) do it justice. Fun comparisons to the car Burt Reynolds drove in Smokey and the Bandit: Compared to the 1977 Pontiac Trans Am: - The Prius is as fast 0-60 (~7 seconds) - The Prius has nearly the same top speed (~115 mph) - The Prius is 4x(!) as fuel-efficient (57mpg vs. 12-16mpg) - The Prius has all the modern stuff: air conditioning, antilock brakes, airbags, crumple zones, information display screen, backup camera, proximity alerts, etc. etc. - Adjusted for inflation, the Prius costs almost exactly the same
- alephnerd 2y agoI'll toast a Coors Banquet to that! --------- Amen to that though! I agree that the new gen Prius looks really sleek! I tried EVs but the range and lack of after-market parts was really limiting, so I've been fairly happy with the Prius Prime.
- Alex3917 2y agoThe problems with the Prius are basically: - Terrible in snow and ice - No way to defrost your windshield, unless you're already driving - Poor rear window visibility If not for those things it would be great, but unfortunately they've made zero progress on fixing any of the core issues for the last 25 years. The new models definitely do look cooler, and I appreciate that they accelerate faster, but I personally care much more about the stuff that could potentially kill me when I'm driving.
- dtgriscom 2y ago> Terrible in snow and ice Are they worse than most front-drive cars? (And what about compared with a Trans Am?) > No way to defrost your windshield, unless you're already driving I've wondered about that. The Prius still gets its cabin heating from the ICE? > Poor rear window visibility Agree completely.
- janetmissed 2y agoMy experience with a prius in the north east was that it wasn't particularly bad in ice and snow and the few times I got caught in snowstorms it handled about as well as any front wheel drive car. I certainly wouldn't go out into a snowstorm with it if I had the choice, but thats true of almost any non-awd drive. The windshield defrosting situation was also a non issue for me. Man I miss my prius, I sold it when gas was under $2...
- fortran77 2y agoI hated the original Prius. It had no right to call itself a "hybrid". It had one source of power: gasoline. This seriously confused the market and the press when the Volt -- a true Hybrid with electric and gas -- came out. I wish regulators defined the word "Hybrid" and limitied its use in marketing. Family Guy got the meaning of "Prius--and the type of self-righteous person who drove it--exactly right.
- philistine 2y agoLet's pretend regenerative braking doesn't exist.
- fortran77 2y ago[flagged]
- snypher 2y agoIt seems strange to die on a semantic hill while calling others self-righteous.
- jazzyjackson 2y agoNegative ghostwriter, gasoline may be the only input, but stored inertia is energy too, and it's a hybrid because it has two kinds of motors that work in tandem to increase efficiency, who said hybrid meant two types of fuel?
- selimthegrim 2y agofortran77 never has a second cup of gasoline at home.
- IX-103 2y agoSo does everything. Everything runs off of entropic decay of the universe. Almost all the power we use is solar (stored energy from the sun). Nuclear is an exception, in that the energy didn't come from Sol, but some other star that went Nova in the ancient past. Anyway, a Prius was a "hybrid" in the same sense as previous gas-electric cars and is the same nomenclature used for diesel trains with electric drive.
- jgilias 2y agoI sometimes chuckle that most of the cool Lexuses are now Priuses under the hood! But that’s a good thing. I own a Toyota Corolla hybrid myself, and hybrids are one of those things that I can say I’ve completely changed my mind about. I used to dislike the idea of hybrids, because I assumed that the overall system complexity must be higher than either an ICE, or an EV. And I’m a sucker for simple systems, so I thought it’s either EV, or nothing. Then I looked into how hybrids work. Specifically Toyota hybrids. And came away totally amazed. It’s an amazing system, and much simpler than a traditional ICE car. It doesn’t really have a gearbox, or a clutch, or a starter. The engine is a normal atmospheric engine, so no turbines, overcompression, and the issues that come with it. Furthermore, the engine is typically configured to use the Atkinson cycle, which puts less stress on it. And, the engine has a chain drive, so no belts to change, and by design gets stressed a lot less than in a traditional ICE, because the stop-start load is carried by the electric motor. Also, it can’t really have trouble starting in cold weather, much like an EV. All of that boils down to crazy reliability. I’m at a point where if I’m looking for a car that uses fuel, it’s only cars that use the Toyota hybrid tech (or similar) that I’m looking at. At the moment it’s just Toyota, Lexus, most Ford hybrids (but not all). Other companies have hybrids that are liable to my original concerns about massively increased complexity. As an example, VW hybrids have an electric motor within their DSG gearbox. So you have all the complexity of their modern ICEs (turbines, DSG, whatnot) plus additional hybrid related complexity.
- Tade0 2y agoFor the reason you stated in the last paragraph I eventually opted against getting a Hyundai Ioniq in favour of a Toyota. The Hyundai felt like driving a regular automatic, so it would occasionally lunge awkwardly and spin the engine in situations where Toyotas switch to EV mode. Sure it had better fuel economy, but I can't stand having a car not react immediately to my input or make noise when it shouldn't.
- jgilias 2y agoTo be fair, it did take some time for me to get used to how a hybrid sounds. It’s fine when not driving aggressively. When you floor it though, it does feel weird when the engine jumps to the highest safe revs and stays there. That’s a small price to pay for reliability and smooth power delivery though.
- paulg2222 2y ago[dead]
- bison3 2y agoI love my Prius. What amazes me about the car is how “idiot-proof” or “smart” it is. I try my best to hypermile and squeeze out every last MPG, while my wife doesn’t make any effort to baby it—and yet, we both consistently get about 57 MPG combined. The car adapts to how you drive it, which is really impressive. I think Toyota deserves as much credit as Apple for its “it just works” ethos. The way they design the technology to be seamless and work so well behind the scenes is remarkable. Additionally, many Toyota mechanics consider the Prius to be the most reliable car Toyota makes. This often surprises people because of the perceived complexity of hybrids, but in reality, they are elegantly engineered and surprisingly simple.
- j_bum 2y agoI love to hypermile my accord hybrid, but when my wife pulls the exact same mileage without doing anything special, it makes me feel so goofy. I’ll continue to hypermile for fun anyway lol
- therealdrag0 2y agoI hypermile my gas SUV cuz I feel guilty about the inefficiency, but we just got an EV and Im driving like a maniac breaking it in for fun and cuz no more guilt.
- j_bum 2y agoSorry to ruin your guilt free parade, but don’t forget that your charging is still producing emissions - just from a distance. Congrats on the EV though. I really want one, but it’s just not practical for the 400+ mile trips we regularly need to make throughout the year.
- therealdrag0 2y agoNonzero for sure. But regenerative breaking plus fairly green energy (lotta hydro) is a whole different ball game than 100% gas.
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- jessekv 2y agoMy aunt bought one of the first ones. It was the first time I experienced a car driving fully silent, creeping up the driveway. Was pretty surreal at the time.
- gnkyfrg 2y agoToyota explicitly stated that the hybrid strategy spreads the lithium out to more cars, increasing fuel economy across the fleet. Tesla's 800hp super cars aren't green and never were. They consume lithium to such a degree that they are, maybe even worse in the long run. Using 800 horses to transport one human never could be efficient, no matter the technology.
- steveoscaro 2y agoSpoke like a true oil industry executive
- AtlasBarfed 2y agoThe argument still works for another 10 year cycle. Hybrids are not the enemy. Pure ICEs are. Hybrids (well phevs) can deliver huge % of electrification and efficiency while transitioning older, dumber, and more conservative drivers to EVs, home charging, without having to plan As to the article, I don't think they were influential enough. This obviously wouldn't have happened with the Bush administration, but maybe in some parallel world where Gore when the election, we might have gotten a mandate that all consumer vehicles needed to be hybrids or phevs within 10 years. The amount of gas that would have saved, The amount of development it would had on batteries and electric drivetrains, would have further paved the way for decarbonization. Why semis did not become hybrids is beyond me. The electric drivetrain provides so much more torque and smooth acceleration, while providing obviously regenerative braking.
- steveoscaro 2y agoA few hanging chads really changed the course of the western world in... 2000 I think.
- thebruce87m 2y agoThe lithium isn’t consumed.
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- sandoze 2y agoI know all cars can’t be perfect but as a 2010 Prius owner (I probably shouldn’t complain given it’s 15 years old) it has had several well documented issues that never prompted a recall. I was hit with a bad oil gasket that causes the engine to burn oil. It’s so much work to replace their solution is to replace the entire engine. My solution is to keep putting oil in it. I was told by the dealer this is common over 70k miles. The steering controls (heat, volume, cruise) stopped working pretty early on. It was well over $1k to fix, mostly labor. Apparently the connection they use is prone to failure. Leaves me wondering if my next car will be a Toyota. Maybe if they adopted Apple CarPlay. That being said, batteries are still good and I’ve been pretty impressed how low the maintenance has been.
- fy20 2y agoAnother 2010 owner here. I'm at 280,000km, and other than burning some oil everything still works fine. Usually by this age cars here are pretty rusty, but so far my Prius has held up well. There's a few spots of surface rust in places, but nothing serious. We had to replace the inverter a few years ago (apparently there was a software update to prevent this failure, but we didn't have it), but even when that broke the car was still driveable, just the ICE engine was running all the time. The biggest issue I've had is with brakes. Three times now the rear pads have got rusty and I've had to replace both the pads and rotors. My theory is that as they are hardly used, they don't get hot enough to dry out any moisture. Last year I rebuild the rear calipers, so let's see if that fairs any better.
- michtzik 2y agoHave you (or any other 2010 Prius owner) heard about or experienced problems with the brake booster / actuator assembly? I think the issues might be described in this article: https://www.carcomplaints.com/news/2019/toyota-brake-booster-recall-defect-petition.shtml https://www.carcomplaints.com/news/2019/toyota-brake-booster...
- mplanchard 2y agoFWIW they have adopted carplay. I have a 2019 prius prime, which was I think the last year before they swapped over. My neighbor has a 2024 model, and it has resolved my two main complaints about my car, in that it has carplay and they have three seats in the back now instead of two.
- daft_pink 2y agoHonestly, I think it’s actually the second generation Prius that transformed the auto industry. The first generation was quirky, had poor crash test ratings, and was full of compromises. The second generation showed that they could produce a sedan with high reliability, a decent sized passenger cabin, high crash test ratings, and very little compromises over a regular car except speed and sell it at a massive scale with incredible gas mileage, lower maintenance costs and great reliability. I think it also showed that you could build a smaller car, throw in all the technology features and young people would buy it where previously, manufacturers would only put the latest and greatest features on their largest vehicles. For example, if you wanted the latest and greatest features from Mercedes, you would have to buy the S class, so even if you wanted a smaller more efficient car, if you were an early adopter, you had to buy the largest model. I think the Prius was a point where people realized that the youngest people wanted these tech features but they didn’t want a giant car.
- haunter 2y agoI'm almost 40 and never had a car in my life. But recently I'm thinking about buying one and probably it will be a Toyota hybrid (Lexus if I get a windfall lol)
- timbit42 2y ago> A driver not employing such techniques still can expect fuel economy as high as 4.06 L per 100 km from the latest generation of Prius models. I think they meant "as low as".
- lmz 2y agoThat's high fuel economy, but low fuel consumption.
- quanto 2y agoIt's difficult to overstate how ground breaking Prius was when it came out; arguably more surprising than Tesla's success and paradigm shift. Before Prius came out, people questioned whether it was even physically possible to have a any working hybrid system in a commercial car, let alone a non-serial hybrid system. At least Tesla had seen working prior art in commercial EVs (albeit far less famed than Tesla). Toyota was mocked in recent years for not going head-first into EVs. As the EVs are becoming less popular and the geopolitics of battery and raw materials escalates, Toyota is having the last laugh.
- JeremyNT 2y agoPlug in hybrids really remain the sweet spot for usability. If you can cover the 50 mile typical commute round trip range on grid electric and then switch to the ICE for longer trips, that's a lot more practical. It's like having the best of both worlds. Yes, you sacrifice in weight and complexity, but Toyota has absolutely mastered this design and their reliability is great.
- D-Coder 2y agoI needed a new car in 2015. A difficult decision for me, since basically every manufacturer sells cars that have four wheels and an engine, and I wasn't sure what I wanted / needed beyond that. A friend had bought a used Prius and loved it, so I did some research and decided it would be a good choice. Thus I ended up with a car that has four wheels and two engines. (It only has around 48K miles, have replaced brakes once and regular battery twice, otherwise no problems. And routinely get at least 40mpg.)
- ProllyInfamous 2y agoThe Toyota Camry Hybrid transfored the way I automobile. A brother recently transferred title of "most dangerous driver in the family" from me to somebody else... so I've got that going for me (plus: have never been pulled over in my re-vamped hybrid lifestyle). Can you smell the 50mpg+ smug?