Soldato
I'm currently running the latest Gen4 Prius which is leagues ahead of previous versions so lets put a few myths to bed.
Most revues will say the Prius is good round town but no good on a motorway- WRONG- yes it can drive crawling through a towns traffic in electric mode but the battery level will drop because to keep it charged you need to be driving it with a good variation in road levels, a good downhill run will rapidly charge as does regenerative braking. On level roads it will run for miles on battery alone. There is no clutch, when you lift your foot off the accelerator the valves open so there is no engine drag and the car will coast along easily but still charges from the small generator, the engine will stay off unless it needs to bring it up to temperature occasionally.
Motorways are more often than not quite level which suits the Prius, I can drive at around 60 -65 mpg and easily get 80mpg+ on my previous Gen2 I could get nowhere near that.
Most revues will say the Prius is good round town but no good on a motorway- WRONG- yes it can drive crawling through a towns traffic in electric mode but the battery level will drop because to keep it charged you need to be driving it with a good variation in road levels, a good downhill run will rapidly charge as does regenerative braking. On level roads it will run for miles on battery alone. There is no clutch, when you lift your foot off the accelerator the valves open so there is no engine drag and the car will coast along easily but still charges from the small generator, the engine will stay off unless it needs to bring it up to temperature occasionally.
Motorways are more often than not quite level which suits the Prius, I can drive at around 60 -65 mpg and easily get 80mpg+ on my previous Gen2 I could get nowhere near that.