(Disclaimer - I have the sedan, not the hatchback.) The suspension is
typical of family cars of the same dimensions. The wind noise is not bad at
all; rather, road noise is mostly what the passengers hear. I had some
Pirellis on it that made a weird "flying saucer" noise on smooth pavement.
In town it is very hard to tell when the engine starts and stops, except for
the odd occasion when the engine lurches when it shuts down.

I'm not sure I follow you there, but the sedan version of the Prius is more
conventional in starting. Like any other auto tranny car, the "shifter"
(more properly, "mode selector") is left in Park and the driver puts his
foot on the brake while starting and while shifting into gear. IIRC the new
model, the hatchback, requires the car to be started with the brake
depressed. The version I have doesn't.

Mike

On Mar 27, 4:47 am, "Michael Pardee" <michaeltn...@cybertrails.com>
wrote:

For maintenance, yes it makes sense.

Not really. mid 30s. If I were older I
might have appreciated the softly sprung suspension
and intermittently noiseless operation while in the city.
On the highway it's useless naturally since the wind
noise drowns the engine noise unless you have a fart can
for exhaust I guess. Very unlikely on Prius :-]

to place the

Evasive maneuvers, eh?
Anyhow, that was just a one off car purpose built
i don't suppose you have to do the same in yours.

You've probably noticed there is a strong current of RTFM here. People who
don't RTFM too often come here because they didn't know they were supposed
to change their timing belts or use only Honda fluids in their AT or PS.

I guess you are a baby-boomer like me, and remember when an owner's manual
was only to tell you where the switches and fuses were, or how to place the
jack. Now every owner who ignores the manual will suffer, and a lot worse
than not knowing how to start the car!

Mike

On Mar 23, 5:27 pm, "Michael Pardee" <michaeltn...@cybertrails.com>
wrote:

Behold, finally there is a car where a driver MUST study
the manual before driving. Isn't that an achievement.

He would have saved himself embarrassment if he had RTFM. Can't fault the
car for the driver's error.

Mike

On Mar 22, 8:49 pm, Gordon McGrew <RgEmMcOgVr...@mindspring.com>
wrote:

It was a piece of junk when it came out.
The only notable part is the hybrid power train.
Remove that and you are left with an obviously shitty platform.

Tubes have their place in high end audio. Just like the prius:
niche technology adopted far wider than it should have been.
Taxis and mail delivery: maybe. I don't see what use
there is to the general public.

Design defects? You mean aside from being a boring piece of sh.t? As
for production defects there are plenty:
http://www.caranddriver.com/dailyautoinsider/9565/software-problem-affects-some-
toyota-prius-hybrids.html
http://www.caranddriver.com/dailyautoinsider/10194/toyota-recalls-prius-hybrids.html
if you google enough you'd find a bit more with the older
Echo based crappola.

Same buggy electrical system I suppose. Too early to tell,
but judging by the delayed shipment of the first ones
they had serious problems going into production even
with the helping hand of Lotus. In all fairness the first
crop of bmw 3xx had their share of electrical problems also.
The problem is: prius is not half the car beemer is.

Is someone claiming that the 2007 Prius will be cutting edge
technology for the next 50 years?

As for vacuum tubes, most televisions had them up until the 1980s or
so.  Assuming you are old enough, did you postpone purchasing a
television until then because they had tube technology?

Rebooting?

What problems?  I have not hard of any serious design defects with the
Prius.  

What does the Tesla have to do with the Prius?

???  The current Prius was designed for the ground up to be a mid-size
hybrid car.

On Mar 21, 5:51 pm, "Michael Pardee"

Exacltly. Prius will be remembered at the vacuum tubes of the
early 21st century. I don't like rebooting my cars a few times
a day, but that might just be me silly. I wonder if the same
problems are delaying the production of the bastardized Elise
or Tesla has a simpler system. Someone is going to buy that fat pig
anyhow. There is Exige for half the price with 500 pounds
or so shaved for the rest of the population.

That's how it's life began before Toyoda knitting corporation weighted
it down with the nickel anchor.

Wow - that screwy story is being quoted all over the place. It's hard to
know where to start with what's wrong with it, but a bit of checking into
the history and current status of that nickle plant in Ontario should
clarify just how bogus the story is. After that, consider how miniscule the
fraction of nickle output that goes into Prius batteries is and the
ludicrous assertion that the expected life of a hybrid is 100K miles (mine
had more than that when I bought it, and it drives like new)....

Don't worry, though. You probably won't be forced into buying a hybrid
anytime soon. When conventional power trains can't compete in either power
or efficiency, your choices may be limited, but I bet you could still buy a
20th century car even 30 years from now. Maybe even one with 4-wheel drum
brakes and recirculating ball steering and a Kettering ignition.

When I was a kid fascinated by electronics, the limitations and cost and
complexity of transistors spawned pronouncements that transistors would
never replace tubes. I knew tubes were finally doomed when transistors
became cheaper than tube sockets. Funny what technology does to our world.

Mike

http://omidr.typepad.com/torque/2007/03/toyotas_prius_i.html

maybe fewer hybrid crap will be forced on our shoulders after
all and Ed Markey would finally shut up?
Did Canada sign Kyoto protocol?