the point is the word could be rearranged to sound like ***** and therefor make owners uncomfortable.
ahem, a ***** is useful, what use is a pious ?
the point is the word could be rearranged to sound like ***** and therefor make owners uncomfortable.
I'll round up some replies to a few posts in this one....
In the interests of research last night, I tried all the stuff people claimed they've done which doesn't work....
You can shift into neutral with the throttle flat to the floor.
You hold down the power button for a few seconds, it drops into neutral and kills all power stone dead, again can be done whilst moving.
Reverse can't be selected whilst moving forwards quickly. Seems to allow it when you're rolling off the throttle at walking pace, though.
Hitting the brakes whilst flat to the floor on the throttle curtails engine power, and the massively assisted brakes combined with the 'hybrid drive' regeneration device will easily overpower the engine.
Basically, it's as fail safe as it can possibly be - but, as they're nothing like a 'normal' car, you need to know what you're doing before you take one out on the road.
They'll top 94mph quite easily, but are limited electronically to 105mph.
There's definitely a place for them, especially for company car drivers - company car tax is just about the lowest of any car out there, they do 45mpg, are comfortable and quiet on the motorway. There aren't many cars which will seat 5, with their luggage, and have an auto box which can be had for under 400 quid / year company car tax, and I can't think of anything else in vaguely the same class that will do 45mpg when caned mercilessly which also have an auto box.
They're also very well equipped compared with the usual company car choices in this class - much better equipment levels than the Passat and Focus I've had before.
Most people don't 'get' the Prius, but many who have spent time with one (not just a quick drive, I'm talking several thousand miles) rate them very highly - I like mine, so I've requested we get the new ones when these go back. (Choices were Insight, Prius and Focus Econetic)
Mine will even park itself....
From the "things that should probably already be there" file comes the announcement that Toyota will be installing brake override systems in response to recent incidents of runaway cars. Toyota North America president Yoshi Inaba told Automotive News that the system will force the engine into idle if it senses the driver is trying to apply the brakes unsuccessfully.
nobody is arguing you cant do all of the above,the question is if there is a fault preventing this in some/all of these cases
The systems will be 'fail safe', so if anything goes wrong, power will be cut.
In the hugely unlikely event that they're not - and I'm sure the start / stop isn't going to be part of CAN-BUS for safety reasons, you can use the mechanical foot brake to stop the car.
These 'incidents' are caused by idiots who don't know anything about the car they're driving, or, and this is quite possibly the case now, non-events brought to light by people seeing an opportunity to claim some 'free' money.... 'where there's blame, there's a claim'.
There is absolutely no way that all systems would have gone down at the same time
Do they not have a mechanical handbrake? Isn't that an MOT requirement?
Perfectly sound logic for you but the problem is that what makes the prius appealing is not the 'green' technology which has a pretty minimal effect on economy/emmissions and quite considerable downsides on manufacture and disposal, but the totally disproportionate tax breaks that hybrids get because the car companies producing them have convinced the government they are better than they are. If you take the tax issues out of your equation the Prius suddenly looks like an interesting and reasonably capable car but not up to the better standards in the class and way overpriced!!! The owners aren't idiots, the government are.There's definitely a place for them, especially for company car drivers - company car tax is just about the lowest of any car out there, they do 45mpg, are comfortable and quiet on the motorway. There aren't many cars which will seat 5, with their luggage, and have an auto box which can be had for under 400 quid / year company car tax, and I can't think of anything else in vaguely the same class that will do 45mpg when caned mercilessly which also have an auto box.
They're also very well equipped compared with the usual company car choices in this class - much better equipment levels than the Passat and Focus I've had before.
Most people don't 'get' the Prius, but many who have spent time with one (not just a quick drive, I'm talking several thousand miles) rate them very highly - I like mine, so I've requested we get the new ones when these go back. (Choices were Insight, Prius and Focus Econetic)
Mine will even park itself....
Do they not have a mechanical handbrake? Isn't that an MOT requirement?
So if you've a computer that controls everything its impossible for everything to be affected if the computer goes pete tong?
Has this happened to any UK Prius's yet (other than the bloke who ran over his wife in Tesco car park)? Could also be a 'market' specific thing for cars made to a certain spec.
All I know is that I tried absolutely everything to mimic what is being claimed and found that there was an over-ride 'fail safe' at all points I tried..
Again, how can you possibly say this? A simple build up of dust inside a PC can cause it to crash, same with the mouse, a bit of carp on the sensors & the pointer can end up going all over the place.There is absolutely no way that all systems would have gone down at the same time - all these cases are purely down to idiots behind the wheels.
There's definitely a place for them
I'm honestly not surprised that people seem to want the Prius to be somehow faulty, as everyone who hasn't lived with one or done any real comparisons loves to roll out the Top Gear coloured hatred every time they're mentioned.
My previous 2 company cars have been a Focus and a Passat (both 'economical' TDIs - the Focus was the 1.6TDCI and wouldn't top 38mpg and the Passat a 2.0TDI which just about managed 42mpg) - this is more economical, more spacious, better equipped and, because it runs on petrol, significantly better on emissions.