I'm very interested in buying, but have to wait a few months to do it. I do have a few questions. I live in Colorado. We have mountains and the temps go from -20 in the winter to 100 in summer. So to begin, how is the power in mountains? Does the car keep warm inside during the Winter and cool during the summer? If you are heating or cooling the car does that greatly change the MPG? Thank you for your input!
So many questions. But,
good questions.
>I'm very interested in buying, but have to wait a few months to do it.
Buy a Prius Plug-in. They are practically giving them away.
Many reasons for that.
I removed most of my Prius Prime bashing comments.
Imho, I see Toyota following the old GM way of doing business. You know, the GM that went bankrupt and no longer exists. Fwiw, this is the "new GM".
>I live in Colorado. We have mountains and the temps go
>from -20 in the winter to 100 in summer.
So do we in New England.
Yea, Colorado and New England are surprisingly similar.
But, we also have the ocean. Na, na, na, na.
>So to begin, how is the power in mountains?
The gas engine alone has 181 HP. That's not bad at all!
The
combined gas/electric HP is ~212HP. That's very good.
Imho, for power, it's one of the bet non-performance plug-ins/hybrid cars there is.
Note, "quarter mile" times depend on many factors.
Again, I said
power, not stop-light racing Escorts or Civics.
The Clarity is heavy and the motors/drivetrain are not designed for the fastest possible zero-to-60-100mph times. The motor and drive-train are design for longevity and everyday use.
Imho, if people want very fast 0-60 times, then buy a Camero or Mustang.
Imho, the
power of the gas engine by itself is
important for those of use that don't live in some boring very flat non-interesting area - snore..........
So, all of those Southern Calf, Florida, Texas, etc reviewers can go roll their eyes all they want when they talk about "range anxiety". Hey, go play with your 12months out of the year mosquito friends and have fun in your boring flat landscape that looks all the same.
Btw, some fool reviewer drove a Tesla (electric only) up the Mt Washington road.
Ha, ha, ha.
Clearly, that reviewer doesn't have any real experience bicycling or running up
real inclines.
Disclosure: I've hiked MT Washington (NH), and the Rockies (CO) a number of times.
And, I loved
every time!
I also
officially ran
"Boston".
So, I'm a
little biased.
>Does the car keep warm inside during the Winter and cool during the summer?
Toyota
removed the auxiliary high efficiency heater when this generation of the Prius came out.
Did they put it back it this year? Who knows? And, *I* no longer care.
From the literature, the Clarity has an auxiliary high efficiency heater.
So, with a Clarity, you can pre-warm the car!
And, you can get heat, even if the engine isn't running or isn't hot.
WOW!!!
What a concept!
So, if someone does
not live in Calf, Fla, or Texas, and you want a comfortable car to get into?
With a Prius - ha, ha, ha -
forgaboutit. Okay, again, they
may have fixed that.
>cooling the car does that greatly change the MPG?
Okay. This gets a little more involved.
1) In the City.
Yes, AC does effect gas/battery mileage. However, the AC systems are very efficient now. Still, their will be some lost. That's true for all cars.
AC takes energy/power. That power either comes from gas, electric, or magic.
I don't know of any cars that use magic. So, that's out.
2) On the highway.
In general, using AC and the windows closed, uses less energy (gas/electric) than having the windows down.
Air drag above 40MPH requires a lot of energy/power to overcome the air resistance.
I found a chart. It's close to the estimates using a bunch of known equations.
Btw, except for the old tech, the Ford Fusion plug-in is a nice car.
Other than the Mustang and some weird version of the Focus, Ford is not going to be selling cars in America anymore.
So, imho, forget about getting a Ford Energi (Fusion plug-in).
I hope the above helps.
