I have been driving from Munich to Offenburg yesterday, via Stuttgart. All in all 370km/230mi (90% highway) in about 4,5hrs, avg. speed 80-85km/h-(50-52mph) as reported by the computer (I don’t remember the exact value, sorry).
The traffic was really thick (Friday afternoon…) and because of the expansion of the Autobahn A8 from 2 to 3 lanes (yes, you read correctly, 3, not 6 or 7 – we are not there yet, but we are doing our best to copy the US, and filling those lanes with SUV like vehicles ). The whole of the A8 is hilly with steep declines (up to 6%) and inclines. There are simply no tunnels and it’s all up and down…not many flat sections…
About 1hr of the whole driving time, was spent in stop&go traffic jams, mainly due to roadworks and heavy traffic. The rest of the time I was driving as fast as I could: after all I live in Germany, let’s have fun sometimes and more over I wanted to see how the Prius was doing at high speeds. When no speed limit was given (typically there is a 120km/h-75mph limit over a good third of the way and 80km/h-50mph one in all roadwork sections), I was going anything slower than 150km/h-93mph and as fast as 190km/h-118mph.
The overall stability was good but not excellent – I am driving now with winter tires (195/55 R16), instead of the 215/45 R17 – so this is certainly one limiting factor. I have tried driving 190km/h already once with the 215 summer tires and the stability is excellent.
Acceleration is OK but not that exciting – but mainly I was chased from 2.0+L BMWs/Mercedes and the such with 150+HP at least. I was never chased by a Golf or other mid-sized car. Surely the Prius is not a Ferrari, but you need to push it to get juice out of it (at least at these speeds). Often you press the gas and “nothing” happens. The eCVT likely doesn’t help, but I cannot imagine shifting gears at these speeds, it doesn’t make any sense – you really need HP and torque (if any left….). The engine gets quite noisy and the HSI is no indication of what are the RPMs of the ICE and if you are melting it down The HSI bar might not be in the red PWR zone, you are doing 180km/h-111mph going uphill and the engine is roaring, but you have no clue whether you are in the red rpm zone….. Comically enough, I never really had to floor the accelerator, but honestly I was afraid of having the ICE jump out of the car…
I used PWR mode all the time, not because the car goes any faster, but simply because on German highway, people do drive fast – no only in terms of overall speed, but also in terms of reaction times. When there is a chance to go faster, they will do it. No grannies here! So you need to accelerate fast, and PWR Mode gives you better reaction to the foot. After arriving in Offenburg I had to keep the PWR mode on as my foot got so used to it, that normal mode felt like ECO!!!
What I noticed is that the battery charges continuously – the ICE is running so much and at max power that it can generate traction power, power for the generator and power for the electric motor. The batter was charging while the motor was driving the wheels at the same time. This has been the only time that I have ever seen the battery of my Prius fully charged, even if for just a short period of time. Most of the time it was 70%-80% full. Having a full battery was really helpful when stuck in a traffic jam or at lower speeds as I could coast in electric mode most of the time.
So now the main question is – what was the average fuel consumption, including 25km/15mi in town before leaving Munich???? 10L/100km-23MPG? No. 8L/100km-29MPG? No. It was just 6L/100km-39MPG. I am honestly impressed.
This also means that if I drive it more slowly (say 140km/h-87mph), I would probably get 5L/100km-47MPG. And that for a german autobahn *is* impressive. I would never get that on the Polo diesel I got before. I have also tested today going 150km/h-93mph more or less constantly, and you do get 7L/100km-34mpg average.
A good reason for driving slower though, is to reduce the stress on the suspensions and overall on the drive train. German highway are indeed flat and quite good taken care of, but any tiny bump at these speeds is truly heavy on the suspensions. The last thing I want is to change something in 4-5 years time due to fast driving. I wonder if I have not already compromised some mechanical part (I am already imagining cracks and mini-fissures crawling up metal parts in the suspensions…. my poor Prius!)
I will drive back this Sunday I will post my findings on this thread. So, overall good, not a Ferrari and certainly not an “easy/comfortable” german highway car. On more relaxed highway trips though (140km/h max), it is certainly a good comfort car with (likely) excellent fuel consumption especially if helped by some traffic jams…
Hi there. I met my new Prius today! I was blown away, just sitting in it. It looks brand new. (and smells like it!) I told my man about 10 times, “you did GOOD.”
You woulda laughed if you had seen my list of questions for the dealer. I had two pages of questions. All from Priuschat.com. All the dealers there drive Priuses so he could answer them for me. (Although I doubt a couple of his answers….) He said I had more questions than any other Toyota shopper in his career. Yup, intelligent ones too, from the forum.
He already disabled the backup beep for me, woo!
Thursday we get it. And then I’m gonna enjoy sneaking up on people.
Oh, thanks for answering my comments. I read your latest post to my husband, and he LOL’d – you are a great writer. Keep it up.
~lytha
Hey there, we got our Prius today! I drove it for the first time. And then I decided to just drive it all day long. I’ve been driving 22 years, had countless cars, and this is the only one that made me want to just drive all day. So I did. I learned to PnG, and about the B gear.
I want to sleep outside tonight so I can keep looking at it.
It actually handled the autobahn quite well. I flew up to 120 and didn’t notice. I thought, honest to God, I was driving 80. (I will bring the Garmin GPS next time to confirm that the speedometer is correct.) That is the difference between a polo and a prius. Our last car was a Seat Ibiza, which is the VW Polo clone.
It was raining all day and the wheels on the wet pavement were making more noise than the car itself. That is, I’m enjoying the silence.
I read the first 100 pages of the manual — IN GERMAN. Hard work. Brutal hard work.
We have a question for you – the car unlocks and lets us start it with the key in our pocket. But to lock it, you have to press the FOB manually, right? or? (Manual’s in German, so give me a break OK?)
At the end of my Autobahn A-1 day (and A-46), I had a nice 4,8L/100km. Then my man got in and drove home, and got 3.8. PPFFT!
Takes some learning, this car.
I miss shifting gears, the clutch, the involvement with the car itself. But this car involves drivers differently. It gets us driving relaxed and quiet. We’ll see what happens.
~lytha
Hi Lytha,
regarding the FOB on the previous version on the Prius I don’t know – you might well need to press the button on it to close it. On the new Prius, you simply touch the handle on the top and the car closes, without ever touching the FOB to operate it. I have also noticed how quiet the car is, and honestly speaking, the Polo/Ibiza are not quiet at all – my parents always complained how noisy my car was inside – being a Diesel also it did not help. As for the 3.8L/100km your man did, how was he driving? any slower than you? or any other special thing?
Ciao and Merry Xmas and Happy New Year (with your Prius!), Paolo
Hi there and Merry Christmas (2nd Christmas day)!
I took the car 175 kph today on A1, a very respectable speed for a Prius, I think, and the car was very smooth. I want to know the top speed but I think that may be it, for a G2.
We are having Verbrauch wars, my man and me. We do it tank by tank, and trip by trip to a point, and I was happy to see the Verbrauch stay at 5.3 despite my 175 kph trip! 5.3 is not very good, but we are having extremely cold weather (-16 C!) and the car just cannot relax.
My man got the 3.8 on a warm day, and it was kind of a fluke, I think. On flat, short trips, that can be acheived easily. But to average it out, we have to go on the Autobahn. Andup hills.
The only thing that has gone wrong so far was our windshield washer fluid dispensers froze – Duesen? Scheibenwaschanlageduesen? We took it to the shop and they laughed, “Yah, yours and every third car out here. It’s cold out!” Nothing you can do, you have to just wait til it warms up.
We learned how to lock the car – the little black buttons on the door handles are locks.. Whew!
I’m curious about the back up sensor, the proximity alarm – where is that located? It is wonderful, really helpful in parallel parking.
Have a great “rutsch”!
~lytha
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