So I'm testdriving a HiHy on Friday. The local dealer has allowed me to take it for a longer drive (a couple of hours). I'm planning on testing it on the roads of mu comute.

Anything in particular I should look for whil riding?

/Robert

 

Put on the trip info screen so you can see your average mileage. The instant guage will drive you nuts-o, but it's useful as quick measure. The dial on the left of the speed-o is their "efficiency" guage. You want to keep it in the area where the lines are broken or below that where possible. Read up this week on the pulse and glide technique and experiment with that. Other than that, I'm sure there are dozens here more qualified than I to coach you. Don't plan on exceeding 25-28mpg your first time out. And keep in mind that the same vehicle in Gas-only configuration will provide less power and only about 15-18mpg with the same driving style.

Think of it as a 2-ton SUV with V8 power and 4-cyl economy.

Good luck, and enjoy the ride!

Don

 

Thanks,

I like your thinking about mpg. I think if I can coach it into 25+ on smaller roads (20-40 mph) then I know that I can probably get it close to 30mpg later.

It needs hands down beat the Volvo V70 2.5T's EPA city EPA numbers (21 mpg City / 30 mpg Highway) and at least stay close to it's own highway number (28mpg) at 65mph on flat road with cruise control.

It also need to offer a ergonoimics and seat comfort close to the Volvo. I think Volvo makes one of the absolut best seats on the market (inlcuing Merc and BMW) and they have good ergonomics. I don't like that the HiHy don't offer a telescoping wheel as I seem to need that in most cars (and it's something I miss in my current Maxima).

 

From my experience if you drive a longer time, not short less then 10 mile trips, you should have no problem hitting 25MPG in town. My problem is the majority of my trips are all less then 10 miles and that hurts the average because ICE is running to get everything up to temp.

 

Well I've been thinking some more and I'm now more and more leaning towards the prius! It's a much cheaper car. It makes more of a statement to the industry and it enviromentaly more sound. So I think I'm gonna drive the prius first and if the cabin is "good enough" then I'll buy it (fully loaded).

The prius actually have more features as well, they sure packed a lot of electronics into a small package! Bluetooth would be cool!

 

The wife loves her Prius and with gas prices heading up again and speculation they will be well over $3.00 per gallon again this summer it's a good choice. The Prius has plenty of room and when you sit in the rear seat you will find it hard to believe you have so much room, because the car looks smaller then it is.

 

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm 6,3" and 200lbs and mostly legs/arms so I'm a little concerned with the space in the Prius. But I did compare it to the volvo (on edmunds.com) and it's actually on paper not much smaller.

I also realized that it makes no sense for me to drive a bigger car to and from work. It's such a waste of resources (looking at your data the prius has twice the gas mileage of the HiHy). And for the money I save I can rent a nice car if I need to go long distances with luggage and dogs etc.

It also sends the right message to the car industry. I want a luxury hybrid... to me that means a Lexus with great gas milage... let's hope the start selling a camry based lexus still using the 2.4 liter engine... or even better the next gen hybrid... that would be a great car for my (then) wife

 

After us having a Volvo V70 Cross Country can safely tell you that you would be MUCH better off with any Toyota. We classify the Volvo as one of our worst decisions (except for the Ford Pinto I once had, which was the worst ).

 

Being a Swede I'm sad to hear that. Volvo used to build very reliable but boring cars. With the 850 they managed to build a rather nice car that was reliable.... then ford bought them... and today the quality seem to have dropped quite a but... but they are still doing better then SAAB! That said volvo was out of cash and would have been out of the business without ford so it was still neccesary.

What volvo does best are seats. You sit like a king in them. My experience from toyota are mosty from corrolas and they have crappy seats. I'm hoping that the prius has a better seat but I'm not sure (the seats are manual?!?)

Anyway, thanks for the info. You are not the first to tell me they've had problems with the v70

 

Thier manual, and don't get your hopes up to much on them. Idon't care for her seats that much.

Yes, Volvo used to be a great car/vehicle till they were bought by Ford.