Any Prius owners here?

[Thorn]

I drive a 3rd gen Prius; DH drives a 2nd gen. As Oakleaf says, racks will eat your gas mileage. Wind tunnel testing doesn't just apply to cyclists.

We used the Saris bones without issue (well, except the 10% hit on gas mileage) for quite a while when we transported 2 bikes. Then we met a couple putting two bikes into the back of their Prius at a ride and watched them stack the bikes. It is quite doable and goes pretty quick.

That said, we discovered one major disadvantage of the Prius now that we're full-time bike commuters. The Prius is an electronic vehicle and it is always "on" looking for you to come back, open the doors and start it up. All that electronics is driven by the itty-bitty battery in the trunk.

The little battery also needs enough juice to start up all of the computerized components. Once the electronics are on, the big batteries take over. However, if you don't drive the car for a while, the little battery goes dead. And, despite having the big battery array, your car won't start.

Since we can go 2-3 weeks without driving either car in the summer, we've learned to trickle charge the cars and now keep a schedule as to which went out last so we reduce the problem.

But, really, it is a nice car. And your bike will fit in the hatch just fine.

[ny biker]

You can turn the smart key system off so that the car won't keep sending the signal "looking" for it. I did that when I left the car at the airport for a week in September. It's an easy button press, and you press the same button once you're in the car to turn the SKS back on.

[ScaldedCat]

My Dad has a 2009 Prius, he loves it. You get them quite a bit cheaper in the U.S the base price here is around £21,050 around $33,000.

[GLC1968]

I had a 2005 (I think that's a 2nd gen?) Prius for awhile. It was ok, but I didn't love it. That said, if you drove a car and loved it immediately, that's a really good sign that it's a good car for you! (kind of like bikes, right?)

I will say that YES, a hitch rack will destroy your mileage. We drove across the country in February in two cars a few years ago. I drove the Prius, my husband drove our Matrix and both were similarly loaded up. We put the hitch rack and bikes on the Prius figuring that it would only hurt the mileage enough to allow us to both fill up at about the same time. We were wrong. The Prius mileage with the rack (and two bikes on it) dropped from a winter hwy average of about 44 mpg to about 36 mpg. And I was terrified that it wouldn't make it over the continental divide past Denver! The battery was down to 1 bar even though it was running on the gas engine at the time and I'd never seen that before! What happens when that last bar disappears? Eek!

Anyway, we pulled over at an Ace hardware, bought a socket wrench and moved the bike rack to the Matrix. Matrix mileage dropped from an average of 33 mpg to about 30 mpg - even with the rack on it. We think it's because of the shape of the Matrix (it kicks up a bit in the rear where the Prius slopes down). This was a big reason why we eventually kept the Matrix and sold the Prius the following year.

Anyway, if you are buying a Prius for the gas mileage (particularly highway), then do NOT put a rack on it. If you are buying it because you love driving it, then don't worry about it. Even with a rack on it, mpg will be better than your Cherokee anyway.

[Thorn]

You can turn the smart key system off so that the car won't keep sending the signal "looking" for it. I did that when I left the car at the airport for a week in September. It's an easy button press, and you press the same button once you're in the car to turn the SKS back on.

Yep...that disables the primary drain, but not all. Turns out the only way to disable all of the draining apps is to unplug the battery. Normally, never an issue. Heck, I would never even have known there was more than just the key system if I didn't leave my car alone for so long.

Likewise, DH has a very short, freeway-less commute. Turns out that all short trips are also bad for the small battery. The Prius needs 20 minutes uninterrupted driving every 2-3 weeks to fully recharge the little battery.

Hmmm...on the one hand, doing short-haul trips by bike is compatibile with the Prius, but not doing any long haul trips is incompatibile....ah...really we should just get rid of one of the cars, but I can't yet.

[smilingcat]

I like my Prius. I have no clue as to which generation it is. I think its 2010 model. I like the fact that when I pull into a gas station "filler up" only takes few minutes and less than 9 gallons later, the tank is filled. I pull into the station after some SUV is in filling up and I leave before the SUV has filled up.

Yes, the little battery drained to a point where the electronics didn't work. Dash boards blinked. radio didn't work, the electronic transmission blinking and did funny thing. Never did engage so that was good. I was horrified when it happened. OMG, I hate all this electronic stuff. The car is literally dead and I thought OMG $$$ to repair a low milage Prius... Luckily, the little battery needed a recharge.

My bicycle fits in easily inside. And I try to drive like one of those super milage people. I normally get over 50MPG.

Interior noise on freeway is tad loud. But then again, I'm comparing to my previous car which was an Audi A6 Avante Quattro. Prius doesn't feel any cheaper than the A6 with the exception of noise.

[ny biker]

I haven't had any unusual problems with either battery. The one that's part of the hybrid system (with the charge shown on the display) is managed by the car. It just runs on 100% gas engine if it's low.

The other battery, which is like the one every car has, died on me last May. But I think I left the lights on in the car, and it was a couple of days before I used it again so they were on for a while in very hot weather. It was easy enough to recharge.

There are something like 16 different computers in the car that are maintained by the battery while the ignition is off. But they're not related to they hybrid transmission -- they work things like the lights and smart key. I assume more and more cars will have that many computers as time goes on.

The thing I like least is probably the gas tank. It's a flexible bladder (part of a design to prevent gas fumes from escaping while you're filling the tank). In cold temps the bladder is less flexible so it doesn't take as many gallons when you fill it up. This hasn't caused any real problems for me, because gas stations are common enough around here, but it makes it hard to estimate how far you can go on a tank of gas.

Also the gas gauge is not linear. It's 10 LCD rectangles on the dashboard, but each one does not represent 1/10 of the tank. In the summer I might go 100 miles before the first pip disappears, but in winter it's more like 30-50 miles. And you don't really know how much gas is left when you're down to one pip.

But I would still buy another Prius in a heartbeat.

[grey]

Thanks everyone! Looks like I found my next car. Now I just have to decide when to go get her :-)
And then she'll need a name.