Every thought about a Prius?
Discussion
Honestly, thought about it first. But wanted to save money on catalytic converters. My daily commute is less than 50 miles a day. This EV is the right fit. Carvana has a lot of them in stock. Wanna save money on oil changes too. Only expense will be windshield wipers, windshield washer fluid, and tires. I hear most old EVs still have their original brake pads because the regenerative braking is mostly doing all the work.
Bought mine new in 13.
The oem brakes on mine lasted 125k.
Got 218k on car now.
No real issues yet.
Oil changes "aren’t that bad" every 10k.
I’m super leery about full EV as grid power is becoming increasingly unreliable in price.
Have you found out it’s actually more expensive to charge your car everyday rather then it is to fill it up once a week or not?
My mother has a 2012 civic with a conventional drivetrain that she bought in 2014 or so. She has put ~150k on the car. I do all the work on it. Regular oil changes are pretty cheap if you do them yourself. Have done a "drain & fill" change on the trans fluid a few times & replaced the external transmission filter each time. Have replaced brakes once. Tires at least once. Updated the GPS. It hasn't needed anything else. It gets 40mpg, it cost far less than an EV or hybrid, & it is fully capable of driving 800+ miles in a day without long stops if anyone needs to make a long trip.
My girlfriend's diesel BMW gets like 50mpg & diesels are theoretically easier to fuel & to store fuel for in more dystopian scenarios.
I don't think the cost & complexity & closed/proprietary nature of the basic functionality, the unremovable spyware & centralized control, among other limitations of EVs or hybrids really make a lot of sense. If I was going to spend more I'd get the diesel.
It’s also possible to make biodiesel from any animal or vegetable lipid base with a few cheap and readily accessible ingredients in a dystopian scenario. I don’t usually promote products, and I am not a dealer, I have no stake in the company, but if you haven’t looked at Amsoil I recommend it. The oil originated in aerospace and is vastly superior, and I have vetted it for double change intervals with independent lab oil analysis, change the filters at the normal interval of course. Regarding diesels, the mechanical injection diesels are the best, no automobile with a diesel made in the last twenty years is free of electronics though, so it’s a swap it in yourself deal. Hatz and Deutz both make mechanical air cooled diesels suitable for automotive applications, not cheap but insanely reliable.
Electronic injection has some major advantages, my hope is that we continue to see the growth of things like the speeduino project that make open source fuel injection cheap & easy to adapt & modify for all sorts of things.
In diesels the overhead cam driven common rail injection at exceedingly high pressures paired with variable geometry turbochargers has vastly improved efficiency in the last few years. I’m of the opinion that the systems would be more reliable if fewer electronics and sensors were used though. In my thirty years I’ve seen engines go from the 2 million mile no problems CAT 3406B to the 1 million mile no problem Detroit Series 60 to the modern $40k rebuild at 500,000 mile, thousands per month in diagnostic bullshit we have today. I have no problem with emissions controls, modern emissions systems are solid, but the electronics are a constant, expensive problem. I’m excited about the development of single stroke combustion engines, they look promising, this “liquid” piston engine looks like a rendition of the old oil burning, compression losing rotary engines from the 1970’s though. All that having been said though, the key to transportation efficiency is energy scavenging. It’s physics, potential energy to kinetic energy and back again with as little heat as possible. Whether you use a battery or a pressure vessel or a spinning mass in a vacuum to recover and store energy, as long as any vehicle has friction brakes that are engaged outside of an emergency we’re not doing as well as we could. I get what you’re saying though, maybe a relatively simple car getting 40 mpg and lasting a long time is good enough for now.
The government has fucked FUBAR diesels. My 2004 Jetta TDI is still going strong I think has over 300,000 miles on it. (the lady I sold it to still buys from me)
Diesels went through a rough patch, but the SCR diesels are the best engines ever conceived of. The problem was meeting the NOx emissions requirements. The first iterations lowered combustion temperatures to reduce NOx, increasing soot. Fuel economy was terrible and the DPF units clogged. The introduction of urea catalyst allowed all time high combustion temperatures without soot or NOx. I have an SCR diesel with 700k on it, no issues whatsoever. I run synthetic diesel, renewable. The EGR valve is as clean as it was when new. #diesel #engines #renewablefuel #engineering
Double intervals? Try 3-5 times. #AMSOIL top of the line is good for 25,000 miles or one year. I had an 05 Nissan frontier with 200k on less than 10 oil changes.
As a dealer I have to prove to myself before I can confidently sell something.
Hit me up with your #AMSOIL questions!
I’m a believer. I have run 225k on a commercial diesel changing only filters at the 75k interval. Oil analysis through two labs confirmed adequate oil specs at 3x intervals, and the oil was probably serviceable for another 75k, but at $40,000 for a new engine I change the oil as soon as specs slip at all. Amsoil is an amazing product. #amsoil
Totally agree. If I hadn’t blown up 2 engines b2b in my 02 cavalier I’d still be driving that shitbox. Loved it, got 40mpg. But that was the 4th one to get blown up had to move on.
Generally I get around 80mpg local driving only and 50ish driving wherever. I’ve driven from Chicago to St. Louis no problem on a single tank.
Still not sure why we can’t get a diesel Prius?
7.3 IDI master race. Got all my components together just yesterday to start filtering waste oil as a fuel additive cause ULSD ain’t shit.
Any room for solar?
My Prius has the solar panel w/moon roof? I think that’s what it’s called? It powers the ac/fan when the car is off & the cabin reach’s a high tem
Lol temperature*
Ours too! Here in the south it gets hot, if you use sunshade reflectors with that and tinted windows, amazing.
Nice.
Was your Prius considered a Prius+ or persona?
I’m not sure. I know it’s not the V model, we bought it used with 87k. It doesn’t plug in, trim level three or four?
Does it have any silver trim on the doors?
It does not.
Ok so yeah it’s probably a 3/4.
I have a gen3 Prius 3+ (2013) just turned 225k
No real issues.
Had a hiccup with the battery system still not sure what really happened with that cost me $1k fixing shit not getting any answers?
Battery testing showed the batteries cells were still in great shape?
Idk it kinda eats oil but I hear that "normal" for the age/model of engine will know of any real issue with engine @ 250k which is coming up quickly lol.
Prius. Easy 50mpg. We just drove across the US twice, some states with 80mph speed limits and wind. Average overall? 51.6 mpg. #prius
Gas mileage is so good in these cars
…..and using conventional readily available fuels, no infrastructure or running around looking for a charger. I do wish they were diesel, we would get 70-80 mpg easily if they were.
Hydrogen is coming nationwide.
You can already get the mods or diy it.
There’s also 4wd add ons if it’s a newer model year.
This is the thing about hydrogen….storage is difficult, range is difficult, and hydrocarbons are hydrogen energy, stored in the best way. Renewable fuels are the best solution, we just need to stop digging them out of the ground and synthesize them with real time energy. Climate “crisis” solved with no new infrastructure required. Closed carbon cycle. The whole planet is solar energy, fossil fuels are just solar energy from 250 million years ago. #renewablefuels #energy #climatechange
Um I think you need to do more research.
I’m taking about on demand hydrogen fuel production with water.
1 gallon of distilled water gets ~400mpg.
It’s safe as there is no storage of the gas as it’s produced on demand.
Can be diy with 2 mason jars & simple parts.
Via Electrolysis or Steam Reforming? I am highly skeptical your 1 gallon input for 400 miles output in any production vehicle
Electrolysis & we are talking Prius cars
So, as a person who has used electrolysis to produce hydrogen, I can tell you that DYI units are typically low temperature and pressure, and that means really low energy conversion efficiency. If you are referring to these YT “hydroxy” production rigs, that is not only exceptionally dangerous, but ineffective at fueling any real power producing engine or fuel cell. We can review the chemistry and math involved if you wish, but hydrocarbons or anhydrous ammonia are much more dense methods to store hydrogen energy.
IMO hybrid makes sense, especially combined with a supercap that can give you 2 minutes of V8 power for a car that normally is a straight six. The lithium you can keep thx. It's never gonna be as stable as carbon, or as resistant run-away self-oxidation. idgaf about that it's 5x as heavy it's 10x as durable and safe.
💯 hybrid Atkinson cycle diesel on renewable hydrocarbons with SCR is as good as it gets IMO. Super capacitors are actually pretty light weight too comparably.
There was also the Honda Civic VX that got some pretty insane fuel economy just off petro, about 45mpg.
Question: have you have any luck with carb-mods?
There is some complexity when engine efficiency is being considered. Gasoline engines suffer from volumetric inefficiency, that is to say that for spark ignition to happen the air and fuel has to be in the correct stoichiometric ratio for the full volume of the cylinder. If a carburetor modification moves the ratio outside of the flammability range the engine won’t run. Diesel engines are the most thermodynamically efficient internal combustion engines in widespread use because they draw in air alone and inject only the fuel required to produce the requested power, no volumetric inefficiency. The Prius uses an Atkinson cycle gasoline engine that increases efficiency by elongating the piston stroke to fully utilize combustion pressure at the cost of power to weight ratio, still an equivalent displacement turbo diesel would be much more efficient.
That's a good rundown, thank you.
The Honda Civic VX from 92-95 introduced a type of valve lifting that created a vortex with the air and fuel as it entered the combustion chamber. They explained that it was a clever way to achieve more efficient fuel atomization. I remember a mention of the droplet particle size; the smaller, the more complete fuel burnoff.
Quick question: what kind of diesel van would you say is the most efficient and reliable?
Regarding the diesel van, what country are you considering?
USA.
This is complex because of US emissions law. The big three use truck engines in their vans. This is not ideal because of the large displacement, unnecessary unless towing heavy trailers. The import options are technically ideal, but parts and service can be an issue. I would choose the Mercedes sprinter, parts are expensive but available, rarely needed. A 2006 or older Duramax from GMC can achieve 20 mpg and offer incredible durability. I’d avoid Cummins or the Ford Navistar engines unless you’re considering a 7.3 or a 12V Cummins.
That's a good run-down, thanks for the info!