bad driving

This morning I pulled out onto South Dowling Street, a ute (ao75ng) was approaching along south dowling with it's left indicator on. So I pulled out in front of it. Many cars turn left at that point. The male driver came up on my left and glared at me, and then pulled in front of me. I put my left indicator on to show he still had his left indicator on. About 5 blocks later he actually turned left. Just before he did so, he turned off his left indicator.

Prius IV

This is the first time I have driven the car in serious rain.

1. High speed on the windscreen wipers is simply not fast enough. I almost had to stop as I could not see out of the front window.
2. Surprisingly the tyres handle better when there is a layer of water on the road (say a few cm) than the nissan xtrail. I think this is because of the better tread on the tyres.
3. The traction control occasionally comes on because of wheel slip. Most often when crossing the kerb.
4. The tyres have a hard compound. They are susceptible to slipping on slippery (perhaps oil covered) roads, more so than the xtrail with it's softer compound tyres.

prius III

Chris has a post on the car. Anyway I am getting better at it and now have the consumption down about 5% on what I was getting before as I learn how it works and read more on the user group site. There is defiantly a technique you should use. I am still often tired driving it as so much more concentration is required as I learn to drive the car. But, and I said this before, only one continuously variable gear is a good thing.

prius

Well I have had the Prius for a few weeks now. Here is an update:

1. The car is amazingly quite, so much so that sometimes the tyre noise is annoying and occasionally you can hear the break pads scratching against the disks.
2. Having no gears is a very good thing.
3. The hand brake is located in the same spot as the clutch on a manual. I have already stopped once unexpectedly because of it. Luckily I was going very slowly. I find my self having to resit going for the clutch while moving.
   
4. It has enough power when needed.
5. It works well up hills.
6. I am getting between 3.9 and 4.9 l per 100 km, averaging 4.6 as measured at the pump. This includes driving with only me and with a 5 people and luggage.
   
7. The heating and air con leave a bit to be desired.
8. It takes a lot of getting used to the engine management. You will be driving at 100km and the engine will be revving up and down with no change on the accelerator.
9. There is a small jolt when the engine stops when the car is already stopped.
10. You can roll along very slowly, and this annoys other cars.
11. The lack of noise is not a problem, only had one minor collision with a pedestrian in a car park, no harm done and it does get looks from people.
12. 5 people is squeezy.
13. The engine breaking down hill is poor because it is using the generator to brake.
14. The direction shift is back to front. Pushing the leaver towards the rear of the car causes it to go frontwards, and pushing it towards the front causes the car to go backwards.
    

New car

Well the lease came up on the old car. I had decided a long time ago to replace it with a LPG car such as a Ford, but on the lease car list was a new car, the Toyota Prius. I headed off to the dealer for a test drive, joined a user group on Yahoo, and read the Wikipedia entry all as part of the research for the car. I am very happy with it. At the moment I am supposedly getting 4.5 l/100 km. Less than half the consumption of the Xtrail (8 to 13 l/100km).

The findings so far:

• The car is very very quiet. Keat was noting that the road noise (from the uneven Parramatta Road) is suddenly the main noise in the car.
• The acceleration is good. It sill behaves a bit like a automatic when accelerating as the engine has to kick in.
• The petrol engine kicking in and out is barely noticeable, except when the engine stops when the car is already stationary.
• Getting used to all the stalk controls is a problem and the placement of the cruise control leavers is very poor. There are other things on the steering wheel (where the cruise controls should be) that are weird, like the rear demister.
• I had to get out the manual to find the 12 volt outlet and there is only one.
  

The next car

While I was away the time limit for the selection of a renewal vehicle for my current lease car passed. So when I returned I quickly looked though the Telstra Fleet vehicle list. (I have a policy of only taking vehicles from the Telstra Fleet list.) My original intention was to go for one of the lower priced options. But I noticed that they had added the Toyota Prius to the list. I did some research on the Internet and decided to go for a test drive after a few emails to Charl. The car is very interesting to drive. Beside having an unusual dash layout, it has no gears. Driving only involves the accelerator and brake. Under heavy load there is a small effect when the engine kicks in, but nothing compared to the effect of an auto changing gears. So with my test drive done, I decided to spend the extra money and get the electric blue version of a car that gets 4.4 liters for every 100 km. It actually have a better consumption rate in town to the highway. It will arrive around the end of May in 2007 when my current lease vehicle term expires...

Wikipedia has an interesting entry on the car, including information on how the continuously variable drive works. It is simple and clever and much better the wobble plates. It lets the engine run when stationary and also lets the car move when the engine is turned off.