Sandy’s R(ant)LOG

I found this blog post when I was researching my last RLOG post….this takes the proverbial biscuit…for gawd’s sake…will someone Nuke LA and make the world a better place ???……OK, so leave Santa Monica….

…she gets 100MPG DOWNHILL in her 2004 Prius…oh F*&king jaysus …..I can switch the engine off in my Range Rover and get a MILLION miles to the gallon going downhill love !!!!!!!!!!…..in fact why don’t you try driving your (2004) Prius off a cliff you’ll be f*^king amazed how economical that is…and getting rid of dumb f*cks like you has to be REALLY good for the planet at the same time !!!

I own a Prius
By Jill in CA
Posted Thursday 7th June 2007 20:13 GMT

Let me preface this by saying I own a 2004 Prius. It does not have the ability to plug-in to an electric socket of any kind.

The Prius does indeed have regenerative breaking. But what most people do not realize is that the Prius can generate electricity WITHOUT USING GASOLINE! Electricity is created by turbines turning at a great speed. Wheels on automobiles also turn at a great speed. Toyota has set up the Prius to make use of turning wheels so they act like turbines. If the car is coasting, it is using neither gas nor electricity. Rather, it is using its momentum to add more power to the electric battery. Every time I remove my foot from the gas pedal, the gasoline engine stops using gas and the battery does not put out any electricity. Period.

If I am going uphill, depending on the number of passengers and the steepness of the hill, I will get anywhere from 12 mpg to 30mpg. But on the downhill side… no matter how many passengers, if I can coast down (and usually I can because I was just pressing the gas pedal to get to the top and I have significant momentum) I will get 100 mpg AND refill the electric battery while I do so (also without using any gasoline!)… until I need to press the accelerator again.

My Prius will sometimes use the gas engine to fill up the electric battery if it is low, but I find that the majority of the time the electric battery gets filled up just by me taking my foot off the accelerator for a few seconds at a time on my commute home.

The Prius’ gas tank only holds 11.5 gallons of gas. I find that if I run it until the “low gas” light is flashing at me and screaming for me to fill it up, the tank will take a little over 9 gallons to fill and my odometer will show that I have gone approx 425-450 miles on those 9 gallons. If we take the low number and divide it by 9 gallons, that would be 47.22 mpg for a tank. The high number gives us 50 mpg for a tank. Those numbers are consistent with my average gas consumption in the 3 years that I have driven this car. Some tanks averaged as high as 54 mpg. It all depends on how often I was stuck in traffic. Interestingly enough, the Prius gets BETTER mileage in congested traffice than in open freeway driving without congestion.

By the way, my commute is 33 miles each way, so I do a LOT of driving. My commute consists of both clear freeway driving where I often zoom along at 85+ mph (yes, it is a very zippy car!!) and very congested freeway driving at 1-10 mph. During the 85+mph driving I will generally get 47 mpg because it will use a combination of gas and electricity depending on how full the electric battery is at the time. During the 0-10mph driving I get 100 mpg because at that speed it will only use the electric battery. If traffic comes to a complete stop, my car uses no gas whatsoever and the only electricity it uses is to keep the dashboard illuminated and my CD player going (plus whatever it needs so that when I do eventually press the accelerator it will go forward).

At this stage in our availability of car types, if my Prius were to be totaled and I had to get another car, I would definitely buy another Prius. The only other kind of car I would consider right now, today, would be a fully plug-in electric car.

I was parking my Range Rover in London the other day when I noticed that some pompous looking cow in a little Japanese piece of crap was staring at me wagging her finger in a very “Teacher” like kind of way (I hate teachers). So, being the concerned citizen that I am, I took a closer look. I might be wrong (could have been my bad driving at fault, which is VERY possible), but I think she was “remonstrating” with me because I was driving a “gas guzzler”…..jeez what is the world coming to ?

Wanna talk carbon offset ??? yeah ????? well I have 2 stinking great fields next to my house that I own and every year my local farmer takes away about 40 tons of hay….at least enough to offset my “green footprint” for a couple of thousand gas soaked miles in my (very comfortable) Range Rover.

Worse still, I bet she buys a tree every time she flies somewhere as a “carbon offset”. Guess what….the tree was there anyway !!!! ….but don’t tell her….

BUT…what about all of the stinking, rotten chemicals in her batteries (Nickle Metal Hydride to be precise)…yeah right….you’ve guessed it…my Range Rover is more eco friendly by comparison with the stinking factories that make these batteries, polluting the atmosphere and our rivers to make these “eco friendly” cars run wihout using petrol for a few miles…and don’ even start to talk about the true recycling cost of all of these chemicals…because that doesn’t count….RIGHT !!

….start walking, cycling or take public transport you conceited cow and DO something REAL to save the planet…better still get a generator fitted to your wagging finger and you’ll probably create enough power to keep a dildo running overnight…it won’t save the planet (just batteries ), but it’ll put a smile on your face before you see your next Range Rover !