Comments on: Toyota to sell solar panel-equipped Prius next year

By: Jay Fidler

Jay Fidler — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:36:49 +0000

Gee, you guys didn’t leave much to talk about… but I gotta say. Yes, you have to burn some fuel to go up the hill and build momentum. But don’t forget, coasting down the other side is where the majic happens… 2 things, you get to push alot of those watts right back into the battery to use again later. AND, while you were doing that you were not using your breaks.
In ‘03 when I bought my first Prius all the nay sayers told me it would be 3 to 5 years before the extra cost would be offset. Humm, well its been 5 1/2 yrs, I still have it, it still gets 45 to 55 mpg depending on weather and how hard I push on the peddle. At 106,000 miles I just installed 3rd set of tires. At about 96,000 I pulled off the wheels and checked the breaks. They had maybe 10% wear so I just cleaned them off, rotated the shoes and pads and put them back on. The guys over at Toyota tell me they have yet to do a Prius break job.
So, 5 yrs later, no tune-up, no break job, no clutch job and I’m still goin’… cha-ching, cha-ching. Amazing, must be a wednesday car. Now I have 2 - ‘03 and ‘08. Amazing car …

By: tyler

tyler — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:33:35 +0000

in large the battrty to sell it here

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By: Jerry

Jerry — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:37:55 +0000

My wife and i did a lot of research and math in deciding to buy a new Prius. Her 94 Acura was 195K miles into death. If she drives the Prius when she goes to work and we drive only the Prius for trips that we do together we will save enough money on gas (at $4/gal) to actually pay the payment on the car. This is compared to our 2008 PT Cruiser. So, we don’t SAVE any money but she gets a very nice new car without killing our fixed income.

For those of you that think that a bottom of the line Prius is “stripped” think again. Front and rear AC, CD changer with 6 speakers, 6 airbags, traction control, cruise control, electric windows and mirrors, and many more cool features that are actually usefull.

For those of you who have not done as much research on the Prius as I have I heartily recommend this site:

http://john1701a.com/prius/prius-misconceptions_highway.htm

By: k

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:55:34 +0000

I suggest you start saving now. The cost to build the infrastructure for fueling stations will be astronomical. Perhaps that is what the petrol companies are doing. Charging sky high prices now so that they can afford the cost in 50 years. That way they can keep the Villa in Spain.

By: k

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:52:01 +0000

Good for you. You found your solution. I hope eveybody who reads this will deside to be as pro-active as you. In my situation, I have a husband that takes the train and a child that needs to go to daycare, my solution was to sell my V6 volks Jetta and get a Prius.

By: k

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:49:39 +0000

Are you behind the desk? No why not? The job was there for the taking? Not interested? That’s why they are there and not you. You should be in a “thinking job” and not a “doing job”. As long as our children remain “smart” and get hired for the “thinking” jobs life will be just fine.

By: k

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:46:56 +0000

FYI the Prius is being manufactured in the US in two states: California and Kentucky. You can’t keep this narrow minded view of what “American” is. The economy is too diversified and spread out globally to recognize what is truly “American”.

By: k

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:44:24 +0000

The Prius is the most economical consumption wise. The problem is people have not adapted their driving technique to maximise the potential of the car. Everyone expects to jam on the accelerator and start saving. It does not work that way. You have to coast a lot more (further away from stop light and stop signs than normal). Slower accelereation from stand still, and most importantly do 105 KM on the highway with cruise, or 50 KM on streets. You’d be surprised how many green lights you catch when you do the speed limit! I’m a Prius owner by the way :)

By: k

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:37:47 +0000

Sounds like you know what your talking about. Why not send a letter to the manufacturer of your choice with these suggestions. That’s what I did (back in 2005) and look they are doing. Maybe I helped or maybe they were planning all along, the point is ideas should always be shared. This advice comes to you from an industrial designer (ie: product designer) :)
I specialize in toy design, but I am always looking out to improve anything I get my hands on!

By: k

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:33:59 +0000

Let me guess… you don’t have children. A response like yours only shows how selfish and short sighted you are. A Grasshopper instead of an ant (If you don’t catch my fable reference - you’re ignorant too). And yes the environment will take care of us by killing us first. Only then will it be able to fully repair itself.

By: k

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:25:23 +0000

The reason they will be producing these cars with panels is to get the public use to seeing these evolutions in design. Plopping something radical on the market never works becasue it is too different. People like their creature comforts, offering a way to enjoy them guilt-free is an excellent marketing tool.

By: k

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:20:27 +0000

10 years is a lot of time betwen technologies. I’m surtain if Toyota was right with hybrid tech. they will also be a winner with this concept. There are no bad ideas just bad execution.

By: k

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:18:39 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I don’t run my air conditioning in the winter. Besides, the idea was to have the panels run the AC when it is parked so the cabin isn’t 300 degrees when you get in. At least that is the idea I sent to them back in 2005 when I bought my Prius.

By: yo

yo — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:29:44 +0000

i’m still waiting for the new honda insight

i have an 01 and love it

with an automatic i get 50-60 just about everywhere

although it came with a cassette player?! what the heck is up with that?

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:52:31 +0000

I do apologize, after reading that first bit i honestly didn’t pay enough attention to the rest and clearly missed your point. I am sorry for the insult, i get irritated with people praising solar panels when they are so pathetically insignificant at producing electricity. And just to be clear im all for green energy, wind power has some true potential and solar heat concentrators shows some promise.
This is the dumbest idea that is nothing more then a marketing gimmick to attract the larger bank accounts and lower iq group. Ill bet the extra weight of the panels charge controller and batteries expend a thousand fold (just a complete guess) more energy in gas then they produce in electricity.
Again sorry for the misunderstanding.

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:47:46 +0000

True, I was just picking a high % to compensate for my lack of solar efficiency knowledge and was just generalizing because I don’t get paid to look all this stuff up nor do any of us know the technical specs. The point was to show that even with the crazy 75% you don’t save much money at all.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:51:59 +0000

“So lets be generous and say 75% of 5kW is powered by solar (3.75kW). Probably around or less than 50% in reality.”

You clearly have pulled that from your anus with no concept of reality. Simply stating random percentages does not make them true because you wish it to be. If you could even get one kilowatt out of a panel that size all houses would be powered solely from solar that wouldn’t even take up the whole roof. No no, the power a panel this size would be much much much less perhaps maybe the best you could hope for is around eighty watts.

By: Carlton Lee

Carlton Lee — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:16:10 +0000

I understood them perfectly. One thing I’m convinced of is that the ability to write perfectly is no true measure of intelligence. It may even be just a genetic trick. I’m also convinced that dismissing someones ideas because they are not written properly is prejudice and stupid.