Any Hybrid Owners Here??
 

Hello fellow webmasters, does anyone here have any experience with any brand of hybrid?
I am looking to buy my firs hybrid in January and any information would be more then appreciated.

If you own / have driven a hybrid, what was the first thing you noticed or felt was a negative when compared to an all gasoline vehicle?
Please post anything you feel might be useful information

Thanks

The engine cuts of when you come to a complete stop and runs off of the electric power pack. When you put your foot on the gas the engine instantly turns back on. It's pretty cool.

Wow that sounds really cool; I assume then that the pedal someway reignites the engine.
What about power for passing and overall speed, does the vehicle run in a mixed mode where the electric engine as well as the gasoline engine both supply power simultaneously?
I am very excited about this.

What?s a realistic MPG? I know the advertisements promote some pretty staggering numbers? but at the same time I wonder how accurate are those estimates when put to the test of real world day to day transportation.

I almost bought the Camry Hybrid a few weeks ago, but needed something with more size than that...so ended up with the Highlander Hybrid. I don't really care about being green, I just wanted something safe, with some size and that gets good gas mileage. This gets almost 40 MPG.

I've had it for a week and love it. Before I swore I'd never drive another Toyota, or an SUV. Things change I guess.

http://image.motortrend.com/f/new-ca...s-highland.jpg

good timinig :) http://www.aptera.com/

I can't find anything negative about it at this point.

The first thing that stood out was that the car makes no noise in "electric" mode.

I've had my Toyota Prius for 2 months now and I absolutely love everything about it NAV, bluetooth built in, every control you need is on the steering wheel, back up camera, 6 disc changer, Sirius radio, etc....!!! The highest average of MPGs that I've gotten is 51.3mpg! Plus I got mine in a nice black with dark tinted windows very stylish. ;)

We have a Toyota Camry that is a hybrid and it is OK. Doesn't really get fantastic mileage, but decent. I will say that for a car with a little engine, it has balls of the line though. That is one benefit of going electric that I see right off, as much torque as the computer will let you have.

I saw the aptera in another thread and in all honesty I don?t think the world is ready for that design jus yet..unless it is widely adopted I imagine it would be hard to feel safe. Imagine cruising along at 70 MPH and a huge 18 wheeler fly?s by?

I have been looking at the highlander but I swear for some reason I get this gut feeling they will develop electrical issues later on. Going to research the highlander even more right now

i have a prius for over 2 years.. i get 45 mpg and i drive like a maniac.. this car has plenty of pick up and passing acceleration, i think it uses both gasoline and electric if you punch it at around 50 - 70 mph. i have no problem driving it at 80 mph or faster, but it is a lighter car so is prone to wind and similar.. it is very economical, the maintenance is almost nothing, almost 100k on mine now and is running great. it has a great turning radius, can make a u turn on a narrow street. but it doesnt corner well...

51.3 MPG !!!!!!!!!!

How does it handle? Does it feel light on the road?

I have looked at the pirus as well... but like you said it is very small. Last I checked they were still giving a credit for going green on the pirus

I had no intention of buying a hybrid, but Toyota prices them right in nicely with their non hybrid counterparts. It was a difference of like $4k for the Hybrid option and it gets on average about 10 mpg better. I don't like big cars and trucks for this reason. My brother in law has a Tahoe that gets about 13 mpg...I didn't want to be in close to that. The Toyota was the only vehicle with size that did it.

I was willing to settle for a Minivan.

It feels amazing, very very smooth!!! That's the highest MPGs I've gotten, the majority of the time I get 45-47mpg. The only thing I have to say is test drive it, you'll leave with one. :)

My wife told me today she is getting a Prius come the spring. I look forward to checking it out.

probably not a low as the corvette I drive now. I would drive one. looks like fun and might even be safer than a motorcycle. -bmb

i got it for the carpool access in LA.. like cutting butter with a hot knife. i pass all the idiots in their sport cars going 15 mph on the 405 (if they are lucky).
only a few hybrids are approved for that purpose. i would totally look at the lexus rx300h if it was approved for carpool access...

I was a bit shocked to see the Prius costing $26k while the Camry, pretty much loaded was only $2,000 more.

My wife has a Civic Hybrid. It actually had good pick up for a 4 cylinder. The dashboard has a gage that shows when the car is running off of fuel and electric. If put your foot on the gas pedal it runs on gas if you take your foot off the pedal and coast it runs on electric. So it actually gets better gas mileage in the city vs. highway. She gets about 42 mpg.

I like her car but its to small for me to drive.

Excellent car. You can't go wrong with Honda and Toyota.

Waiting for toyota to release a hybrid truck. The highlander is nice though, but I'm not a big fan of SUVs.

I've had my Honda Civic hybrid for over a month now and I love it!

I normally get around 40-43 mpg.

I remember the car sales man was going to let me and my friends take the car out for a test drive by ourselves and he goes, "Oh yeah, when you come to a stop the car actually turns off. When you press on the gas it turns on again. So don't be alarmed." We were like, "Wtf?! Ummm..." So he came with us. Haha... it wasn't as weird as I thought it would be.

Basically, I love it. And it isn't slow like I thought it would be.

I drove the lexus 400h for a bit over a year. It was an awesome ride...I compared the hybrid vs it's 350 gas only counterpart. The hybrid kicked its ass in everything. It was very fast off the line and for passing due to the electric engine. The reason is that since it doesn't need to rev up, it can provide instant torque so you can accelerate faster. I got probably like 26-30MPG, and I drive like a maniac so I was happy.

With that car, when you are driving under 40MPH it runs off the battery, once you go faster it'll switch to gas. When you coast, it uses the battery. When you brake, it turns converts the heat into battery power. It's fun rolling down a back road or residential street with the windows down, and not being able to hear the motor.

For me, I bought the hybrid just due to the power and responsiveness it had over the non-hybrid. The price difference wasn't really made up in gas savings. Although I'm sure that's different for other hybrids.

If you want a hybrid to save gas, than compare the gas savings vs cost of car difference. And also remember that hybrids are better for saving gas when you do a lot of slow driving, stopping, starting, etc (city driving).

I will get a hybrid at some point. Gas prices will only go in one direction.

Ok here's the deal with Ford Escape Hybrids
I had one for about 2 years . I was told it would do 36 mpg on the freeway and 33 in town. BULL SHIT !!!!! best i could ever get was 27 and that was driving on a level road at 56mph ( i averaged 24 mpg over all the time i drove it ) . Who the fuck can drive like that ? Within a month the ignition stuck on and i was unable to turn off the car, i took it to the nearest dealer who spent 4 hours trying to turn it off, 3 days later they managed to switch the faulty part and charged me $ 240 to rent a car ??

The only plus is that these twin engined hybrids are fucking fast, i was always first away from the light and i have the speeding tickets to prove it !!!:321GFY