No. As a whole, SUV’s are still more dangerous. Hence, a safety conscious consumer, particularly one with a consciounsce, will choose to buy a passenger car, all other things being equal. Considering that you had three statements to choose from and you used the one that applied to the smallest section of the data, maybe the “cherry picking” accusation has turned out to be rather accurate.
The most popular SUV in the US is the Ford Explorer with a base curb weight of around 4300-4500 pounds is on the light side of the area between medium and large SUV’s.
The most popular passenger car is the MS2000 series from GM including both the Century, Regal, GP, and Intrigue has a curb weight of close to 3300-3500 pounds is on the heavy side between medium and large passenger cars.
Either way, a typical car is safer than a typical SUV. Considering that you pose more of a risk in the SUV, I still don’t see how one can make a safety argument for an SUV.
jshore how is the Prius’s A/C? Does it’s performance compare to a standard’s car’s A/C? Also while we’re at it, How does the Prius do in the snow, I would assume that it would be somewhat better then a conventional car in some respects due to smaller tires.
Just looked at the Ford site. “Combined horsepower of gasoline engine and electric motor = 155” Maybe the torque of the electric motor would make a difference, but 155hp is nothing for that size of car.
My old Pathfinder has about 165, and the lack of power is probably the only thing I don’t like about it.
Upon review. The site states that the gas engine is 133hp, and the electric motor is 94. Combined should be 227, more reasonable. Am I missing something here? Could the 155 hp be a mis-print?
Anyone know it the Escape Hybrid has a two speed transfer case (low range)?
I don’t think so, but what you have to realize that an electric motor has a totally different power curve (max at low RPM’s, actually I think max at 0 RPM’s). So adding gas+electric HP is not a good representation, but perhaps it would be better to think of that 155 HP over the complete rpm range, not just a peak. If this is the case 155 HP could be very powerful.
(yes I know that it is a peak, but it should be much flatter then a conventional SUV)
Ford claims that the hybrid Escape performs roughly the same as the V-6 model with the 200HP engine. Most reviews I’ve read say it’s close to that. I have one of the V-6 Escapes, and the performance is very good.
Well, comparing what you get when you drive it to what Consumer Reports gets is comparing apples to oranges. Their city numbers tend to run very low. For example, in regards to their claim for the Prius getting 35 mpg in the city: There is one tank of gas where I have gotten ~35mpg but that was when we had a brutally cold few weeks here in January and, as I noted, my ~15 minute commute is too short to warm up the engine very well. In the summer, I would get ~50-52 mpg on a tank of gas, with it doing a little better in more city-like driving and a little worse on the highway.
Strangely enough, the number they reported for highway driving though was actually a few mpg higher than I have tended to get on the highway. (They may be doing it at 55 or 60 mph, whereas my highway driving has been more in the 70-74 mph range.)
The A/C seems perfectly fine to me…I think it is comparable to a standard car.
As for snow, I think the Prius handles pretty well in the snow. It does come standard with traction control, which was new to me and I have trouble figuring out how I like it…It can be a little weird when you step on the accelerator when you’re stopped and the road is very slick and you get very slow response…But I suppose this isn’t necessarily worse than having the wheels making dramatic spinning noises but not moving the car very much. (There is also optional “vehicle stability control” that I did not get.) This year, I decided to just go with the all-season tires it came with. I may get snow tires for it next year, as I had for my Plymouth Colt…I am a big fan of snow tires as I felt it made my Colt able to get through almost anything.
Yeah, the EPA and “Official Testing” numbers are usually really low compared to actual mileage, but what’s important is how they relate to one-another.
Hmmm…Well, I do see a variety of numbers for the Camry’s 0-60 time floating around on the web, including some more in line with what you say. But, sticking to the Consumer Reports as a uniform source for cross-comparison, their overall mileage estimates for the Camry and the Prius are 24 and 44mpg. And, their 0-60 times are 9.7 sec for the Camry (from a full review appearing in their Feb 2005 issue) and 10.5 sec for the Prius (from a full review appearing in their May 2004 issue).
Here are the overall MPG and 0-60 times for the other cars that were compared alongside the Prius in the May 2004 issue:
Chevy Malibu: 24mpg, 10.1 sec
Mitsubishi Galant: 23mpg, 9.1 sec
Suzuki Verona: 20mpg, 10.3 sec
Dodge Stratus: 21 mpg, 10.4 sec
And, here are the overall MPG and 0-60 times for the generally peppier cars that were compared alongside the Camry in the Feb 2005 issue:
Nissan Ultima: 23mpg, 8.9 sec
Mitsubishi Galant: 20 mpg, 7.2 sec
Pontiac G6: 21 mpg, 8.1 sec
Note that the vast difference between the two ratings for the Galant is presumably due to the fact that they tested a 2.4-l four cylinder (160hp) version in May 2004 and a 3.8-l V6 (230 hp) in Feb 2005. The numbers for the Camry are based on a 2.4-l four cylinder (160 hp).
Jshore: You’re right that it’s hard to know which numbers to interpret - a lot depends on how the vehicle is driven, the transmission in it, how aggressive the testers are, etc.
BTW, here’s the production version of that ‘Contractor Special’ concept vehicle I mentioned: The Chevy Silverado Hybrid.
Note that it only gets 13% better gas mileage that its non-hybrid counterpart, but the hybrid system retrofits into the current vehicle and will probably be cheaper than a 'full 'hybrid. It also doubles as a 2400 watt generator. The article mentions one application I never thought of - camping. Put a camper on this thing, and you can power whatever you want. Take it to a camp site, and you can power electric heaters, fridges, lights, whatever. Pretty cool.
It’s not a bad idea. I wonder how many amps you can pull? 2400 watts? It could probably power one circular saw and a small compressor. Something that could run one nail gun.
Ehhh. Very, very few job sites don’t have power. But this would be good for those occasions when you need it and don’t have it. And, only need a little bit.
I particularly like this in it’s standard features -
“Ashtray and cigarette lighter standard”
:snerk:
I’m really, really starting to hate journalists that have no idea of what they are talking about. This person just insulted everyone. In one sentence.
Tell me about it, in HSs second year while on the chemistry class the professor asked for examples of kerosene uses, I said “jet planes burn kerosene”; I was almost laughted out of the classroom by the other students AND the professor. I would have loved to have a big clue stick to smite them on their heads.
Ralph, We’ve already got an active thread asking When will (US) gasoline hit $4.00/gallon?.
Please do not bring back to life threads that are over a year old. If you need to discuss this particular issue, start a new thread and link to this old one (which will soon be closed).
