New Machines

Beth bought a 'Prius C Two' on March 27th, and here are some impressions: First, mileage- The EPA figures are pretty accurate, and we get at least 50mpg in real world driving. Slightly less with all highway driving and more with all city. Our first tank was 54.5 mpg but we have not measured again with diligence.The on board computer that tracks MPG is pretty accurate-maybe a little optimistic by a mpg or two- and that varies from the low 40's mpg when we are climbing a long hill and really gassing it to over 90mpg if we are going slow in the city and are using electric power only. The car automatically switches in and out of electric but really only uses pure electric up to about 20mph and only so long as the battery lasts..If the voltage drops too low and/or speed gets above a certain range the engine automatically turns on. All of this is unnoticeable except by the relative silence of battery (EV) mode versus the sound of the engine. There are 3 modes EV-pure electric...which we never use, but you could for a mile or two if you wanted to be real quiet or if the gas engine died. ECO- which automatically uses both electric and gas but limits how high the engine can rev to save gas, and 'regular' mode which is the same as ECO except the engine can rev higher. To use either ECO or EV you have to push a button on the console near the shifter. Really, the only difference between 'regular' and 'ECO' is the engine revs, and the little screen ( the "Eco Score " ) on the dash has a little gauge which shows the driver how much gas he/she is/is not wasting. So if we are careful pulling away from a start and not flooring it into what the gauge calls "power", we can make great mpgs in either mode. We keep it in regular mode 90% of the time, and I assume that ECO mode just activates more software so why do that.. This all sounds complicated but is not...What a hybrid does is make you conscious of your driving habits and shows how wasteful jackrabbit starts and climbing hills and high speeds are to mileage. The difference between going lightly with your foot and flooring it can be 5-10 mpg ! So staying at speed limits such as 55mph on the highway returns over 50mpg and 70mph drops mileage to 45-47...By being careful on the back roads and out of the "power" range as much as possible and by coasting down big hills and to a stopsign- which (along with normal braking) recharges the battery and increases mpg's-we can average 55mpg to 60mpg without feeling like a slug. The on dash screen tells you what is happening so it becomes a video game with yourself to see how well you can do. Otherwise the car handles well and feels nimble and the seats and driving position are comfortable and the automatic climate control and all the other accessories work fine, although we do not use Bluetooth so cannot comment on that...In deciding what to buy we figured that the initial cost had finally dropped low enough that the PriusC could compete with other small cars and the payback time for the gas would not be too long.. For instance, the well rated Honda Fit and Hyundai Accent are cheaper but only get real world 32-33 mpg... a big difference between that and 53 mpg...so the PriusC is both green and Fun to drive! :) .........
       As for the Yamaha's, they are TW200 dual purpose bikes I bought used last Autumn and have been tooling around the area with. The red and white one is an '87 with about 12,000 miles on it and the silver one is an '04 with 4,000 miles. My impression of them is that they are excellent all around motorcycles that are perfect for back roads and slow trail riding. On the road their sweet spot is below 45 mph but they will hold 55mph if need be and off road they will climb any trail you throw at them-kind of like an ATV with those big tires that truly allow you to go anywhere, which is very rare in modern motorcycles. The eventual plan will be to carry one of them behind an RV when we travel in order to cheaply explore wherever we end up. Between the motorcycle and bicycles and our feet we should be able to go anywhere :)