[Guest]

Two thoughts. 1) I tried to rent a Prius this weekend but it was out with a dead battery. I guess nobody had rented it for more than two weeks.

2) I always thought that the Prius would have much more tire wear in front than the rear, given the regenerative braking. This seems to be true from what people have written.

But in looking at other cars over the weekend, I've noticed that many seem to have much more brake dust on the front wheels than the rear. Is there some additional effect, wherein *all* cars brake harder on the front than the rear?

... Mike

 

[Guest]

1) - Starting a Prius with a dead auxiliary battery should be very easy. You only need enough current to power up the electronics, not to turn over a starter motor.

2) - All cars apply more braking at the front than at the rear. This is why they have disk brakes at the front, even if they only have drums at the rear. The reason is that more weight is over the front wheels holding them down to the road. When you brake hard, even more weight gets thrown forward, pressing even harder on the front wheels. On the Prius, regenerative braking makes no difference to tire wear. Mechanical braking is reduced to the exact degree that regenerative braking is applied so for the tires there's no difference.

Graham.

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