[Rolen]

This morning I was getting on one of the famous Orange County Autobahns (toll roads) and I found myself following another Salsa Prius. I was kind of excited since I hardly ever see any Prii around in my weekly trips to work and back. I decided to get up beside them and give them a wave when all of a sudden it turned into a race. They were about 3 car lengths ahead of me at around 85mph. I started to gain and slowly pass them at ~97mph and finally hit a top speed of 109. At that point the car started to slowly, in steps, decrease in speed. What had happened was the battery got down to the purple bars and I believe it just ran out of juice, then the computer takes over to manange the charging of the battery. The reason I'm pretty sure this is what "speed limits" the car is that when I first got the car I had hit a top speed of 113 and backed off because of the tire rating. A dealer had told me he had some customers that said they had hit speeds up to 120+.

Don't worry I'm going back to my 65 cruise control trips...all this just because I wanted to say Hi.

 

[hdrygas]

I thought the speed limiter was the rpm max on the electric motor.

 

[Rolen]

That's what I was questioning since now I have hit two different top speeds and also what I had heard from that dealer. I have also read in this group in the past that the max speed was 104mph, yet I have surpased that speed twice.

 

[RSnyder]

Toyota lists the max cruising speed for the 2004 Prius as 165 kph (103 mph). Perhaps that speed can be exceeded briefly if the battery is charged, but it drifts down as the battery is drained. That sounds like what you experienced anyway. You don't mention how far down the speed dropped. Did you notice or did you cut back yourself?

 

[Rolen]

When I felt it "stepping" down I coasted back to 65, so I did not see what it was. I was on relatively level road too. I coasted about 1 mile before it got down to 65 where I had the cruise control set; that was pretty cool.

What I like is the look in the faces of the people that were passing me, after they caught me. I bet they're thinking "holy crap a Prius can go that fast" or "that s.o.b. is able to go that fast and he's getting 50 mpg" :wink:

 

[BIF]

...What I like is the look in the faces of the people that were passing me, after they caught me. I bet they're thinking "holy crap a Prius can go that fast" or "that s.o.b. is able to go that fast and he's getting 50 mpg" :wink:

Most likely at those speeds you were getting far less than 50 MPG. My lifetime mileage is something like 49.2 or 49.4...

I get in the mid-fifties only when I drive around 40 MPH.

When I drive 60 to 70 MPH, I get around 50 MPG.

When I drive 70 to 80 MPH, I get around 45 MPG.

When I drive 80 or faster, I get closer to 43 MPG.

If I were driving at sustained speeds of 90-100 or faster, I would expect my mileage to drop below 40 MPG.

Yeah, 40 MPG still great! But y'know, at 40 MPG, I cannot go >500 miles on a tank.

And I really really REALLY like going half-a-grand of miles between fillups!

 

[Rolen]

What I was trying to say is that is what the "other" people are thinking.

Actually because of all the slight grades I need to drive on to get to work and back, I have only been averaging 43mpg and I drive 65 max with the cruise control. I have my tires at 42/40 and I do try and coast as much as I can but the highest I got on a tank was 45mpg. It's about 35 miles of highway driving one way and I was hoping to get around 50mpg, but it sure beats my 10mpg Ford V10.

 

[michaelsteiner1]

Look forward to getting on the tollroad one of these trips up to LA. Hope to see you there and maybe we will see what the top end is again

 

[michaelsteiner1]

Look forward to getting on the tollroad one of these trips up to LA. Hope to see you there and maybe we will see what the top end is again

 

[richard schumacher]

Yeah, whut a POS this Prius is. It cain't even do one-twunny. That's OK fer them girly-men in Dallas, Ah s'pose...

I keed, I keed :_>

 

[Daniel]

What I like is the look in the faces of the people that were passing me, after they caught me. I bet they're thinking "holy crap a Prius can go that fast" or "that s.o.b. is able to go that fast and he's getting 50 mpg" :wink:

That's assuming they even knew what the car was or what its EPA mileage is. They might have been just thinking, What an odd-looking car. Or if they saw you going 97 mph they might have been thinking, That guy's crazy.