My wife rented a Rogue hybrid to drive in Texas this week. She hates it. She can't keep the air conditioning running in 90 degree heat, everything stops when the car isn't moving. She can't turn the radio on at all.
I reminded her that when we bought our van, of course we looked at American vans because they are more reliable and far…
My wife rented a Rogue hybrid to drive in Texas this week. She hates it. She can't keep the air conditioning running in 90 degree heat, everything stops when the car isn't moving. She can't turn the radio on at all.
I reminded her that when we bought our van, of course we looked at American vans because they are more reliable and far cheaper to own, and then we looked at Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Kia. The Kia and Toyota have incompetent lying local dealers, so we crossed them off even though we liked both. Honda was OK, but the nearest dealer to us is 150 miles away. The Nissan was really interesting, but even the Nissan salesman couldn't figure out how to turn on the radio. The service manager couldn't figure it out either. We gave up on the radio and decided to give it a run. We couldn't figure out how to get the AC on either. When we say how to start the car, we left, as there was no way starting the car had to be that complex.
My point is Honda made some great hybrids, but then we have Prius. I rented a Prius for our daughter once. It was February and she had a baby so I went out to warm up the car. No way to do it, but while trying, I confused the computer and NOTHING worked. I have seen this before, all you do is disconnect the battery and reset the computer. Not with a Prius, there is just one battery that starts the engine and powers the drive motor. I finally had to take apart the 400VDC battery on a brand new Prius and lift the positive cable, which drew a 3 inch arc when I did it BAM, FLASH. I grabbed my welding helmet and reconnected it. BAM FLASH again, but the computer was reset and I could start the car. I got out my camping stove and fired it up in the car to warm it up.
I won't buy any electric car that doesn't have the ability to safely reset the computer. Computers lock up, not all and not all the time, but Murphy controls when and where.
Sounds like you've hit all the speed-bumps on our road to an EV future! Sorry to hear this. I've gone with the tried-&-true older technology of the Honda hybrid--a very reliable gas engine and the limited use of a big battery behind the back seat. I also found that Prius doesn't make a manual transmission and I needed one for my mountain-home driving. This 2003 hybrid also shuts off when at a stop--unless the A/C is on; then it doesn't shut off. No problem with the radio staying on....and just the old key-in-the-ignition-slot to start up. Perhaps you just happened to get some "lemons"? I hope you don't give up on the more efficient stuff !
No lemons, and I'm an Electrical Engineer who has pondered making my own hybrid since 1970.
My point is that electric cars are not all the same. If you simply buy electric, you stand the same chance of being screwed as simply buying gasoline. A friend of mine loves his fancy BMW. He spends $3,000 a year on scheduled maintenance. I spend $150 on my American cars. I always choose my purchase specifically from the cars with lots of data showing low ownership cost. He pays $20 to fill his tires with 95% nitrogen, I fill my tires with 70% nitrogen (air) for free. Yeah, I do have to add air when it gets cold, which I also do with free 70% nitrogen that exists wherever I can breathe. I check my tires monthly to look for damage, so adding air once a year is trivial.
He was ecstatic when he drove over a muffler, destroyed one of his special run-flat tires, and found a used tire for only $700 and got it mounted and balanced and filled with 100% nitrogen for another $150. I get a flat or two a year because I live in the forest down miles of gravel roads, so far nothing I couldn't plug for 25 cents, but if I shred one of my tires, I'll buy a new one for $150, balanced and installed. I also only buy cars that use tires many cars use, because that drives cost down.
My experience with Nissans is one car that I couldn't figure out the radio even with the manual. For a living, they fly me first class all over the world to get automated systems losing $400 a minute back running, so I'm not tech-dumb. My wife is, she's "immune to technology" and struggles to use anything complex, but she's far from alone.
My point is, electric isn't automatically good. Personally, I wouldn't buy a Tesla, not after I saw them put the batteries in the floor. I drive a lot in mountains and other areas that are heavily salted. The Prius battery pack I disassembled was under the hood, safe from salt spray. You say your Honda's pack is under the seat, also safe, but a battery pack that mounts to the floor from BELOW - I cannot count the times I've replaced equipment the seals failed to keep salt water out of.
OK< while on this rant, let's look at efficiency and cost. Cost matters. The world has more methane than it can ever consume, and methane is being made all the time. Exxon Mobil says that their Exmouth gas field is so large and dry that it's essentially zero cost methane. With solar power, we can strip the carbon from methane and have nearly zero cost fuel. The carbon we remove is the reason chemical farming destroys soil. In 60 years, almost all farmland will no longer be able to grow crops. We are ignoring this because it's agribusiness, we have no leverage, but they just walk away and buy elsewhere, maybe burn down a forest. This carbon can go into that soil and make it black and friable again. Carbon "sucks up" minerals and holds them where plant roots can get to them, we WANT black soil. If you read the excellent book "1491", they've found patches of land in the Amazon that are incredibly fertile, remember Amazon land has all nutrients leached out. Some local folks thousands of years ago tilled charcoal into their soil, and it's still fertile today. We can have zero emissions almost free fuel that also recovers our farmland. Electric is great, but I really like free zero emissions fuel that saves agriculture.
Wow!! Sorry for all your difficulties! Still, I know at least a dozen Prius owners, and they all love their cars. I've never heard of such problems from any of them.
Yeah, well for a living, before I retired, VPs and CEOs used to fly me business class all over the planet, where I'd quickly fix processes losing $400 a minute, and I'd teach others how to not stop the machinery.
The reason I was so "brilliant" was pretty much every way you could screw up a bullet proof process, I'd done at least 3 times.
I seriously doubt that normal people could screw up a Prius, but I have this rare talent............
My wife rented a Rogue hybrid to drive in Texas this week. She hates it. She can't keep the air conditioning running in 90 degree heat, everything stops when the car isn't moving. She can't turn the radio on at all.
I reminded her that when we bought our van, of course we looked at American vans because they are more reliable and far cheaper to own, and then we looked at Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Kia. The Kia and Toyota have incompetent lying local dealers, so we crossed them off even though we liked both. Honda was OK, but the nearest dealer to us is 150 miles away. The Nissan was really interesting, but even the Nissan salesman couldn't figure out how to turn on the radio. The service manager couldn't figure it out either. We gave up on the radio and decided to give it a run. We couldn't figure out how to get the AC on either. When we say how to start the car, we left, as there was no way starting the car had to be that complex.
My point is Honda made some great hybrids, but then we have Prius. I rented a Prius for our daughter once. It was February and she had a baby so I went out to warm up the car. No way to do it, but while trying, I confused the computer and NOTHING worked. I have seen this before, all you do is disconnect the battery and reset the computer. Not with a Prius, there is just one battery that starts the engine and powers the drive motor. I finally had to take apart the 400VDC battery on a brand new Prius and lift the positive cable, which drew a 3 inch arc when I did it BAM, FLASH. I grabbed my welding helmet and reconnected it. BAM FLASH again, but the computer was reset and I could start the car. I got out my camping stove and fired it up in the car to warm it up.
I won't buy any electric car that doesn't have the ability to safely reset the computer. Computers lock up, not all and not all the time, but Murphy controls when and where.
Sounds like you've hit all the speed-bumps on our road to an EV future! Sorry to hear this. I've gone with the tried-&-true older technology of the Honda hybrid--a very reliable gas engine and the limited use of a big battery behind the back seat. I also found that Prius doesn't make a manual transmission and I needed one for my mountain-home driving. This 2003 hybrid also shuts off when at a stop--unless the A/C is on; then it doesn't shut off. No problem with the radio staying on....and just the old key-in-the-ignition-slot to start up. Perhaps you just happened to get some "lemons"? I hope you don't give up on the more efficient stuff !
No lemons, and I'm an Electrical Engineer who has pondered making my own hybrid since 1970.
My point is that electric cars are not all the same. If you simply buy electric, you stand the same chance of being screwed as simply buying gasoline. A friend of mine loves his fancy BMW. He spends $3,000 a year on scheduled maintenance. I spend $150 on my American cars. I always choose my purchase specifically from the cars with lots of data showing low ownership cost. He pays $20 to fill his tires with 95% nitrogen, I fill my tires with 70% nitrogen (air) for free. Yeah, I do have to add air when it gets cold, which I also do with free 70% nitrogen that exists wherever I can breathe. I check my tires monthly to look for damage, so adding air once a year is trivial.
He was ecstatic when he drove over a muffler, destroyed one of his special run-flat tires, and found a used tire for only $700 and got it mounted and balanced and filled with 100% nitrogen for another $150. I get a flat or two a year because I live in the forest down miles of gravel roads, so far nothing I couldn't plug for 25 cents, but if I shred one of my tires, I'll buy a new one for $150, balanced and installed. I also only buy cars that use tires many cars use, because that drives cost down.
My experience with Nissans is one car that I couldn't figure out the radio even with the manual. For a living, they fly me first class all over the world to get automated systems losing $400 a minute back running, so I'm not tech-dumb. My wife is, she's "immune to technology" and struggles to use anything complex, but she's far from alone.
My point is, electric isn't automatically good. Personally, I wouldn't buy a Tesla, not after I saw them put the batteries in the floor. I drive a lot in mountains and other areas that are heavily salted. The Prius battery pack I disassembled was under the hood, safe from salt spray. You say your Honda's pack is under the seat, also safe, but a battery pack that mounts to the floor from BELOW - I cannot count the times I've replaced equipment the seals failed to keep salt water out of.
OK< while on this rant, let's look at efficiency and cost. Cost matters. The world has more methane than it can ever consume, and methane is being made all the time. Exxon Mobil says that their Exmouth gas field is so large and dry that it's essentially zero cost methane. With solar power, we can strip the carbon from methane and have nearly zero cost fuel. The carbon we remove is the reason chemical farming destroys soil. In 60 years, almost all farmland will no longer be able to grow crops. We are ignoring this because it's agribusiness, we have no leverage, but they just walk away and buy elsewhere, maybe burn down a forest. This carbon can go into that soil and make it black and friable again. Carbon "sucks up" minerals and holds them where plant roots can get to them, we WANT black soil. If you read the excellent book "1491", they've found patches of land in the Amazon that are incredibly fertile, remember Amazon land has all nutrients leached out. Some local folks thousands of years ago tilled charcoal into their soil, and it's still fertile today. We can have zero emissions almost free fuel that also recovers our farmland. Electric is great, but I really like free zero emissions fuel that saves agriculture.
Wow!! Sorry for all your difficulties! Still, I know at least a dozen Prius owners, and they all love their cars. I've never heard of such problems from any of them.
Yeah, well for a living, before I retired, VPs and CEOs used to fly me business class all over the planet, where I'd quickly fix processes losing $400 a minute, and I'd teach others how to not stop the machinery.
The reason I was so "brilliant" was pretty much every way you could screw up a bullet proof process, I'd done at least 3 times.
I seriously doubt that normal people could screw up a Prius, but I have this rare talent............