What is Digg?114 Comments
- 60mpg, on 11/28/2007, -9/+37The testing center is to lazy to look up the test procedure. The Prius has a sequence of button presses that will keep the engine at a certain RPM and if you press the gas pedal it will hold the RPM at the other speed required to do the test. I would post exact instructions but I don't have access to my documentation at the moment. I'm currently averaging 58mpg in my 2006 Prius. 70.1mpg is my best tank so far.
- JaySunFL, on 11/28/2007, -1/+26Here in Virginia they didn't even test my Prius, just gave me the inspection sticker
- DreKor, on 11/28/2007, -1/+16This may be a dumb question, but why isn't the Prius' "on-board computer" incompatible with the diagnostic tools? Standards for something like this sound like a good idea to me.
- gtluke, on 11/28/2007, -1/+10OBD2 was implemented for just this reason, sounds like toyota botched the OBD2 protocol
- Grimdotdotdot, on 11/28/2007, -5/+14"70.1mpg is my best tank so far."
Yeah, but you still drive a Prius. - Gillfactor, on 11/28/2007, -2/+11What is this the first Prius in Georgia? Why is this just being brought up now haven't hybrids been around in the US for like 8 years?
- SkippyDoorknob, on 11/28/2007, -0/+8Hybrid do have a gas engine. If something is going wrong, they could still be spewing harmful pollutants.
And I'm not sure you know what "redundant" means. - legoalert33, on 11/28/2007, -1/+9ideally 1:1
- mypreciousss, on 11/28/2007, -2/+10The title seems misleading.. it makes it sound as if the Prius outsmarted the emission test by performing really well (or something), instead we find that it didn't even get tested.
- racekarl, on 11/28/2007, -1/+7No, that still wouldn't be redundant. Superfluous maybe, but not redundant.
- m750, on 11/28/2007, -2/+8digg the original article, rather than an article commenting about yet another article.
- KLowD9x, on 11/28/2007, -1/+7Most likely. Hybrids do much better in the city than on the highway.
- thcobbs, on 11/28/2007, -1/+6don't you mean 0:infinity ?
- RevRyan, on 11/28/2007, -2/+7As a lifelong GA resident, I HATE the emissions program. It's driven solely by money. The vast majority of cars on the road are new enough that they were manufactured under newer stricter emissions standards. However, GA has too much money to pilfer from folks on a completely useless program.
This situation is a case in point where common sense has eluded our government yet again. They're stuck in old ways, and cannot easily adapt to new thoughts. Why can't the governor just pray away emissions, like he just prayed for rain on the steps of the capitol? Oh wait, we're still in a drought. - 60mpg, on 11/28/2007, -1/+6If you drive like a dumb ass yes you will get 45mpg. If you drive no faster than the speed limit, keep at least 3 second gap between you and the car in front, don't floor it to the next stop light or sign (stoplights are timed for the posted speed limit. around where I live if I drive the posted speed limit I wont have to stop at a light ever! well not never there are those speeders that just have to get to the light before I do and if they are in my lane I have to stop. If they are in the passing lane then I just blow right buy them when the light changes.) , and keep your tires inflated to the proper PSI then yes you can get 60+mpg. In the prius you can do what is called a pulse and glide. When no one is behind you and you don't need to get to where you need to go in a hurry you can pulse up to 40mph then put the car in to what is a glide state. Its almost like neutral but you don't actually shift to N. You glide back to about 30mph and repeat. This P&G can get you well above 100+mpg. This is one of the many way to improve MPG.
As far as your other statements go they are completely false. Yes a small 4 cylinder diesel can get better mileage but your comparing apples to oranges. My 5 seater plus storage room of a small SUV Prius STILL gets better mileage than a little 2 seater diesel when compared to haul ling capacity and useability. There are a lot of Prius on the road now with over 100k miles and still have the original battery. In fact there are a few with over 200k miles and I know of one now that has over 300k miles.
My reliable source of information for the prius can be found on priuschat.com cleanmpg.com and greenhybrid.com. What are your sources of information? - outtagetme, on 11/28/2007, -0/+5to keep the prius gas motor running:
1)Ignition on (not READY mode)
2)Vehicle in Park
3)Step on accelerator pedal twice
4)Place vehicle in Neutral
5)Step on accelerator pedal twice
6)Place vehicle in Park
7)Step on accelerator pedal twice - vsujohn2, on 11/28/2007, -1/+5Yeh, those ***** should know better.
- 60mpg, on 11/28/2007, -0/+4Yeah I know but there are no good production EV's out there yet. I'm trying to get an EV like the Tesla Roadster to replace the Prius.
- epj3, on 11/28/2007, -1/+5Cool. My car failed PA EMISSIONS because of a failed anti-lock brake wheel speed sensor. It passed safety inspection... so basically I failed EMISSIONS testing because of a hall effect sensor - and though they have a $150 emissions exempt rule (spend $150, get an exempt sticker), the $150 must be spent on emissions related parts. You have to love this wonderful state.
- logicalnoise, on 11/28/2007, -1/+5the drivers are flogged and then placed on a cherry.
- tightscrummy, on 11/28/2007, -0/+4Disregarding the millage that the computer gives (which for me similar to his), I commute 79 miles per day in heavy Bay Area traffic and I buy 7-8 gallons of gas every Monday morning depending on how much I drove on the weekend. Does your millage conspiracy include the gas pumps too? Incidentally, I'm just about to hit 100K and the batteries are fine (not that it matters, I have an extended warranty).
- bdillahu, on 11/28/2007, -0/+4Good thought, but won't work on the Prius (I own one). The A/C is electric and will run happily off the battery for some time.
As an earlier poster stated, there is a procedure to force the engine to run for diagnostics/testing/etc. - gquaglia, on 11/28/2007, -0/+4No worse then ***** who drive jumbo pickup trucks but are afraid to put anything in the bed because they might scatch it.
- salinemist, on 11/28/2007, -0/+3ISWYDT
- anthaneezy, on 11/28/2007, -0/+3Wow... everyone drank their Haterade today. The Prius is a step in the right direction, folks. Remember all the folks who were like "OMFG YOU BOUGHT AN IPOD?! I'LL TAKE MY EXTRA $250 DOLLARS AND BUY CDS INSTEAD, DUMBASS." a few years ago? Now they are as ubiquitous as TVs. Price will come down, the technology with mature, and they will be everywhere. iPods, mobile phones, VCRs, "the-next-big-thing"; anything.
Back on topic, Toyota didn't "outsmart" anything. I'm sure it would be against some kind of regulation if they purposely circumvented emission testing. The basic fact is that the Georgia DMV Emission technician didn't know the procedure (mentioned above) to allow the testing equipment to do it's job.
Back on the poster's topic. Congrats on your Prius purchase. Early adopters really help out the rest of us. I don't know the breakeven point of higher gas mileage versus the TCO of the car, but I hope its reasonable. Its funny how whenever you brag, with good reason, about your gas mileage, everyone will take their turn berating you about your choice of car and decision.
I drive a 1991 Civic, 30+ MPG. Luck of the draw here; I've had it since high school. Flame on. - Otto, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2They're just calling it "emissions" because that's what they've always called it. But really, they're just checking for codes on the car nowadays using OBD-II. Buy yourself an OBD-II reader and check your own codes to pre-emptively fix any problems detected. Then clear the codes about 50 miles before taking it to be inspected (takes about 50 miles for it to reset to normal again).
- binarypower, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2Ummm... this was posted 226 days ago... from the source! http://digg.com/hardware/Toyota_Prius_can_t_pass_G ...
- stangmatt66, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2Actually, just turn on the heater. The Prius still uses the engine to run the heater. The A/C is fully electric, however. Also, if the Prius is in park, you can step on the accelerator and the engine will start right up and run.
- dupswapdrop, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2Why are they still doing emissions testing? Here in Minnesota we dumped the program when it was found that less than 1% of the cars didn't pass. It cost much more money than the program was worth.
- mypreciousss, on 11/28/2007, -4/+6hm.. thanks for letting us know.. the suspense was killing us!
- dood, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2The testing could highlight a problem with the gas engine in the hybrid.
- legoalert33, on 11/28/2007, -2/+4Hybrids still have gas engines.
Some hybrids have large engines too, such as the 2009 Silverado hybrid which will feature the 6.0 liter Vortec Max. But its more of a gimic vehicle by GM. - quaxon, on 11/28/2007, -8/+10Georgia should just be glad they finally got rid of the horse and buggy
- MorbenDK, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
- expert01, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2Because on top of emissions fees they also get big bucks from the federal government for having emission testing in high pollution areas (and discontinuing with high pollution would violate EPA requirements).
- SkippyDoorknob, on 11/29/2007, -0/+2Every time the technician turns his back on the car, it sneaks away.
- web2pointYo, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2isnt that the hokey pokey?
- shakin, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2In your post you said twice that it isn't redundant. Now _that's_ redundant.
- DreKor, on 11/28/2007, -1/+3Does the :P denote sarcasm? I hope it does.
- sleepycoder, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2It's possible that the Prius engine might not be operating properly and the engine shuts off would prevent detection of a fault in the exhaust system, catalytic converter, etc. Even if it has less emissions, it *does* have a gasoline engine that needs to be maintained and operated properly.
- rarson, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2There ARE standards, they're called OBD-I and OBD-II. OBD stands for On-Board Diagnostics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OBD-II#OBD-II Any car that throws a certain check engine code will throw the same exact code as another car on the same OBD system. They all work under the same set of specifications.
A lot of states still just use the sniff test. Some states will just plug into the car's OBD port and check for any codes. My guess is that Georgia is probably one of the states that just does the sniff test.
Given the nature of sensors and ECU's, a sniff test is actually the better test in my opinion, since the sensors the EPA uses can be calibrated (unlike the ones that come on the car, which are simply used until they fail) and some ECU's of late have been successfully programmed to ignore the checks that the EPA check requires them to do (ie, no codes get thrown so the car "passes," even though it's not actually doing the checks it is supposed to). - ucg1, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2If you drive normally, yeah, you're probably get 48 mpg, but if you try (as he mentioned pulse and glide and other techniques) you can do much better. It also depends heavily on what roads and conditions you drive in.
As for "fraud of an environmentally friendly car" I think you are missing the point of how the Prius's emissions are very low. No non-hybrid 4-cylinder available in the 50 U.S. states comes even close. Cars that have emissions equipment and are PZEV based on California emissions standards do come close but those aren't available in 50 states (and are subsidized in those that they are available in). But the Prius shuts off its engine when idle and below 35 mph when conditions allow. That means during those times it has zero emissions.
I don't own a Prius, but have done some research and do think its quite environmentally friendly, especially for its size (a mid-sized wagon) and performance. I do think Toyota needs to make some bigger advances in their next iteration of hybrids as the technology is getting kinda dated and they should be able to do much better in both emissions and mileage. I also wish more states would adopt California's emissions standards. Why pollute when we don't need to? The technology is there, it should be available everywhere. - web2pointYo, on 11/28/2007, -0/+2its not an official set of comments unless someone "sticks" with something. Im actually working on a keyboard with an "I'll stick with" key.
- Otto, on 11/28/2007, -1/+3Heh. To be fair, it is a rather convoluted process to get the thing into inspection mode. But then again, if they simply used the OBD-II systems, they wouldn't need to stick anything into the tailpipe at all.
Here's the procedure, BTW. Do this all within 60 seconds:
1. Ignition on (not READY mode)
2. Vehicle in Park
3. Step on accelerator pedal twice
4. Vehicle in Neutral
5. Step on accelerator pedal twice
6. Place vehicle in Park
7. Step on accelerator pedal twice
8. Place car in READY mode.
A warning icon will come up and then the engine will then run continuously at 1000 RPM.
If you press the gas a little bit, it'll jump up to 1500 RPM.
If you press the gas a lot (more than 60%) it'll jump up to 2250 RPM.
Note: I don't have a Prius. Friend of mine does though. - scottc, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1I had a 2002 Prius and at the time Ohio didn't know how to test it. I had to return to the testing station the next day and they decided to give me an exemption.
- proliance, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1Thanks for posting. Now get the hell out of the passing lane.
And stay out. - larcher01, on 11/30/2007, -0/+1emissions testing is just a masked tax. once ig govt gets a tax, they never let it go.
- Butros, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1A pickup truck with that gas mileage is nothing to sneeze at.
- betterth, on 11/28/2007, -0/+1I agree, but replace "GM" with "Chrysler".
- starkruzr, on 11/28/2007, -1/+2Wrong.
The Chevy Volt is going to rock the auto world when it comes out. Mark my words. Serial hybrids are the future. -
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