While it does seem like a likely source of bias to have Honda run the tests, I'm still betting the HCH 2 will give the Prius 2 a run for its money.

that's for sure, what with the months long waiting list already for the HCH-II

as for the honda test, always take what you hear with a grain of salt:
when my mom and i were talking with the honda salesperson as we were buying the HCH-II, he mentioned that we shouldn't consider the prius because he had seen many of them running down on the side of the road with their drivers pushing them on the highway. he said there was something wrong with toyota's hybrid technology and that honda's ima was much more reliable.

now, anybody can run out of gas, and i know the priuses had some gas-gauge inaccuracy issues earlier, but i don't think they're as exaggerated as he said they were. and insights had that recalibration problem? or something, i remember seeing it in some threads before.

For the "pushing it by the side of the road" comment, he was probably referring to how Toyota recalled the Prius because of a software bug that causes the engine to die and potentially fail to restart. I'm 100% sure he's lying, but that was probably what he was basing his lie on, not running out of gas.

Toyota did have a recal issue with the prius stalling and needing to be towed. I don't think it had anything to do with gas. It wasn't a huge issue and they had a recall for it. If a dealer badmouthed their competition like that though I would go elsewhere. It kind of shows what kind of person he is.

HSD is as reliable as IMA in my opinion.

My hydroponics experiment

You ever notice how hard it is to lip read cartoon characters?
"Crazy is what the sane call Delta Flyer"

Good one tiger, that is what this forum is all about.

I knew when I bought my HCH-I that it was significantly worse in deep city driving and mildly better (or at least equal) on the highway to the Prius II, my commute is 70/30 hwy/city so the HCH was a good fit. I also live in an area where if I ever switch jobs my commute is likely to switch to 95/5 hwy/city mix, I have tried it and I get 55+ mpg over a 2000 ft hill climb. So I couldn't be happier.

It is good to make an informed buy decision, less chance of buyer's remorse afterwards.

It was not a recall. It was a "Special Service Campaign".

I believe the PSD of the HSD is more reliable than the CVT or manual transmission of the IMA.

Ken@Japan

yap there's been priuses that ran for almost 400000 km with still their original hybrid components

i got around 20 km a liter when i drove a civic 5 spd using advanced hypermiler techniques
and now I drive a salvage nwh20 prius that gets almost to 25 km/l with 192,000 km to date.

Honda did a "non-recall recall" on my '03 HCH in order to update the IMA control software. Apparently, the software upgrade was supposed to keep the catylytic converter from burning out. Of course, mine was already burned out, so they replaced that component for free at the same time.

wow your catalytic converter actually burnt out? i didnt know that there were actual cases. it's a good thing that honda fixed the ima software - it apparently was letting the revs run too low and put too much of a strain on the catalytic system

Yup... fortunately, that isn't a failure that makes the car undrivable. I had put it in the shop initially because the "check engine" light would illuminate intermittantly. the timing was good, since the software update came out the same week that my car had problems.

The only other real problem (and this one did affect performance) was a software crash that disabled the IMA. That was a whopping 15 minute repair. the car has been running fine ever since.