Fantastic news - Toyota Smug sales down by 50% in the US

E92

This is the best news I've heard for God only knows how long. This is actually better than the Greens going out of Government or Feel and Fail being humiliated in a General Election.

The Toyota Pious aka Smug aka Prius is without a shadow of a doubt THE bane of my life. The car I love to hate if you will. The ultimate white good on wheels. I'm not a fan of Toyotas and I never was really, but I reckon I could be a lot nicer towards them if they didn't make this heap of crap.

And not only that but it should be the bane of *every* car enthusiast on planet earth.

I'd personally like to hang, draw and quarter every last Smug on the planet.

It would give me nothing but the greatest of pleasure to do so.

So that's why I'm so happy to hear that the arrogant, smug, pious w***ers (sorry for the language but it had to be said and besides any motoring enthusiast is thinking what I'm thinking but are more PC than I am) who drive these wretched yokes will be shedding a tear tonight, with the superb news that the Americans have found a bit of sense and decided that they don't need too many more Smugs on their roads:D.

This is such a victory for the car enthusiast, because it pisses off the eco-mentalistic movement who are already wounded from the EU's recent decision to water down CO2 legislation quite considerably and exempt certain high CO2 cars from the clamp down.

But that's not all. The sales of the Smug are down by nearly 50%, and guess what - the American market is the greatest market for these dreaded milk floats.

Thank God the world hasn't gone completely insane and there is still enough sense to see these cars for what they are - overpriced, under performing expensive things that are far more damaging to the planet with the batteries shipped half way around the world and what not than a conventional car and they don't even have the beating of a normal car anyway on fuel consumption.

L-M

Did you enjoy that? :P

galwaytt

Hey, now tell us how you really feel !!

E92

galwaytt wrote: »

Hey, now tell us how you really feel !!

I suspect I'd get banned for doing that:D!

The link in my sig is there for a reason though;)!

Actually I did drive a Smug recently. We are still in 2 minds about replacing the mother's 1.4 Corolla, so what better excuse than that to go and try a Smug as a "possible replacemet"? I just wanted to try one so that the next time someone tried to "prove me wrong" by saying "oh you've never driven one so how could you know" I could actually say well actually I have tried one of these so called "holy grails".

I'd like to tell you what I thought of it but in reality what I thought of it is not repeatable on a public forum to be honest.

But the VAG 1.9 TDI is owed a huge apology - yes, it really was that bad.

And economy - I could have done better in my old direct injection S40 if I wanted to.

LightningBolt

Ever read another persons post and get their sense of anger and resentment at the time of writing:D

PeakOutput

E92 wrote: »

Americans have found a bit of sense

dont be silly their fuel prices are just going down again so they want their big engines back im sure

or

toyota are just feeling the same pinch in america as the rest of the companies but as they are the most successfull car company in the world right now(from a business point of view) it hardly matters to them

whatever the reason i guarantee its not that americas have found a bit of sense

biggus

Funny that Bmw used a lot of Prius Ideas in their Efficiency dynamics packages. But E92 probably thinks these BM s are crap also.

mike65

E92 is in fact

E92

biggus wrote: »

Funny that Bmw used a lot of Prius Ideas in their Efficiency dynamics packages.

They did nothing of the sort.

They found a few simple, cheap ways of improving fuel consumption on their vehicles and it turns out that BMW's few unoriginal ideas give 70% of the fuel consumption improvements hybrids are claimed to give but don't actually give.

The only things hybrid like about EfficientDynamics are the fact the engine turns off at idle - but guess what - that was invented in the 80s by VW - long before any hybrids were around and the regenerative braking which as BMW has proven was just never offered on non hybrid cars before.

It doesn't make it hybrid like just because it has that - otherwise you could claim that because hybrids and non hybrid cars have engines and gearboxes that all non hybrids somehow stole Toyota Pious ideas or vice versa.

EfficientDynamics is not, never was and never will be hybrid technology. If it was a Pious copier then it would have the electric motor then wouldn't it?

It's not BMW's fault that other manufacturers haven't bothered taking the kind of wholistic approach BMW has taken and instead are using a hammer to crack a nut in a bid to cut fuel consumption.

biggus

The Pruis made stop start tech much more acceptable by making it work .
Typical of the Japs taking a good idea and then improving it.
Was the prius not the first car to keep everything working inc. air con and heat with the engine off. So BMW then re- look at stop start after the Prius proves it in the real world among real consumers that it has real benifits.

Brake regen is also used in EFF Dynamics.

Why has'nt BMW copied one of the simplest Pruius Ideas which is to Store Hot cylinder head coolant in a thermos flask and re inject it hot into the head at next cold start up. This stays hot for up to ten days.

The Prius is old tech at this stage being designed in the late 90's so i wonder what tech BM will a have to copy from the new one due in Jan.

The tax man

mike65 wrote: »

E92 is in fact

A member of The Cure?:D

biggus

biggus wrote: »

Why has'nt BMW copied one of the simplest Pruius Ideas which is to Store Hot cylinder head coolant in a thermos flask and re inject it hot into the head at next cold start up. This stays hot for up to ten days.

FYI, Saab had an prototype of that in '92:

http://webpages.charter.net/ralimi/aero/saab_ecosport_prototype.html

whiterebel

Has to be jeremy. there can't be two dickheads like that in the world, shirley?

Has to be a low point, using Americans as your proof.......I wonder if he'd agree if Americans said Beemers were shi'ite?:D

An economy which couldn't keep up with the production for 3.2 Million "small" cars one week in August, and then didn't need them any more one week later, because of the drop in the price of petrol, is a real yardstick for debate on cars.

robtri

Toyota's holy smug... has no real inovation in it, it is just a collection of some of the best idea's that exsisted and brought together under one bonnet.... to try to make a car cheaper and more enviromental to RUN (not build)...

whether you like the car or not, thats up to you, personally I hate it as its crap to drive....
but BMW propably won't have bothered with EFF Dynamics, if it wasn't for cars like the holy smug, as they changed a lot peoples idea's and mentality about how cars going forward need to be designed....

colm_mcm

This, I presume is more to do with falling fuel prices, and the state of the US economy, rather than a revolt against the Prius itself.

biggus

samih wrote: »

FYI, Saab had an prototype of that in '92:

http://webpages.charter.net/ralimi/aero/saab_ecosport_prototype.html

PROTOTYPE so why didn't Saab roll it out... this is the achievement of the Pruis , it proved loads of good IDEAS could work in practice.