[QUOTE=7milesout;122433]These Priuseses that you guys are driving and talking about came from development during my time spent with Toyota in design. I take 100% credit for everything Toyota did during that time! J/K.
Working for Toyota was by far my favorite engineering job. They were awesome for any car guy who was willing to be dedicated to his job and to Toyota. Before I went there, my redneck friends told me I was going to hate it. "Because Toyota makes you work hard and work long hours." What a bunch is sissies! Yes they did! I worked hard and worked long hours! But the flip side of that coin is that Toyota and the Japanese guys (managers) that I worked with made their appreciation of my efforts (and everyone's efforts) KNOWN to us. Those that were too lazy to do work or complained about the hours, they made it known to them also ... by pushing them out. I never had a job I loved so much since then. But the wife disliked (that's putting it nicely) living in Michigan. And we had no family up north. So I had to for the sake of my family move back down south. Oh well.
Anywho - Even though the Prius R&D was handled strictly out of Japan, us folks at TTC at that time were made privy to a lot of what was going on. They said that many customers (not just Americans) said that they wished their Gen 1 Prius would try to run more time / more speed as electric only. And that subsequent Prius' aim was to do just that. I drove a Gen 1 Prius pool car and I remember that it was the only CVT car I ever drove that the CVT behaved exactly as I thought a CVT should. Even if sometimes it may be a bit annoying, it still did exactly as what a CVT should do to take advantage of mpg and power.
Toyota did a bang up job to listen to their customer and tried their darndest to meet customer expectations as best as possible within the confines of capability, legality and following regulations. They simply are the best. Then I went to Hyundai-Kia and laughed and laughed and laughed for 7 years at how stupid a company can be. And H-K is not as bad as most Euro trash auto companies.
That's my $0.02, from direct experience in automotive engineering development.
I didn't have a lot of concern with buying a Mitsubishi since the company is Japanese. I love the Japanese mindset and
Last edited by Fummins; 02-14-2021 at 12:45 AM.
__________________________________________
View my fuel log 2014 Mirage SE wussie cvt edition. 1.2 automatic: 37.7 mpg (US) ... 16.0 km/L ... 6.2 L/100 km ... 45.3 mpg (Imp)