> As someone who usually buys ~10 year old cars and drives them into the ground I'm much more interested in long term reliability.
That's a much simpler list:
1: Toyota Corolla
2 to end: you're not really serious about running it into the ground. :)
That's a much simpler list:
1: Toyota Corolla
2 to end: you're not really serious about running it into the ground. :)
When her friend passed away, she inherited his 1998 version of the same and has been using it for spares.
Now she's considering selling both, they are classics now so they are actually increasing in value. I'm a bit sad, as I live on the other side of the world and I feel like in my trips home that car is one of the constants in my life. I half expected to inherit it and pass it on to my own children someday.
> With the Corolla you just might just have to decide when you've had enough of driving the damned thing.
I've got a 95 Honda Civic with a bit over 200k. And the prospect of having to finally change out the belts is making me decide it's probably time to call it quits.
But honestly, I don't think I'd go for Corolla because it has too much longevity at this point. It'd be like buying a gas-powered parrot.
> There are interesting insights with the reliability of electrified models this year. Overall, hybrids have 26 percent fewer problems than cars powered by internal combustion engines (ICE). Some standouts include the Lexus UX and NX Hybrid and the Toyota Camry Hybrid, Highlander Hybrid, and RAV4 Hybrid.
> Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are more of a mixed bag. As a category, they have 146 percent more problems than ICE vehicles. Several PHEVs are even less reliable than their conventional counterparts, such as the below-average Audi Q5 and Chrysler Pacifica. The latter has the lowest score in our survey, at 14.
> Electric cars and electric SUVs don’t fare much better, with average reliability scores of 44 and 43, respectively. At the bottom of our vehicle-type rankings are electric pickup trucks, with an average score of 30.
The question should be, for a particular make, are hybrids more reliable than ICEs?
In any case, on the much higher bar of running a car into the ground I think the Prius would get priced out on repairs for the last 20% of the run time. You've got both the regular battery and the hybrid battery, the regenerative braking system, and probably a lot more little dingles and dangles that would cause arguments with a spouse if you dug your heels in and kept paying for them just to run the car all the way to the finish line.
With the Corolla you just might just have to decide when you've had enough of driving the damned thing.
If simplicity was the only way to make something reliable we would have rickshaws rather than cars.
- ICE, which charges battery in stable cycle
- E-motor do all torque
So, you don't need transmission, and ICE has way less stress, plus regenerative breaks puts way less mechanical stress on the system
Hybrid vehicles have a transmission to drive the wheels from both ICE and electric.
1. Series, where it is fuel -> engine -> battery -> e-motor -> wheels , with regenerative breaking as a second power source to the batteries. These are range-extended vehicles, where a small generator allows both for more range than the small batteries could supply, and the ability to run without electric charging.
2. Parallel, where both systems are driving the wheels through a clutch system. Both systems would be expected to operate at the same rate if both are engaged. This is a motor-assist system, and the majority of road power is supplied by the gasoline engine.
3. Series/Parallel (or Split) where the two systems are mixed using a planetary gear system. Among other things, this allows for gasoline motors to be optimized for efficiency with a specific set of operating conditions, knowing the electric motor can smooth out operation.
4. Plug ins, very similar to series/parallel but where the wheels are now being driven primarily by the electric motor. The e-motor is more powerful and there is significantly more battery, which now can be charged independently. The batteries are still far below a full EV, having only 5-10% of the range available as a "full EV" mode.
All of these systems effectively have a single point of interaction between the gasoline and electric systems - for series it is the batteries, for parallel it is the clutch, for split systems and plug-ins it is the planetary gear system. The difference I suppose is that the series system has a wire connection to the gasoline engine rather than a physical drive connection, so conceptually it seems easier to swap out.
I heard that the Chevy Volt as an example was originally planned to be a series system, but the electric motor simply wasn't capable of providing the highway performance they wanted - so it ultimately shipped as a series-parallel system.
The transmission of a traditional ICE vehicle is a component commonly prone to failure due to reliance on clutches, friction couplings, gear engagements, etc.
Hybrids replace this transmission with one composed of two electric motors and planetary gear sets. One or both of the motors also act as generators. It’s complex, but the highly variable speed of the output shaft is managed almost purely by torque splitting of the planetary gear sets along with routing of electrical energy within the system— no clutches or gear disengaging/reengaging.
And the ICE engine itself has an easier time (often Atkinson cycle) because the electric motors can provide much of the responsiveness to immediate power demands, allowing the ICE to operate in a much less stressful power band.
That is not how most hybrids work. That’s how almost none of them works in fact, although it is how diesel electric works on large vehicles (an electric transmission essentially).
Essentially, it connects the ICE and two different electric motors to the same drive shaft. By spinning the electric motor forwards, backwards or using it as a generator, it can regulate torque going to the wheels for a wide band of RPM. At the same time, torque and RPM coming out of the ICE are kept in a much smaller band.
But yes, the ICE is still directly connected to the wheels.
It’s more that the ground is much closer for other makes!
I think Toyotas may make more sense as new buys though since they hold their value so well.
Now is a really good time as winter is here and people need their driveway space back.
Cash for clunkers and covid, what a one two punch for the used car market. Might be a decade before things stabilize.