Posted by bigguy on March 24, 2005, 1:15 pm
I am thinking of buying a new Prius and am concerned about ground clearance.
I live on Okla and on a gravel road with some good pot holes that will even
give my Camry fits. Has any one had one of this on gravel roads or do I get
to be the first?
Posted by dbs__usenet on March 24, 2005, 7:05 pm
> I am thinking of buying a new Prius and am concerned about ground clearance.
> I live on Okla and on a gravel road with some good pot holes that will even
> give my Camry fits. Has any one had one of this on gravel roads or do I get
> to be the first?
There's a guy on the yahoo prius group that took his off road (through
meadows, fire trails, etc) when pursuing his hobby of photography.
He reported no problems.
The clearance is roughly the same as the Camry. I seldom take either off
road because of rocks chipping the paint.
Daniel
Posted by kubalister on March 31, 2005, 2:11 pm
I live on a gravel road and I've found that stones hitting the underside
of the vehicle generate considerably more noise (compared to the current
model Camry that I also drive) due to the low ground clearance and
aerodynamic covers. Driving up loose gravel hills (even slowly) causes
the vehicle stability system to activate repeatedly. From my experience
I wouldn't hesitate at taking the Prius off road but a Camry would
certainly get further if the wheel tracks are dug in.
I'm not impressed with the low front entry angle of the vehicle since
the car is more likely to scrape the ground on entering steep driveways
compared to similarly sized vehicles. I found that surprising
considering how close the front wheels are to the front of the vehicle.
The suspension handles pot holes and speed bumps at high speed very well
though.
bigguy wrote:
> I am thinking of buying a new Prius and am concerned about ground clearance.
> I live on Okla and on a gravel road with some good pot holes that will even
> give my Camry fits. Has any one had one of this on gravel roads or do I get
> to be the first?
>
>
Posted by Peter Fleming on April 1, 2005, 1:41 pm
In South Africa, where the Pris II was introduced in Feb this year, the
Toyota people do not sell the car, but lease it for 48 months with a full
maintenance deal, driver only pays for tyres & fuel.
However it is specifically advised to ONLY drive on paved roads as no
warranty will apply for stone damage to under body parts - especially the
forged aluminium suspension parts.
I have had mine for 1 month & 2300 kilometres, and have once scraped the
mid under part with a 4 adult load going into a domestic residence over a
gutter, that no other car has been known to scrape on. Back passengers got
out and no scraping noises!
Peter F
================
>I live on a gravel road and I've found that stones hitting the underside of
>the vehicle generate considerably more noise (compared to the current model
>Camry that I also drive) due to the low ground clearance and aerodynamic
>covers. Driving up loose gravel hills (even slowly) causes the vehicle
>stability system to activate repeatedly. From my experience I wouldn't
>hesitate at taking the Prius off road but a Camry would certainly get
>further if the wheel tracks are dug in.
> I'm not impressed with the low front entry angle of the vehicle since the
> car is more likely to scrape the ground on entering steep driveways
> compared to similarly sized vehicles. I found that surprising considering
> how close the front wheels are to the front of the vehicle.
> The suspension handles pot holes and speed bumps at high speed very well
> though.
> bigguy wrote:
>> I am thinking of buying a new Prius and am concerned about ground
>> clearance. I live on Okla and on a gravel road with some good pot holes
>> that will even give my Camry fits. Has any one had one of this on gravel
>> roads or do I get to be the first?
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> I live on Okla and on a gravel road with some good pot holes that will even
> give my Camry fits. Has any one had one of this on gravel roads or do I get
> to be the first?