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Hello

I am an Irishman in Japan, almost 18years.

I bought a used original Prius, 1999 NHW10 in September, about 6,900 dollars, with 16,000m on odometer. My commute became very long, 55m when I changed jobs and I use a back mountain route which passes by Mt. Fuji via Lake Yamanaka. The roads are low speed about 25-35mph, about 40m to climb from 600ft to 3600ft elev. with a sharp descent to 1800ft over about 15m. This avoids heavy traffic and has very few traffic signals. Driving style is governed by route, so it is pulse to climb and gilde on the descents.

Good Luck

Cuchulain
:)

Depending on time you might want to try the route with more traffic. Long climbs and short descents are not what you want. With a Prius you could probably do better in traffic if it isn't too bad.

And welcome to CleanMPG.

So this is the first gen Prius. I am not very familiar with the hybrid drive system on that model. I read the book called "The Prius that shook the world" which documented the development of the first gen that came out in 1997 in Japan only. I remember that the battery pack was smaller and that at first, they considered capacitor banks instead of batteries. But I am foggy on the facts. Perhaps you could go into more detail about your Prius? Does it have a battery pack? Do you know what type of batteries and the capacity in amp/hrs? I would love to see a picture of the car and under the hood. I am wondering how similar it is to the Gen 2 which went on sale in the US in 2000.

Depending on time you might want to try the route with more traffic. Long climbs and short descents are not what you want. With a Prius you could probably do better in traffic if it isn't too bad.

And welcome to CleanMPG.

Thanks for your reply.

The steep descent is on the morning commute only. On the evening return route, I can keep it on the same glide with only short ICE or EV for over 30minutes. The morning traffic jam on the low elevation route is serious but I may try it to compare MPG.

Andrew

So this is the first gen Prius. I am not very familiar with the hybrid drive system on that model. I read the book called "The Prius that shook the world" which documented the development of the first gen that came out in 1997 in Japan only. I remember that the battery pack was smaller and that at first, they considered capacitor banks instead of batteries. But I am foggy on the facts. Perhaps you could go into more detail about your Prius? Does it have a battery pack? Do you know what type of batteries and the capacity in amp/hrs? I would love to see a picture of the car and under the hood. I am wondering how similar it is to the Gen 2 which went on sale in the US in 2000.

Thanks for the reply

I only know from Wiki,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius

but it is very similar to gen1 with the same panasonic ev battery NiMH is 6.0Ah at 288V lower Ah, but higher voltage, for almost the same capcity. The engine is 43kW (58hp) at 4000rpm, somewhat lower than 52kW (70hp). The electric motor is 30kW rather than 33kW. Under the hood is similar to gen1 same THS system.

Thanks Andrew

:D Hi and Welcome to CleanMPG. :flag:

Terry

Very cool. Hopefully you won't run into the litany of
standard problems that seem to plague the Classics. There's
a guy from Australia who hangs out on prius_technical_stuff
who did a turbo mod to an NHW10 and wrote it up; it gave him
more power and less of the "turtle light" and, he claimed,
equal or better MPG at the same time.
.
I forget now, does the NHW10 have the prismatic-cell packs
or were they still on the D-cell type back then?
.
_H*

Very cool. Hopefully you won't run into the litany of
standard problems that seem to plague the Classics. There's
a guy from Australia who hangs out on prius_technical_stuff
who did a turbo mod to an NHW10 and wrote it up; it gave him
more power and less of the "turtle light" and, he claimed,
equal or better MPG at the same time.
.
I forget now, does the NHW10 have the prismatic-cell packs
or were they still on the D-cell type back then?
.
_H*

Thanks for the reply

Yes the 99 NHW10 still has the original cylindrical NiMH (D-cell) type pack. The timeline for each hybrid battery pack intro is on Panasonic EV
http://www.peve.jp/e/news.html

The original Prius comes with Japanese only user and service manuals etc., as I am in Japan the Toyota dealers are already experienced with known problems. (I hope)

Andrew

Hi Cuchulain:

___Welcome to CleanMPG!

___I have seen the original cylindrical cel type in the 97 - 00? Prius-I pack in pics but have never heard from someone that actually owned and or had driven the vehicle. A 99 Prius with only 10,000 miles on her and you paid just $6,900? That is an extremely good deal by American standards!

___Have you read about Tedi-girls Prius II accomplishments in the article section? If you can find a commute similar to her Japanese based daily grind, I can imagine the original-original Prius achieving possibly 85 - 90% of the same. I would love to see the results of an all out P&G effort after 30 + miles in yours in fact!

___Good Luck

___Wayne

A belated welcome to CleanMPG!

Hi Cuchulain:

___Welcome to CleanMPG!

___I have seen the original cylindrical cel type in the 97 - 00? Prius-I pack in pics but have never heard from someone that actually owned and or had driven the vehicle. A 99 Prius with only 10,000 miles on her and you paid just $6,900? That is an extremely good deal by American standards!

___Have you read about Tedi-girls Prius II accomplishments in the article section? If you can find a commute similar to her Japanese based daily grind, I can imagine the original-original Prius achieving possibly 85 - 90% of the same. I would love to see the results of an all out P&G effort after 30 + miles in yours in fact!

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Thanks for the reply

In Japan resale values drop very quickly, there is a sha-ken vehicle test requirement which can cost approx $1,000 -1,500 every two years starting after 3 years from new car which may contibute. I never seen many "bangers" banged up old cars in Japan. A lot of used Japanese cars are exported to UK, NZ, Australia, Russia. The 2000-2003 Prius are currently $6,000 to $10,000, 2004 Prius are over $13,000. There were some false rumours about Prius battery life, (replace every 5 years) when it was first introduced, the independent dealer did not know much about Prius.

I was aware of Teddy Girl's mpg record from a Japanese Prius mpg ranking database. I was wondering how it was possible but I can see from your article that her route and driving technique would allow it.

Unfortunately there are no flat sections on my commute, high mountain road route goes through a valley mostly and gives good mpg. The alternate low road has some very long hills with many traffic jams. Going up a long hill in a traffic jam murders mpg. I know you don't recommend hilly terrain for high mpg but any tips for getting good mpg climbing?
I try to maintain a constant 25mpg on the tough climbs.

Thank you for your many contributions to FE. I followed for about one year, yours and other hypermiler postings on hybridcars.com and greenhybrid.com It was very educational to read about your FE efforts.

Thanks again, Good Luck

Andrew:)

Hi Cuchulain:

___Welcome to CleanMPG!

___I have seen the original cylindrical cel type in the 97 - 00? Prius-I pack in pics but have never heard from someone that actually owned and or had driven the vehicle. A 99 Prius with only 10,000 miles on her and you paid just $6,900? That is an extremely good deal by American standards!

___Have you read about Tedi-girls Prius II accomplishments in the article section? If you can find a commute similar to her Japanese based daily grind, I can imagine the original-original Prius achieving possibly 85 - 90% of the same. I would love to see the results of an all out P&G effort after 30 + miles in yours in fact!

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Thanks for the reply

In Japan resale values drop very quickly, there is a sha-ken vehicle test requirement which can cost approx $1,000 -1,500 every two years starting after 3 years from new car which may contibute. I never seen many "bangers" banged up old cars in Japan. A lot of used Japanese cars are exported to UK, NZ, Australia, Russia. The 2000-2003 Prius are currently $6,000 to $10,000, 2004 Prius are over $13,000. There were some false rumours about Prius battery life, (replace every 5 years) when it was first introduced, the independent dealer did not know much about Prius.

I was aware of Teddy Girl's mpg record from a Japanese Prius mpg ranking database. I was wondering how it was possible but I can see from your article that her route and driving technique would allow it.

Unfortunately there are no flat sections on my commute, high mountain road route goes through a valley mostly and gives good mpg. The alternate low road has some very long hills with many traffic jams. Going up a long hill in a traffic jam murders mpg. I know you don't recommend hilly terrain for high mpg but any tips for getting good mpg climbing?
I try to maintain a constant 25mpg on the tough climbs.

Thank you for your many contributions to FE. I followed for about one year, yours and other hypermiler postings on hybridcars.com and greenhybrid.com It was very educational to read about your FE efforts.

Thanks again, Good Luck

Andrew:)