An unexpected bonus of the recent trip back to the UK was my parents new Toyota Prius Hybrid. I had never really given the Prius, or any Hyrbid car, much thought to be honest, but have to say that I was really impressed in many ways.
The style of the car was very pleasant. Certainly it looked as attractive as any mid sized family type car. The inside was very plush with lots of thought expended on the layout and storage facilities. I particularly liked the gear stick mounted in the dashboard and the instrument panel set way back on the dash under the front window.
The GPS system was very impressive, particularly the integration with the iPhone with Bluetooth enabled, but the amazing part was the energy management system. When stationary the car switches to run on the battery, so as you pull away from traffic lights for example you are running on the battery only, not that you would know it from an acceleration perspective. Of course the car is remarkably quiet! As the car gains speeds the engine ‘kicks in’, again seamlessly in terms of performance and noise.
Again, as you slow down, or go down a hill, the engine management system transfers power to the battery, and the very neat display shows you exactly what is going on. It also shows you what is an unbelievable fuel consumption rate. The 99.9mpg is probably a marketing ploy but then again when you are running just on the battery just how much petrol can you be consuming?
So great comfort, great features, great design and amazingly great fuel consumption. The best feature by a LONG LONG way? The sheer joy that my parents are getting from the car!!
Without a shadow of doubt I would buy one as and when we finally need to replace the old Jeep.
this car seems good on paper. The problem is that cars run on roads not on paper (as Cloughie would have said). There are other cars which are as efficient that run only on petrol or diesel. They don’t have the electrical gubbins to weigh/slow them down.
Can’t say that I noticed any weighing or slowing down at all. It was pretty nippy, accelerated well and felt good to handle.
Maybe not for your ‘boy racer’ but certainly a very good option for my parents and even for someone like me who is happy just to potter around and do as little harm to the environment these days as is reasonable possible without going and living in a tree!