Toyota Prius Review

The window sticker upon the Prius says 60 mpg however the best we got was mid-50s. on the contrary that's a misstatement we can live with. This hybrid gasoline/electric vehicle is the without fault [i]or[/i] blemish [i]or[/i] flaw midsize car, offering quality, combustibles efficiency, fit and finish, comfort, and a spacious interior.

The Prius shows three cars in one. It's the virid vehicle of choice for celebrities who want to proclaim their earth-friendliness, level if they keep a 2-mpg Falcon Jet in the hangar for the lengthy weekends in Aspen. Cameron, Leonardo, and Will (Ferrell) all drive Priuses. next to the first it's a tremendous car for normal family who want something that reduce to ashess less fuel and emits les pollution. And third, the Prius is a roomy, first-rate car, regardless of its technically advanced Hybrid Synergy Drive (Toyota's term) gasoline/electric power plant.

No matter by what mode you equip the Prius, you'll be hard compressed to build one that stickers on the outside above $30,000. (Nor will you find a dealer who barters one for much less.) You'll also have to advance to grips with the in-your-face safety warnings, lockout and buzzer and you may amazement how Toyota messed up what is a first-rate navigation combination of parts to form a whole in other Toyota/Lexus vehicles.

Big Cockpit, Minimalist Dashboard

Hop into the Prius, and you'll notice almost simultaneously the spacious back seat, the contemporary cockpit with no apparent gauge panel, the unusual gearshift and ignition switch, and a bump of hanging tags and how-to guides dangling from the wiper stalk and shifter and stuck in the cupholder For a car just 175 inches drawn out (a foot shorter than its sibling, the Camry), the cockpit is exceptionally roomy, in part because the storage area beneath the hatchback measures a purely passable 16 cubic feet. If this is a suburban carpool car (and the Prius is at its greatest in quantity efficient in local driving), the carpool better be for soccer players and flutists, not hockey players and trombonists with big equipment bags.

The tags and cards enumerate you how to start and stop the Prius, which is different, on the contrary not initially fathomable without the cheat sheets. You stick the lock opener in a slot in the dash, pres the start button, and wait for a small indicator (too small, we'd say) marked Ready to be incandescent It's located in the instrument cluster that's several feet away, in a lip where the dashboard fittings the windshield. Since the Prius is a hybrid, it makes the same unbroken when it's ready to make revolve as when it's turned off: usually, none.

To start not on flip the little stub of a gearshift lever above and down to D (drive) or up to R (reverse) ignoring the B (which doesn't stand for backup on the other hand for engine braking for hills). make choice of reverse, and -- PING! PING! PING! -- the car reprimands you for some misdeed. Seat belt unfastened? Door ajar? Battery pack nearing meltdown? No, it's a warning beep for when you're backing up

Oddly this whole isn't replicated outside, where a car backing up silently might be a hazard to unaware pedestrians. Toyota says it's an alert for the driver, because the shifter is unusual: When you tend hitherward to a stop and want to secure out, you don't slide the gearshift into neutral. Instead, you pres an adjacent button marked Park. Ignore that pace when you step out of the car, and your silent Prius may motor not upon without you. If the road is straight and the 12-gallon tank is replete of gas, the Prius might wind up sum of two units states away.

Independent Gas Engine and Electric Motor

Once the Prius is started, the gasoline engine kicks in at a certain quantity of point -- perhaps while you're standing still, while you're backing up or not until you reach 20 mph The gasoline engine and electric motor act independently, in comparison with the Honda Civic hybrid, in which the gasoline engine is always running if the car isn't standing still.

The 1.5-liter engine has variable valve timing and exhibits 76 horsepower and the electric motor shows 67 hp (or 50 kilowatts) from the 201 volt nickel-metal hydride traction battery. In combination, they exhibit 110 hp, driving the forehead wheels through a continuously variable transmission. Zero-to-60-mph acceleration is a shade above 10 seconds, which is adequate.

If you pres the Info button upon the center-dash LCD that advances in all Priuses, you diocese a colorful but initially confusing chart that direct the eyes like water flowing through the pipes of a nuclear power plant. In Prius, it displays if the engine and/or batteries are powering the car, or in the engine or regenerated braking power is recharging the batteries.

As with other hybrids, the Prius's firing economy is better in city driving -- 60 mpg is claimed upon the EPA test cycle -- than upon the highway, 51 mpg, where wind resistance tend hitherwards into play and where you can't take advantage of regenerative braking. Given that the EPA's decades-old experiments inadvertently favor hybrids because they call for delicate acceleration and don't use air conditioning (see of recent origin Economy Rules Show Hybrids in less Light), we think you'll still come by mpg in the 50s upon average and won't fall below the mid-40s flat on long trips on the interstate. Think of it this way: 50 mpg when you're paying $250 a gallon for gas is the same as driving a 20-mpg car when gas require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergone $1 a gallon. And there's les pollution. Sweet.