After about 2 months I can finally write a bit about my new Prius – a sort of review.
Let get straight to it. The only thing that I would like to mention before starting, is that the car I had before was a “small” diesel car, a VW Polo with 1.4L Turbo Diesel Engine, with 75 HP and weighing 1250 kgs. I was used in getting an overall average of 5-5,6L/100km in town and anything between 4.2-4.4 to 6.5L/100km on my daily commute. My expectations on the Prius were not to get, of course, the advertised city consumption average of 4.0L/100km, but rather at least the same consumption as the Polo. At the same time I was glad to have a bigger, more confortable and more powerful car.
All these goals, have been fully met with the Prius, and much more. So what does driving a Prius mean?
First and foremost, it means SILENCE, complete utter silence, even when the engine is running. Granted, if you are flooring it, you do hear the engine, but otherwise it is pure bliss. The Prius rejoices you with the everyday traffic: traffic jams have become (wasted, in any case) time to relax in a quiet and comfortable interior, while not consuming a single drop of gasoline. During mid-low speeds, one “glides” through the traffic, not simply rolling, but aware that a powerful but silent electric engine, is pushing the car through – almost like on a sail ship. Driving a Prius, is definetely a relaxing experience.
The Prius is certainly a relaxing car, but…it is not a “granny’s car”, quite on the contrary – on normal mode it does “move” – you give gas and it glides effortlessly through traffic – granted, the engine must make some extra noise sometimes, but it is not a slow paced car. Certainly you can drive it slowly, even with ECO mode on, but normally, it does show its 136HPs without being shy. And when you set PWR mode, you literally “fly”. Maybe because one is used to drive a Prius always taking care of fuel consumption, or maybe because the accelerator pedal is mapped in a less responsive way in the other modes, or because the motor management changes the valve timing of the VVT engine or the fuel injection or the delivery of current to the electrical engine – I don’t know really what it does, but all of a sudden you have HPs coming out of “nowhere” – you sprint at traffic lights like a “rocket” and on the highway you can accelerate with visible reaction even at high speeds (130-150km/h).
Stability is excellent – it never rocks like a boat, even with the automatic gearshift – you never roll or the feel of it. Maybe it’s the 215/45R17 wheels (and with the winter tires 195/55R16 is the same) or the overall design of the car improved stability: you always feel safe and exactly where you want to be. The previous Prius model was not at all like this and it was one of the main reasons I didn’t change car back then and waited an additional 2 years before this new version came out.
Fuel consumption: I get anything from 3.3L/100km in town up to 7.5L/100km. I have achieved without any particular effort and driving normally (i.e. not in “granny mode”, an average of 5L/100km for a 800km round trip on a hilly highway. 4.7L/100km is what I got so far in “city” commute driving: it is not a pure 50km/h max city driving, rather a mix of short highway, stop & go, traffic lights, mid-speed cruising around 60-80km/h. The Prius is currently consuming in my daily commute slightly more (0.2L/100km) than the Polo. Yes, but the Polo consumption was measured in August, while the current fuel consumption measurement of the Prius is the average of over the months of September and October: the engine sometimes needs to warm up when at stand still in a jam or at a traffic light as it gets cold not being used continuously. Spring next year will really show a bigger difference, I am sure. Not mentioning also that the Polo was 7 years old and the Prius brand new and hardly through its break-in period of 2500km…
Electric driving??? Yes, sure – and when you least expect it. A full hybrid car does have its marked advantages, compared to a mild hybrid like the Honda Civic or a normal car (even with start/stop): 1) you can drive into parking lots without using a single drop of fuel; 2) you can glide up to 100-110km/h or more (depending on terrain, wind, battery charge) with the electrical motor giving just enough impulse to push the car ahead with constant speed (and 0L/100km fuel consumption); 3) you can move the car when looking for a parking spot without ever turning the engine on; 4) you can avoid stinking the place (e.g. garage, parking lot, etc.); 5) you don’t care about traffic jams and traffic lights, it’s now “only” a waste of time, but not necessarily money. The most weird thing about being electric/hybrid, and only now I am getting used to it, is the weird sensation you get when turning the Prius on and then starting driving it out of its parking spot. You are so used to heat an engine running when moving a car, that sometimes I found myself wondering “did I turn it on?” – “How can it move? I did not turn it on – I don’t hear “brum, brum from the engine” ” is it all right here?”…. To me this has been a true revolution in driving experience.
But all things, Prius included, are not necessarily perfect.
Things that should be improved:
- it is practically impossible to understand where the front of the car ends – I have also tried to find reference points having a friend showing me where the car physically ends standing outside and pointing me where the bonnet ends, but without success – simply said, you have *no* clue of how long is the car and whether you will bump it or not in your next parking manoeuvre….
- Visibility in the rear….as long as it is not raining, all OK – yes, it is not a cinema screen, but you still see if you are about to run down a cyclist or see a car approaching or bumping the car behind you when parking; where the glass ends, the car ends – so there is little guessing there. But if it rains and it is dusk or night *and* it is raining, OMG, you’re out of luck; simply said, you don’t see “anything”, especially if what’s behind you doesn’t come with a light (examples: children, pedestrians, bicycles that *should* have a light, etc.) – the rain drops disperse the light and all you see is simply “light” and no detail at all. You have no clue from where or whom the light comes from (“behind” is your best guess), and simply pray you are not running down anybody or hitting somebody else’s car…
Things that need fixing (defects): actually I have found only one so far…though in working order and not a show-stopper, the reception of the FM radio is far less than stellar; tuning on the same radio station, while driving on the same roads at the same time of day, simply sounds worse, more disturbed, with pop/click sounds and other similar “radio noise”, compared to my Polo – you simply cannot listen to more than 10secs of noise free radio. Considering how old the FM radio technology is, and how good the overall sound system is (it is actually pretty good), it is a complete shame. The antenna is shorter than my previous car, but was used on another car and is fine. I used a longer antenna, and I could not notice any difference. It seems therefore that the noise is injected after the signal gets amplified or during the amplification and before it reaches the final amplifier. There is no noise to be heard when hearing to CDs, MP3s or my iPod. I filed a complaint with Toyota and had the car checked by my dealer and everything is working order. It is clearly a design issue that only Toyota can fix. Several US Prius drivers have reported the same problem. I understand though that Toyota needs more statistics before it can really acknowledge the problem and try to fix it.
