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Great idea, the Toyota Prius. It’s an easy and very visible route to greenness: a futuristic-looking hybrid with a near-evangelical following among those who would demonstrate their environmental concern. Hollywood celebrities apparently love it.

It’s the closest thing to an anti-car car while still doing the things a car should do. Trouble is, the Prius that everyone knows doesn’t do those things as well as it might. For all its emissions-free stardom in the city (until the battery p...Read the full article

Interesting to read a road test that concentrates on the realities of a Prius rather than prattling on about the supposed motives of the eco-mad buyer or the fact that almost any diesel hatch would be a more sensible buy. I'm not sure how you actually drove the car but the 47.5mpg overall that you achieved is well short of what I get on my Mk.II Prius. I'd agree with the comment about the unprogressive brakes, but you do get used to them after a while and adapt accordingly, overall they work very well in a hard stop when necessary although the anti-lock can cut in too soon in wet slippery conditions. I agree that the reversing bleep is THE most annoying thing of all time, whoever thought that it was neccessary needs to be taken out and shot. In what way was the Park Assist unreliable, I've never used the system but would be interested to hear about it. You also mention the Head-Up Display in passing but tell us no more - does it work? is it visible in all light conditions? what info does it show?

"With the 17in wheels comes a 92g/km CO2 score instead of 89g/km."

Just because of the wheels?

You mention earlier about the photovoltaic roof fitted to the 15" wheeled cars (I assume this is down to the durability of the said roof).  Does the roof contribute to the reduction of CO2 or is it down to the rolling resistance of the bigger wheels tyres?

Er , AUTOCAR are you sure about the posted price I would love to snap one of these up under the scrappage scheme for 123 quid . Think you better move the decimal point before too many of us get too excited about a supposed bargain.

As for the car I think it is definitely getting there . However when will it get lithium ion batteries that are 280% more efficient that Ni mh ? Thats when things will get really interesting.

 

 perhaps the wheels have a larger outer diameter, thus increasing the overall gearing?

The difference with the wheels is down to increased wheel weight and higher rolling resistance because of the wider tyres.  It's approx 3%.

 The solar / sun roof adds 28Kg on the roof of the car - not a great idea IMHO.

 I heard that the Parking Assist works well, but it will only reverse you in.  So if the space isnt big enough it will fail.  So in reality - not much use in the UK.

Interesting that you compare it to a Focus Econetic in the magazine.  The Prius is much roomier car inside, especially in the rear; and is also an Auto.  If you do alot of urban / city driving like I do an Auto is a must.  Compare it to an auto Mondeo diesal and all of a sudden its not so expensive.

ordinary bloke:

I'm not sure how you actually drove the car but the 47.5mpg overall that you achieved is well short of what I get on my Mk.II Prius

 

47.5 mpg in a family sized, petrol, automatic car seems pretty good to me. I wouldn't complain too loudly,

Lee23404:

47.5 mpg in a family sized, petrol, automatic car seems pretty good to me. I wouldn't complain too loudly,

 

I think that the point he was making is that the previous, less economical model, gets better than 47.5MPG in every day use, so he was querying what Autocar's test conditions were. Presumably they did a fair bit of 0-60 style testing?

FWIW, our MK2 Prius has the automatic parking and I hope it's been significantly improved in the MK3. In ours, it's a bit fussy to get working - you have to make sure you've lined the wheels up straight ahead, press "ok" on a legal disclaimer, select whether you're parallel parking or car park parking, confirm that the camera has worked out where the parking space is correctly, then release the brake enough to let it do it's think, but not go too fast otherwise it cancels the function entirely.

When it works it is very impressive. But if it spots the space incorrectly and you have to shift it using the on screen buttons, it takes so long that you'd need to be seriously incompetent at parking to use it regularly. 

That said, something that the reviews never seem to bother to tell you is that the reversing camera you get with the auto-parking function is extremely good. It overlays the view behind with lines that indicate where the car will end up given the amount of steering lock you have on, which makes it very easy to sidle into tight parking spaces. The reversing bleepers on my BMW mean you can't really get closer to obstacles than one or two feet - the camera on the Prius lets us get to within one or two centimetres of an obstacle.

MrTrilby:

I think that the point he was making is that the previous, less economical model, gets better than 47.5MPG in every day use, so he was querying what Autocar's test conditions were. Presumably they did a fair bit of 0-60 style testing?

yes, I got that.

Lee23404:

47.5 mpg in a family sized, petrol, automatic car seems pretty good to me. I wouldn't complain too loudly,

I've kept records since I bought the car in Sept 2004 (actual fuel bought and miles covered rather than relying on the in-car computer calculations). Over 32,923 miles the overall average is 56.6mpg with lowest brim-to-brim of 43.8 when the weather was really cold and it was used for lots of shortish journeys, and highest of 62.8 on a 230mile motorway journey using cruise-control at steady indicated 75mph on the M1 to North Yorkshire on a very warm day. I am careful about not using full throttle or braking hard too much (hones the anticipation skills) and generally just try to drift along with the prevailing traffic speeds - I definitely don't drive slowly enough to hold up any other traffic and like to keep up a good pace if conditions allow.

MPG aside this latest Prius is growing on me. It looks much better this time around, has loads of room for the family and by all accounts drives well. I think this may convert more to hybrids than the cheaper but flawed Insight.

ordinary bloke:

highest of 62.8 on a 230mile motorway journey using cruise-control at steady indicated 75mph on the M1 to North Yorkshire on a very warm day.

How did you manage that? If you've got the cruise control on and are going at a steady speed for a long distance surely you're not getting any benefit from the electric motor or batteries as there is little oppurtunity to recharge. Going downhill won't help much as there aren't many hills on the motorway network where you need to lift off completely or brake to maintain a steady speed, so almost all the power is coming from the petrol engine.

I admire the technology in the new Prius (am particularly keen on the solar powered air conditioning to keep the car cool whilst parked) and am impressed the drive has improved especially when other Toyota products are distinctly average, but I find it difficult to want one. In my opinion at least, I think the Prius has a serious image problem.

Some (and I doubt it would apply to the people on this Forum) believe the Prius to be a wonderfully eco-friendly car, and it's quite simply not. It's efficient and better than most other cars on the road, but nothing more. I don't believe the green label it has gained is deserved, and that turns me off the car. Just my opinion.