- 11,462
- U.K
- Paganisterr
- Ak Paganister
My parents received their new Prius today! Brand spanking-new 59-reg with 6 miles on the clock.
Our previous car (the Qashqai) has some problems that Nissan are struggling or not bothering to sort out. Long story short, it's engine problems - gearbox getting worse, major ECU problems. There's been ECU firmware updates but they've screwed them up and it still has a few issues, so my dad is frankly getting a bit annoyed with them.
But in comes the... Prius! Excuse the crummy photos...
I mean, I don't drive it, but it's actually more car like than you actually realise. It's comfortable, looks a lot better inside than the older one, very roomy, speakers and stero are very good, lots of little storage spots, clear and easy to use buttons and controls. Reasonably powerful too - 1.8 assisted by the electric motors - near 140bhp.
The oddest thing about the car though is the way it drives... the apparent feeling that the car is just rolling forwards without any control because the petrol motor isn't on. You get the occasional buzzing from the electric motors powering the air con (which is amazing - it blows ice-cool air within a few seconds) but otherwise it's silent. All you do, since it's keyless entry, is put your foot on the brake and press the power on button, and you're away. There's no ignition.
The car is pretty comfortable and quite quiet too. I presume I've been used to diesels for a while not but petrol motors are so much quieter and smoother... It's odd there's no gearchanges either because it's a CVT transmission.
There's lots of different display modes showing how economically you're driving and your MPG average over specific amount of times (we managed 58mpg so far apparently). And of course the screen showing you when the petrol and electric motors are being used or charged. This stuff can be shown on the windshield head-up display too which only the driver can see. It's definitely a boy's toy.
There's 3 modes. EV mode uses the electric motor only up to 31 mph, but you have to accelerate quite slowly to stop it from deactivating itself. Pulling out onto a busy road you will need to accelerate enough to deactivate it so it's a little pointless, especially since it uses only battery anyway no matter what mode you are in cruising at low speeds, and you can only use the battery for about a mile and a half before the petrol motor kicks in anyway to charge it. Power and Eco modes just increases and decreases the throttle response sigificantly.
Not sure what else to say really. The guys at Toyota are pretty much the nicest bunch of car salesmen I've ever met. Oh, and there's a tiny bright light on the ceiling that shines on the gearlever at night so you can see it. Random little touches!
Our previous car (the Qashqai) has some problems that Nissan are struggling or not bothering to sort out. Long story short, it's engine problems - gearbox getting worse, major ECU problems. There's been ECU firmware updates but they've screwed them up and it still has a few issues, so my dad is frankly getting a bit annoyed with them.
But in comes the... Prius! Excuse the crummy photos...
I mean, I don't drive it, but it's actually more car like than you actually realise. It's comfortable, looks a lot better inside than the older one, very roomy, speakers and stero are very good, lots of little storage spots, clear and easy to use buttons and controls. Reasonably powerful too - 1.8 assisted by the electric motors - near 140bhp.
The oddest thing about the car though is the way it drives... the apparent feeling that the car is just rolling forwards without any control because the petrol motor isn't on. You get the occasional buzzing from the electric motors powering the air con (which is amazing - it blows ice-cool air within a few seconds) but otherwise it's silent. All you do, since it's keyless entry, is put your foot on the brake and press the power on button, and you're away. There's no ignition.
The car is pretty comfortable and quite quiet too. I presume I've been used to diesels for a while not but petrol motors are so much quieter and smoother... It's odd there's no gearchanges either because it's a CVT transmission.
There's lots of different display modes showing how economically you're driving and your MPG average over specific amount of times (we managed 58mpg so far apparently). And of course the screen showing you when the petrol and electric motors are being used or charged. This stuff can be shown on the windshield head-up display too which only the driver can see. It's definitely a boy's toy.
There's 3 modes. EV mode uses the electric motor only up to 31 mph, but you have to accelerate quite slowly to stop it from deactivating itself. Pulling out onto a busy road you will need to accelerate enough to deactivate it so it's a little pointless, especially since it uses only battery anyway no matter what mode you are in cruising at low speeds, and you can only use the battery for about a mile and a half before the petrol motor kicks in anyway to charge it. Power and Eco modes just increases and decreases the throttle response sigificantly.
Not sure what else to say really. The guys at Toyota are pretty much the nicest bunch of car salesmen I've ever met. Oh, and there's a tiny bright light on the ceiling that shines on the gearlever at night so you can see it. Random little touches!
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