Thread repository for ALL non-PriusChat 2016 Prius reviews

Interesting post by a journalist from Malaysia who went to Japan.

Source: Feature: The Toyota Prius We Will Never Get | Carlist.my - Malaysia's No.1 Car Site

This was on Fuji speedway;

"Three short laps on an already short course were all we had time for, but it was enough to exploit the Prius chassis and push it to its limits on the damp tarmac. Handling dynamics are usually an afterthought in the pursuit of efficiency, but the Prius turns and tucks in as terrifically as a warm hatch would. It may not be the weapon of choice on a trunk road or at your local racetrack- but if you find the urge to drive spiritedly, the Prius will happily comply. Mid-range acceleration is brisk, which was one of the areas engineers focused on in order to improve consumption but also translates very well to a track where the average speed is low and the straights are short. Naturally the continuously variable transmission gets in the way of the fun, but it isn’t so soul-sucking as to render the Prius completely pointless."

 

Yeah, that country import duty is some 300% since the late '80s, raised to protect the nation's automotive industries, proton and perdoa. Nearly 30 years later, the duty is still that high and the build quality is still just as bad mainly because of the protectionism, the lack of competition and hence the lack of incentive to improve. It's a joke for the locals, that's why some will never buy locally made cars, instead forking out RM120,000 for a Honda Fit instead for example.

SM-G900I ?

 

Paris in a Gen 4. What a cool review, although the lighting is weird, I'm sure the car looks pink in colour when the bloke starts chatting in front of the car.

 

White balance way off, and overexposed.

 

A test by What Car in the UK pitting the basic spec Gen 4 Prius vs VW Golf and Mazda 3.

No surprise, they placed the aging Golf in 1st place, 'classy' and 'elegance' being used to describe the interior.

imho, the Golf interior is seriously boring and old fashioned.

Oh I reckon they should have compared auto cars with the Prius. Instead they picked the manual versions for the test. However, there is 'some' praise in the review the Prius.

Source: New Toyota Prius vs Mazda 3 vs Volkswagen Golf - What Car?

 

Agreed. Then the reviewer has not tried to match equipments either and even in his final cost analysis, he has trivialised the additional costs of the VW to the Prius over three years, not counting fuel costs. He details the cost of sat nav and parking sensors for the Prius, but not the cost of reversing camera or auto gearbox for the Golf.

Slanted. I should say so!

 

Although some people think the Prius interiors are way over the top... and some people could consider the Prius's transmission a negative.

 

You realise they aren't red Indians in this clip.

 

Sorry for any offence caused unintentionally.

 

An eye opener for the motoring press, eh? He only knocked-it before he tried it for himself, a laudable admission. There's also the point he made about being flashed by trailing vehicles when in a Prius at the same speeds he was never flashed in other cars. Does that say more about perception of Prii, or just about SoCal driver anti Prii mentality?

 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading that review.

Thank you, Tideland Prius

Strangely, some of the sentiments echoed by the writer apply directly to the 2nd generation Prius too. I can't count the number of times I've had people ride in my Prius for the first time, and express considerable surprise at its modest but nonetheless impressive capabilities.

The lack of a conventional transmission gear system is often the first surprise. The way it accelerates in a linear fashion all the way to the speed limit you've chosen. The equally mind boggling deceleration, reminiscent of a very smooth tube train coming to a dignified halt, without the jerking of gears trying to use engine breaking.

The surprising silence as you wait in traffic with what looks like an engine that has conked out. Yet, in the blistering heat of summer, your AC continues to operate without faltering. The silent jerk free crawl in traffic congestion under electric power only. The way you take off from a complete stop (while the engine was off), and said engine seamlessly kicks in as the vehicle wafts off under electrical power.

It's different, regal, almost - depending on how smooth the road surface is! It might not change direction swiftly like a BMW M3, but it DOES have some amazing qualities the latter simply doesn't have.

You realise there's more to driving than being obsessed about with 0 to 60 times, and a throaty engine roar. Then it hits you. You're in a rather understated technologically advanced vehicle quite like no other. It's like slipping the surly bonds of earth to touch the future.

The interior looks out of this world, albeit relatively sci-fi quaint by today's standards. Toyota's Prius designers continue to have and exercise their zany science fiction sense of humour with unbridled impunity (and barely audible mirth).

If the 2nd generation Prius seems to be loosely based on a warp 2 capable Shuttlecraft from Star Trek (THAT dashboard blew my mind when I first saw it - and still impresses me!), then the latest Generation 4 evokes a snout that mimics the Predator's (Trademark) face, a body shape that apes the shuttles used in "Interstellar", and tail lights that thumbs a snook at "The Jetsons".

Take a long soothing ride in one of these Prii as a passenger, then afterwards, return to your own conventional car, and suddenly, the jerking of countless gear changes from your manual gearbox make your ride feel positively crude by comparison. And you wonder why anyone laughs at the Prius. At the back of your mind - especially if you have an unbiased engineering background or interests in the field - you acknowledge it sometimes has more in common with something from aviation / aerospace in the way it should be driven.....or should I say, piloted.

Own one of these, and you soon become consciously aware of the true cost of energy to your wallet, and soon find yourself often refusing to push the pedal to the metal because.....you're now painfully aware you're really wasting, burning hydrocarbons - purely in the name of vanity.

And you are reborn. You realise appearances CAN be deceiving. It effortlessly went much faster than you imagined possible, while still maintaining a dignified ride. It was DIFFERENT!

Mildly flabbergasted, confused, even.....you visit a forum site like Prius Chat for the true lowdown on Prii, and come away with your mind blown, as if you'd visited a conspiracy website.....except it's all real...!!!

And after that, you keep seeing them silently, almost spookily gliding about, all over the place, and wonder why you never really noticed them before. You're ultimately humbled by how many are out there, and what type of perfectly normal people drive them. And no, most of them are NOT eco warriors after all....they just like spending much less money of fuel.

The Prius....probably motoring's most understated technological treasure on the road today.


iPhone ?