New blog about the new Prius - info from Europe!

Hi all,

I have just started a new blog about my experiences with the Prius 2010 and the overall Toyota experience.
I live in Germany, and I drove so far a VW Polo 1.4L Turbo Diesel (bought in 2002) mainly to commute to work (about 17 km / 11 mi each way) and sometimes for longer stretches. My current average on the Polo is 5.6L/100 km (about 42 mpg) so I am already used to good fuel efficiencies in city driving (90% of the time), with decent torque (195 Nm) and acceleration (0-100 km/h (0-60 mph) in 13,6 s).

I ordered my new Prius last week after a test drive that gave me chills (I simply thought "I am buying it"). I wasn't completely satisfied with the previous version, this one instead is simply "the" version I wanted to buy.

The trims/versions in Germany/EU are only 3 and called: "Prius", "Life" and "Executive" - I ordered the middle version called "Life". "Executive" is the most expensive version.
I will add more and more information on my blog as time goes by.

I still don't have an expected delivery date, but the dealer said that it will take no more than 4 months max. It might be less, depending on the confirmation of the order coming end of this week and current stock availability. I am crossing my fingers!!! Though typically dealers here in Europe don't keep stock and cars are usually built to order. Theoretically my Prius is not built yet!

One thing that I can already tell you in comparison to the US version, after reading some of the posts here, is that in Europe the Prius comes with Heads-Up Display (HUD) and fog lights standard. 17" alloy wheels with 215/45 tires are available from the second level trim as standard and are not available as an option on the "Prius" basic version.

The declared fuel consumption, according to EU standards, is 4L/100 km in town, 3.9L/100 km out of town, 4L/100 km combined (a mixture of the 2 other ratings) - these are equivalent to, respectively, 59 mpg / 60.5 mpg / 59 mpg. Slightly higher ratings are provided for the Prius basic version using the smaller 195/65R15 wheels.

Please ask me any other details you would like to know about the Prius being sold here in Europe - I will be glad to fill you in!

Thanks for reading my blog!,
Paolo