Toyota Prius: Behind the Wheel Blog

Read our Toyota Prius news report here.

The neighbours have noticed Prudence. Our friends next door may live in the boondocks, but they grew up in Target Demographic Central for the Prius. Within the next few months, they're planning to buy a new Golf 6 and then a Passat. The lady of the family appears to know considerably more about the Prius -- "That's the new one, isn't it?" -- than is quite seemly for a disinterested third party. Hmmm....

On our side of the fence, sonny boy, who's seven years old and a massive V8 Supercars fan, reckons the Prius is better than anything Mum and Dad own, because there's a lot more room in the back for him and his sister to swing cats, throw punches and generally conduct themselves in the usual fashion without undue fear of blunt force trauma from the interior fixtures. So the kids have given Prudence the tick of approval. Mum is impressed by the total lack of NVH when the petrol engine isn't running, but was less impressed by the constant tyre noise, even on the freeway.

Average fuel consumption continues to hover around 4.9L/100km. The average remains skewed by the 370km or so of open-road driving from the previous trip computer reset. Perhaps a fairer assessment of the car's around-town fuel economy will come with the next tank of fuel. Leaving aside the whole 'objective' disappointment that we can't reduce the average fuel consumption to where Toyota says it should be, there's still a third of a tank remaining after almost a week -- and including that 370km-long freeway excursion from Albury.

It's apparent that the Prius is more at ease with Tokyo-style bumper-to-bumper congestion than the sort of free-form fanging that passes for inner urban driving in Melbourne on a Sunday arvo. Even on a Sunday, Melbourne drivers launch from an intersection like they're launching from a carrier deck in a Super Hornet -- or maybe this is a Prius-induced delusion. Perhaps other cars aren't actually travelling faster, they just appear to be because you're using so much throttle to keep up in the hybrid.

In normal mode, attempting to confine the Prius to electric-drive only, Prudence just isn't fast enough to keep pace. You have to use the petrol engine, because acceleration is otherwise akin to that of a fully-loaded B-Double -- and that's no exaggeration. Even when you can use battery power alone, it loses charge quite quickly if you can't find ways of recharging it through the medium of a handy downhill grade, for example.

At middling freeway speeds (everybody heading home from the footy), the Dynamic Radar Cruise Control is effective and useful. It also tends to keep speed below 100km/h, in line with the surrounding traffic, and the fuel consumption in this context generally holds well below 5.0L/100km -- until a car directly in front changes lanes and the petrol engine kicks in to push the car back up to 100km/h!

Approaching an intersection this morning, the Pre-Crash system activated and issued an alert because a VT Commodore about 50 or 60 metres in front was making a meal of a left turn and Prudence was approaching from behind at about 60km/h. The alert had barely been issued by the system when the Commodore completed the turn and the road ahead was clear once more.

Gotta give Toyota credit for the split rear window in the tailgate. The flat section (like that in the original Honda CRX), always stays clear of condensation and provides a very good view immediately to the rear of the car, which is a great feature when kids are around.

And the electric motor, which develops torque easily (if not quickly), can gently shift the Prius off the front lawn without leaving wheel ruts or bogging the car, following Melbourne's recent bout of inclement weather.

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