Toyota Prius: Behind the Wheel Blog

Read our Toyota Prius news report here.

I grabbed the keys to the Prius and headed down to the carpark to give the new hybrid car from Toyota a burl. Not wanting any inside information, I shunned the advice of my colleagues, wanting to go into the experience 'cold' and see how hard this new computer on wheels was to drive.

Making use of a proximity key fob on the range-topping Prius i-Tech model, the car unlocked automatically by touching the door handle -- very nice -- and the leather upholstery was very welcoming. A positive start!

I felt like I was slipping into a comfy shoe as I lowered myself into the Prius as the centre console is raised quite high.

There's no ignition barrel but I spotted the 'start/stop' button near the steering wheel and thumbed that, which lit up the high tech instrument cluster. However getting moving was not quite so intuitive…

The gear shifter has a curious layout and does not have the weight of a conventional auto or manual; it feels very floaty. Indeed, it took me a few tries to get moving but once away the car's felt far more functional.

There were three information screens to look at which sounds like overkill, but took only a few minutes to get used to. As well as a large and highly legible satnav touch screen, there were twin instrument readouts that can display a range of different telemetry, from how quickly the battery is charging from brake regeneration, to a detailed map of how much fuel you're using.

The HUD or heads up display projects your road speed onto the inside of the windscreen which not only looked really cool, but was also very useful as you can keep your eyes on the road at all times.

As I left the underground carpark and moved into nasty peak hour traffic, the Prius really felt at home.

The car reverted to electric mode and switched off the petrol engine automatically when I was using only light throttle inputs, but I also came across three buttons on the centre console that turned out to be 'drive modes'. This trio of drive modes are pretty self-explanatory: 'Power' mode delivers the best acceleration but uses more fuel, 'Eco' mode reduces throttle response and helps conserve fuel and 'EV' (electric vehicle) mode runs on pure electricity.

I punched the 'EV' mode button and it worked a treat in bumper-to-bumper traffic and saved plenty fuel. But when I planted my foot in EV mode, a little warning popped up on the screen that read: "EV mode deactivated – excessive acceleration" and it reverted back to the petrol engine.

Even without choosing one of the specialised driving modes I found the Prius to be a very clever vehicle, adapting to the traffic conditions with ease.

However I did find that rearward vision was poor. The rear aerodynamic 'wing' splits the glass of the rear window creating a horizontal blind spot and the rear pillars were rather chunky too, so headchecking often proved to be ineffectual.

In general though, the Prius left a good taste in my mouth. It had a very good ride quality and good handling too and as strange as this sounds, it was satisfying to punt around at low speeds amongst peak hour traffic.

Indeed, it was a nice car to spend time in. The seats were very comfy and the steering wheel felt great, what with its small circumference and flat-bottomed design.

But just when I was having a merry old time on a dark and rainy commute home, I came to be at the front of the queue at a set of traffic lights. Sick of using the foot-operated mechanical park brake, I hit the 'park' button on the centre console. When lights turned green I hit the button again to deactivate it. Guess what? It didn't deactivate!

So as I spent the next 12 seconds trying to figure it out I had drivers raging behind me, honking their horns like Barack Obama was in town. Finally I found out that one has to 'reclick' the gearshifter into 'D' to deactivate 'Park'...

The new third gen Toyota Prius is no rocket ship off the line and not the most involving car to drive, but there is some joy to be had for curious drivers, particularly when attempting to get from A to B as efficiently as possible (and without incurring the wrath of other road users).

While electric-only power is fairly subdued and not very practical at times because it accelerates so slowly, the Prius turned out to be remarkably efficient in stop-start traffic. But I wonder how it fares on the freeway?

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