Toyota Prius - Kick Me

My take away after a brief and expensive cab ride in January in one of these was that the Toyota Prius has a surprisingly cavernous albeit austere interior. Road noise was also abundant although the car itself was church mouse quite save for the whir-whir-whir of what I believe was a worn out right rear wheel bearing. Aside from the generously sized cabin, the only upside I can deduce about the thing was that the cab company owning it was saving a considerable amount of money on gas since Prius', on average, are rated at about 50 miles per gallon. That's pretty darn good. So good, in fact that outside of a plug-in hybrid, you can't do better than that these days with either a gas or diesel powered automobile.

But, oh, what you give up for the sake of great gas mileage. Getting great gas mileage with a car this ugly is lost on me since for my money, I can get excellent gas mileage with a far less expensive and better looking "PZEV" [practically zero emissions vehicle]. What's more, there's no goofy compromises in handling, braking and all around performance in a "PZEV" that you have to put up with with these things. Does a PZEV get as good gas mileage as a Prius? No, but at nearly 40 miles per gallon it's close enough to what the Prius gets to negate what a Prius has to offer.

Now, don't get me wrong, I respect the technology and engineering but the over all design of Prius' I find to be insufferably dorky. I mean, c'mon, man, look at this thing. It's the perfect ride for science fiction fans and the president of the computer club after he managed to get himself out of the gym locker someone stuffed him into. The best vanity plate for one of these would be, "KICK ME".

So, what exactly is a Prius. Well, there is some confusion as to what it is and also what hybrids are in general. At it's most elemental and at the risk of over simplification, there are two types of hybrids, "mild hybrids" and "parallel" or "full hybrids". Mild hybrids are gasoline or diesel powered cars that have an electric motor to assist the engine. In many cases, mild hybrids don't get much better mileage than their "non-hybrid" brethren but their electric motors can increase a vehicle's performance exponentially.  Full or parallel hybrids like our Prius are battery powered cars that have a gasoline engine to assist the electric motor. Big difference between a gas engine assisting an electric motor and vice versa. Mileage differences are significant as well.

Toyota offers their "Hybrid Snyergy Drive" across nearly their entire range of models and many Lexus models too. While they don't get the gas mileage that our Prius here gets, owners of those "Hybrids" don't have the compromises that Prius owners have to endure either. That's to say nothing of its wonky, strange and distinctive styling for the sake of being strange and distinctive. Ironically, the Lexus version of the Prius, something they call the "ct200h", is such a handsome automobile that it transcends the fact that it's a "hybrid". If Toyota made the Prius look more like its Lexus cousin I wouldn't be getting on my hate on for it like I am.

There's no doubt that the future of motorized transportation is going to be electrified and their development over the last twenty years has been nothing short of remarkable. The growing pains that many hybrids and now plug ins have is all part of the development process. Good thing there are people out there patient enough and with deep enough pockets to put up with the nonsense. I'm not one of them. Let me know when the future is here and without compromise.

"Prius" is latin for "to go before".