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TOYOTA PRIUS REVIEW

TOYOTA PRIUS ECONOMY

Toyota Priuses are going to provide the biggest savings for the motorist who covers a large number of mile.  As an example, a heavy user of a medium sized car with a fuel consumption of 30mpg can expect to pay around 17p per mile for petrol.  If you're covering say 30,000 miles per annum (which is common for high mileage users) that's over 5,000 per annum in fuel costs.  The same distance in a Prius would use fuel to the value of a little over 2000.  That's a huge saving, and one that will make a significant difference to the operating costs of most fleets.

Toyota have also estimated that a new Prius could save more than 1 tonne of CO2 emissions per vehicle compared with the average family car.  That's a saving of 89% relative to the average new car.  And they tell us that it already conforms to the proposed EU guidelines for new vehicles for the year 2012.

Service intervals for the Prius are typical of other family cars.

TOYOTA PRIUS INSURANCE

The Prius typically attracts a group 8 insurance price which means that Prius insurance should be reasonably priced though not as cheap as some economy models.  For comparison, a base model Toyota Avensis would be group 7 and the typical Corolla would be a 6.  Compared to other very economical cars the insurance costs look even expensive - the 50bhp Smart Car attracts a group 2 and Toyota's own city car - the new Aygo - attracts an insurance group of just 1 (yes One!).  However, this slightly misses the point - the Prius isn't a city car - it's a medium size vehicle with a high specification and as such 8 compares very favourably with other vehicles in its class.

TOYOTA PRIUS REVIEW

Once you're behind the wheel of a Prius you're struck by the fact that it's not really that different to any other car, apart from the big centre screen that shows you what the hybrid synergy drive is doing.  It's all a bit space age, but it's more than pleasant.  The main difference though is the sound.  At rest, with the standard climate control switched off you don' t hear a thing. 

We'd opted to try the top of the range T Spirit model so we switched on the JBL audio system and were wowed by the quality of the 9 speaker system; which sounds even better than we expected, thanks to the complete absence of background noise.  If you like to listen to music in your car, this is an added delight of the Prius.

TOYOTA PRIUS ROAD TEST

Once on the move, the Prius remains quiet compared to a normal car.  The petrol engine works when it needs to, but in city traffic much of the drive power comes from the electric motors with the engine purring away in the background to maintain the supply of electricity that will keep the batteries topped up.  When pushed, the petrol engine kicks in harder, both to supply drive to help accelerate the car, and to provide even more power to ensure that the motors work to their maximum potential.  Most of the time you don't ask much of the engine - instead it's easy to cruise along, delighted by the smooth, efficient progress that the car makes when its hybrid drive is working at more normal levels.  

As well as producing a car that is considerably less harmful to the environment than other cars in its class, Toyota may have accidentally found the ideal solution to today's aggressive driving; in the Prius it seems that it's just so much easier to cruise along making smooth and steady progress.  And that superb stereo system helps too.

The Prius also handles quite nicely; our other misconception before driving it was that it would be far to heavy to be a nice car to drive - again we'd made the mistake of imagining huge batteries that would give the car far too much inertia to handle well on a winding country road.  However, the Prius has a kerb weight of only 1325kg which isn't untypical for a car of its size.  And much of that weight is obviously pretty low down, so it retains a low centre of gravity that adds to its ability on the corners.  The drive by wire system is a revelation too - you don't feel as disconnected from the driving experience as you might have expected.  Some spirited drivers might feel that all that electronics detracts slightly from the feel of the car, but the vast majority of owners will simply enjoy the effortless experience that Toyota have built into the Prius.

 USED TOYOTA PRIUS PRICES

Some potential owners we spoke to wondered how the car would fare on the second hand market.  The general view of the used car market is that a Prius might loose a slightly higher percentage of its new price over the first three years of its life than a conventional Toyota might.  If you're making considerable savings in fuel, then the extra depreciation really shouldn't eat up too much of those savings.  However, if you're a low mileage user, then you would certainly get lower overall running costs by running the popular Toyota Yaris which is quite economical in itself, and has a particularly low rate of depreciation.  Better still, take a look at the company's new Aygo city car which will very likely have the most incredibly low running costs ever - everything about the Aygo is designed for low cost, and they're going to be rare for the foreseeable future so you should find that depreciation costs are also minimal.

To see how the Prius might fare on the second hand market, we checked prices of a few second hand Toyota Priuses in the dealer network.  These all came with a 12 month Toyota approved warranty, RAC roadside assistance, a full service and RAC inspection prior to delivery and 12 months membership of Club Toyota.  Typical prices included:-

Back to Toyota Prius Specification

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