The best Toyota

[Niko_Fx]

oh, and well we nee dfuel economy now, so what if it doesn't have the HP of a Lamborghini, who cares! we need fuel economy now more than ever, and the prius accually gets 110 HP, 76 is just the Gas motor, 110 for the whole drivetrain. so do your homework before you trash something

I did my "homework" looked it up in www.cars.com and that's what it said. Sorry I'm not such a fan of the Prius.

Who cares about the power produced by a Lamborghini?? All we need is fuel economy?? No my friend, we need both. Fuel economy AND power. Try driving a Prius with 5 people in it on a hill in San Francisco.

You get agravated every time something bad is said about the Prius. Deal with it, almost every car has defects.

It's not the best Toyota IMO

I'm kind of sick of the Prius already with so much talk about it.

[Karrmann]

the Prius has 260 LB FT of Torque, so it makes up for the HP, well I know you looked it up on cars .com, I look u all my cars there, the just forgot to give the whole HP of the drivetrain, that's the HP of a hybrid. The Prius adds up to 110ish. cars.com just forgot it, it was a missing link that's all. I know I looked at edmunds, cars and many other sites and looked up the Prius before I started to state what I am stating now.

[Egg Nog]

The Prius is a seriously well thought-out car. For some reason or another, people seem to think that it's uncomortable, gutless, and unappealing for any reason other than fuel economy. This totally bothers me. Both the old and new models deserve loads of respect.

Look at the new Prius: With the electric assist, it acheives 143hp and 377lb.ft of torque (and most of that is from the electric motor starting at 0 rpm). Moving 1400kg, that's not a slow car, hybrid or not. It's also fairly good-looking (the new one at least), roomy (despite the hybrid system), and priced damn well, considering what you get.

It annoys me that car fans judge a car like that and simply dismiss it. Don't make assumptions about the Prius, because chances are its very diferrent than you think. Are we fans of cars and new technology, or are we just power freaks?

I think a few of you guys are being too critical of Karrmann. He's got excellent ideals, and some pretty good stuff to say to boot.

[Karrmann]

The Prius is a seriously well thought-out car. For some reason or another, people seem to think that it's uncomortable, gutless, and unappealing for any reason other than fuel economy. This totally bothers me. Both the old and new models deserve loads of respect.

Look at the new Prius: With the electric assist, it acheives 143hp and 377lb.ft of torque (and most of that is from the electric motor starting at 0 rpm). Moving 1400kg, that's not a slow car, hybrid or not. It's also fairly good-looking (the new one at least), roomy (despite the hybrid system), and priced damn well, considering what you get.

It annoys me that car fans judge a car like that and simply dismiss it. Don't make assumptions about the Prius, because chances are its very diferrent than you think. Are we fans of cars and new technology, or are we just power freaks?

I think a few of you guys are being too critical of Karrmann. He's got excellent ideals, and some pretty good stuff to say to boot.

Thank you Egg Nog

I am really thinking today isnsead of getting around people are thinking if it doesn't have big big power, it is a lump of crap, don't drive it. There is more to a car to the power, The Prius will get you off every red light first. And even though many people say it only gets 76 HP, that's just the gas motor and I said, you have to combine the HP of the 2 motors and that's the HP of a Hybrid.


Thanks againgn Egg Nog, I 'm glad to see there is someone ese other than me that supports the Prius.

[Niko_Fx]

I consider it a great car, thumbs up to Hybrid cars.

But I don't consider it the best Toyota and Karrman mentions it almost on every thread which is already freaking me out.

I wasn't aware that it had that amount of power... Still its 0-60 time (Cannot find the official one) Seems to be:

"""Motor trend says 9.8
Car and Driver says its 11.3"""

And Toyota estimates 10.1 seconds.

Now, no matter which of these 3 numbers is the correct one (And I'm assuming Toyota's) it still is a car that is slower than any Civic, Corola or Ford Focus (Cars that many consider under powered)

I'll consider a Hybrid car whenever they focus a bit more on acceleration.

Niko

[Gnafu the Great]

Scion xB! It's got everything I need in a car, and it blows away anything else in its price range (in features and such). I was just at a dealer yesterday, they said they were talking to some speaker company about putting a couple 8" woofers under the front seats (maybe 10s!) ^^. The aftermarket is great on 'em and you can do anything with them you can imagine (well, except race or anything :P). So, for a daily driver, Scion xB all the way. I do like the Supra for speed and power and such, and the Prius is an amazing little car (though I hate the way it looks :P).

[Karrmann]

reply to niko_fx
power doesn't matter now. It is all about fuel economy. Toyota sacraficed performance for maximum efficency and fuel economy, and the Prius has pleanty of power. All Prius owners have said they have always been the first off a redlight with the Prius, heck 145 HP and 340 LB ft of torque, you will be wasting everyone off a redlight and a stop sign. So the Prius has enough power, so what are ypu complaining about?

[Matra et Alpine]

OK, the engineer got the better of me and I wqent and had a test drive in a new Prius.

Quyite simply it is an astounding piece of technology, the acceleration is supoerb - partly due to the CVT, but the combine electric/diesel torque is excellent. The engine is clrealy tuned for torque ( driving through CVT it doesn't much matter ).

Did the pulling away from lights and it was as fast as any other car similar size/price I've driven.

Motorway 50-90 acceleartion, one of my favourite 'tests' was equally spirited and I pulled a way from a BMW at one point ( 5-series, but could have been a 518 or a 530d )

Braking is impressive with no discernable changeover from electric to hydraulic.

The only thing I didn't liek was the sensitivity in the steering at 80-90. I prefer power steering to reduce sensitivity and it didn't seem to do it as much. In town, traffic and roundabouts though it was very well planted for a car with such long wheelbase. Even pushing it hard it was quite well behaved ( guess all the abtteries low down help )

Ohh and the interior - yuk. Flashy touch screen which IMHO will just cause accidents and the 'reduced' weight' seats and fascia just didn't look all that good. They need to get some European designers from Lotus/Matra/Alpine in to show them how

BUt overall, if I was looking for a large transport for the family I'd put this in my top 5 to test.

[Karrmann]

Thanks. I like the big center console and rear armrest and how much it can store. The prius seems to stare like a SUV. It hasenough store space to sccomadate what a SUV can hold. I like that idea, and It can store better than my Escort. It can hold a trip worth of suit cases without folding out a seat, I like that, I see a world of great stuff in a Prius.

[Matra et Alpine]

Thanks. I like the big center console and rear armrest and how much it can store. The prius seems to stare like a SUV. It hasenough store space to sccomadate what a SUV can hold. I like that idea, and It can store better than my Escort. It can hold a trip worth of suit cases without folding out a seat, I like that, I see a world of great stuff in a Prius.

The recent range of MPVs have taken the lead from the Renault (Matra) Espace and there is huge amounts of internal space and cubby-holes. The Prius is a very poor second to these in interior space utilisation.
I'd not commented on the luggage/transport space as I'd gone in expecting it to be poor - all those batteries ahve to go somewhere ! But i's actually poor for a car of that size.
This won't be a big issues for our US cousins as you seem used to limited space relative to car size. Just ask any European at Herz/Avis et al on their first US vacation when they find they can't get the luggage into the car !!
We're used to better utilisation
Be honest, though, it's a LONG way away from storage of an SUV due to the lack of height.

[Karrmann]

true but in the back thefloor folds out to increse the luggage space.http://www.toyota.com/vehicles/2004/...rage_area.html

[Matra et Alpine]

true but in the back thefloor folds out to increse the luggage space.http://www.toyota.com/vehicles/2004/...rage_area.html

Watch my lips .....

I test drove the car today

OK ??

So, yep I know exactly what the car has and hasn't.
It's a LONG way behind the average available here.

Go check out Renault sites to see what is now the norm for European car internal storage. Way ahead and you won't get them while Anti-France sentiment continues in the US

[Karrmann]

I knew abot the Espace. the espace is something that can hold maybe another car, that thing can hold sooooooooooooooooo much stuff, but It won't caount in the states because renault was chased out in the 80's.

[Niko_Fx]

reply to niko_fx
power doesn't matter now. It is all about fuel economy. Toyota sacraficed performance for maximum efficency and fuel economy, and the Prius has pleanty of power. All Prius owners have said they have always been the first off a redlight with the Prius, heck 145 HP and 340 LB ft of torque, you will be wasting everyone off a redlight and a stop sign. So the Prius has enough power, so what are ypu complaining about?

You keep giving me different numbers, now is 145HP where did you get those??

Matra how fast was it? The info that I found said that the Prius' 0-60 time is around 10 secs.

[Karrmann]

egg nog set me correct and said it is 145