TOYOTA PRIUS HATCHBACK REVIEW

My car

Having owned my NEW Prius for four months, I couldn't be more delighted!

It rides smoothly on Motorways and is comfortable and quiet, although on rougher surfaces it can joggle passengers. Driving long distances is a real pleasure. Living in Devon I've had plenty of time to test the steering on twisty lanes. The road holding is excellent although prone to understeer in the faster corners which I find acceptable and controllable. I don't agree with the comment in the What Car? New Car Buyers Guide that “there’s barely any feel in the steering”.

The cabin is well laid out. All the controls are understandable even without initially consulting the Handbook. However, in bright sunlight the upper dash reflects light up onto the screen which impairs visibility.

There's plenty of room in the front and back and all-round visibility is generally good but the rear spoiler cuts across the rear window. However at night this can have the benefit of blotting out the headlights of following cars.

The average 60mpg I am getting is highly acceptable! The electric only mode, used under 30mph, is a major plus and pedestrians often do a double take as I glide silently past. Power Mode gives a real boost when you want to get a move on but obviously fuel consumption suffers. For most conditions Eco Mode is fine.

The Prius T4 is a 5-star car. I recommend you get one. If my experience is anything to go by you will not be disappointed!

My car

I chose the new prius for my company car to save benefit in kind tax and try and squeeze a little more business mileage benefit. Having only had the car three weeks this is proving very economical. Average consumption according to dash is 59-62 actual is approx 58-60. I generally travel alone with samples in boot. recently travelled to Scotland from Middle England with fully laden back and front passenger never noticed any significant loss of mpg. My previous car was a VW Golf MkV 1.9 diesel noisy and firm ride. Prius gives smooth ride and very little road and cabin noise. Down side is price other cars on market with much better kit, but in these hard times low tax and increased mpg outweighed competition's offerings. My initial feelings were this would not be my personal car of choice, but having driven it for only three weeks it is really growing on me, ease of controls auto box etc make long distance driving bearable. Suspect running costs will be high with 10K service intervals compared to 20K on my Golf but I dont pay so hay-ho.

My car

Almost 4,000mls since Jul 09. Had a previous model T3. This has much more power (don't use eco-mode if you plan to overtake). Speedo overreads by 5 at 70, odometer is within 1%. MPG readout overreads by 3.5mpg (unlike my last Prius) so not as good as it looks. Drives better, more smoothly than last model. Deeper tires (65) mean it rides much better. I was getting around 61mpg at first, in summer but it's around 59 - 60 now with the cold weather (Edinburgh). Radio/AirCon dials (LCD) not clear if sunlight in the cabin. This is a roomy, comfortable and reasonably powerful car which should deliver around a genuine 60mpg year-round. There's no doubt it's a real solid improvement over the previous Prius and streets ahead of the Insight or any other competitor. Think I'll be a happy owner for some time!

My car

The ride quality is much improved over the previous model, the quality of the plastics in the cabin sadly is not. The fuel economy seems significantly better but the rear vision is terrible, much worse than the outgoing model. The seats do not seem any more comfortable even though this new model has lumbar support. The stereo is really tinny, so much so that I suspect that it is faulty and shall be talking to the dealer about it. The heads up display is really cool and the storage space under the middle instrument panel is huge although the door bins have shrunk considerably. The beats thing about it really is how cosseting, relaxing and quiet it is although I have had many narrow escapes with pedestrians who simply do not hear you coming!