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On Wheels by Brooks Peterson Saturday, October 7, 2000
Toyota takes its Prius seriouslyManufacturer hopes driving public likes its gas/electric hybrid All right, all right: I know that when Honda rolled out its zoomy two-seater Insight gasoline/electric hybrid, there was a certain amount of snickering in the audience. Oh, sure, the thing worked like a charm, delivering phenomenal fuel mileage (over 70 mpg on the road, says the EPA), and it was (is) almost as much fun to be seen in as to drive, but . . .
The result you see before you: Though the accompanying propaganda doesn't mention it, the Prius appears to be based on Toyota's new Echo subcompact (you know: the one with the little teeny wheels, harking back to the '68 Opel Kadett). The silhouette is substantially the same; the idiosyncratic interior, with all the instruments slapped smack in the middle of the dash follows the Echo format . . . Could we say it's an Echo of the Echo? No. What Toyota insists you understand is that the Prius is a real car. Could that be interpreted as a slap at the Insight? Surely not. Still . . . In the event, the Prius does make up in utility what it lacks in panache vis-à-vis the Insight. There is in fact room inside for four adult humanoids, and if they're not paying attention, three of them may not even realize they're in a vehicle that represents the very cutting edge of ToyotaTech. The accommodations are standard econocar: Sturdy-looking materials, but the only posh accoutrements are power windows and door locks. As noted above, the instruments are clustered smack in the middle of the dash - but the display is a far cry from what you'll see in the Echo: Dominating the scene is a liquid-crystal Vehicle Information Display. It tells you everything you could possibly want to know about what percentage of the power is coming from, or being stored in, the electric motor. After a few miles, I gave up trying to monitor it, choosing instead to savor the Prius driving experience. Or is "savor" the word I'm looking for? Certainly this isn't the most exhilarating ride in the automotive road - but it does have a quirky fascination to it. Spooky stops For one thing, it's not a slug. Seventy-three horses aren't the stuff of motoring legend, but they're more than enough to keep you from being run over by the passing Plymouth Volares and Chevy IIs. Far more striking, though, is the way this hybrid goes about its work. Cruising along, the gasoline engine works unobtrusively. Nothing remarkable there: it's no less than you'd expect from a state-of-the-art Toyota four. Ah, but come to a halt - that's where it gets a little spooky. Once you've stopped, everything stops. (Not the air-conditioning, happily.) I mean, that little four-banger just shuts down, and the only sound you hear is the chilled air whooshing through the vents. In a conventional car, this is the sort of thing that causes beads of perspiration to appear on your forehead and prayers to issue unbidden from your lips. In the Prius, however, it's the norm. The electric motor takes care of business until it's time to go; then, without the slightest sign of effort, the four reports back for duty. If you're not really listening for it, you may not even notice the transitions. Gas or electric What's really going on here? I'm probably one of the last people on the earth to whom you'd want to direct such a technical question, but let me tell you what the nice Toyota people tell me: See, in your Toyota Hybrid System, the gasoline engine or the electric motor alone can propel the car. More often, though, a power-split arrangement lets the little four send power to the front (driving) wheels and to the electric generator that feeds the electric motor and/or battery. Didn't mention, did I, that you deploy all this power with an electrically controlled continuously variable transmission - a device last seen on the Subaru Justy. Yes! The very same device you knew and loved in the DAF, pride of the Dutch auto industry, back in the '50s and '60s. And get this: The Prius actually gets better mileage in town than it does on the highway. Shazam! As for the rest, driving the Prius is in most respects similar to piloting the Echo. And why shouldn't it be? It's a relatively tall, skinny vehicle, which makes it a touch more sensitive to crosswinds that some of the competition. Handling is virtually devoid of surprises. The brakes, however, are something else again. They seemed to me almost startlingly effective - something I don't recall from my stint last Thanksgiving with an Echo. They're so responsive, in fact, that you have to feather-foot it just a bit until you get the feel of 'em. Should you check out a Prius? Oh, for cryin' out loud, what for? You've already got that Lincoln Navigator out in the driveway, and the full-bull Chevy Silverado stretch-cab with the 4WD package, and . . . why in the world would you even spare a look at something like a Toyota Prius? One name and one acronym: Saddam Hussein. OPEC. You decide. 
© 2000 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved. |
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