Last night on my way home, I saw a few Pirus sitting on a Toyota dealer's lot. I was like....hmm...maybe they have some used Prius. Let's check it out.

I spoke with the salesman. He told me Toyota has up the production of the Pirus in 2005 and they started to get one or two new Pirus these couple days(not pre-order ones).

Cool, so I test drove a black one(the only one) with package 4, side airbags, VSC, keyless entry...etc, but no Nav.

The car is small no matter how you look at it. That's cool, I don't need a big car anyway.

The torque was pretty impressive. It has 295ft lbs of torque in low rpm somewhere around 1200rpm. Ah..the top end was.....never mind.

The LCD screen is great. It is so easy to use, I literally started using it right away. The same thing can not be said with the I-drive system.

It handled the corner reasonably well.

The driving position sucks though:

(1) Sitting position is too close to the steering wheel
(2) The seat is too low and the cushion is too short. (no thigh support).
(3) Driver seat doesn't tilt

I am only 6'2" and I had to literally spread my legs outward to get comfortable.

The strange thing even when I pushed the seat all the way back, there was still a good two to three inches leg room in the back seat.

I wonder why Toyota doesn't let the front seat go back further. I mean, it still has some room left, why not use it?

The dealer said they can send the car to a place they know which specialize in modifying car seat for handicapped people .

Have anyone heard about that before? I wonder how good modified seats are?

 

Prius' are gay. Want torque, check out a Vette or Viper.

 

Sounds like you liked it, you interested in getting it?

 

Only if Toyota offers a better driver seat. I felt like sitting on a kid's chair.

BTW, I have a S2000, and I don't need a powerful car as my beater

VW is going to roll out its new Passat. When that happens, my 98 passat is going to be grandfathered and I can't imagine how much I can get from it for trade-in.

 

I like the idea of the Prius but I can't stand the looks and still too sluggish. Kinda goofy for my taste. Do they have a stick in that car or are they all auto?

The good news is that each generation of these things gets a little quicker than the last, a little nicer than the last, a little more fun to drive than the last. Pretty soon they will be very mainstream cars and not just a small segment of the market.


I wonder why we have not seen VW do a TDI/Hybrid? The diesel gets such good milage that you would think that engine with a hybrid drivetrain could make some really high MPG numbers.

 

Looks like another believer... welcome to the camp.

I hated the sit too... so does many other owners. I was thinking of modding the sit too.... but since it is my wife's... whatever....

Ah.... the TORQUE.... [The force is strong with this one]

 

Well, hopefully more owners and potential customers complain about the seating position and Toyota will fix it for the next model year.

I sat in a Corolla before, and the seat is a lot more comfortable than the Prius'.

 

How can you compare iDrive to the LCD screen in a Prius?

iDrive is a full featured system that does a lot more than display battery status. You're comparing apples to oranges.

On a sidenote, I would rather buy a Civic HX and have something that handles better than a WalMart shopping cart.

 

Dude, have you actually used the Prius system?

Not only it shows you the battery system, it also do the following:

- Stereo, radio, CD.....
- Climate controls......
- gas consumption.....
- bluetooth wireless phone function
- Navigation (voice command)
- vehicle realtime stats and historical data....


The best feature is it is touch screen and there is no mouse or joystick.

It is so straight forward.

And now, tell me what other functions that I-drive controls but the Prius' system doesn't.

 

WTF is a "Pirus" ?!?