Toyota Prius T Spirit Review & Road Test (2010) Part 2

The Toyota Prius Interior - good & bad.

We’ve said before that reviewing a car – any car – requires not just subjectivity but objectivity too. Besides giving our opinion on a car we always try to put ourselves in the shoes of the prospective owner to see if what’s on offer is what the buyer is likely to be looking for. And with the Toyota Prius we doubt many buyers will be disappointed with how it drives, or the economy they get.

Prius buyers are looking to make a statement and to own a form of transport they believe will cause the least harm to the planet. They’re wrong – certainly from a CO2 perspective – but what they’re doing is right, if that makes any sense.

Unfortunately, if you take the Prius out and drive it as we would – or anyone who enjoys driving would – it’s a let-down. You’d expect more from total of 134bhp, but with its CVT ‘box the engine revs its socks off before the speed catches up with the noise, only it never really catches up with the fuss it’s making.

You do get a choice of three ‘Power’ modes where you can choose between EV, Eco and Power. But really, it doesn’t make much difference to the way the Prius goes whatever mode you opt for. In Power mode you can shove your right foot through the floor to get the Prius to perform, and it’ll do its best by throwing the engine and the electric motor at the job.

Stick the Prius in Eco and you can still do the same, it just feels like there’s a little Toyota Elf behind the throttle doing its best to push up as you push down. And try as we might we didn’t have a light enough right foot to stop the engine kicking in after a few yards in EV mode. We’re sure it can be done, but we couldn’t crack it unless we were happy to be overtaken by the cyclist coming up the inside.

There seems to be plenty of grip, but no encouragement to explore it. The handling is safe – if a bit roly-poly – and there’s not much feedback from the steering. But there’s nothing to get you in to trouble either. You can push on – a bit – although at the expense of headline economy. Toyota say the Prius will average more than 70mpg. We averaged 46.8mpg. We’ve had better out of our long-term XJ on a run.

All of which lead us to believe that the Toyota Prius isn’t a car in the conventional sense. No, this isn’t another way to level criticism at the Prius, rather a perspective that will allow us to understand what – beyond a green statement for the chattering classes – the Prius is.

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By Cars UK