I rented a Prius and a HCH; here are my reviews of both

[Tideland Prius]

"The Prius is a large car, on the outside at least..."

it's actually the same length as the HCH. (175" vs 174.8" for HCH)

"... the windshield seemed a bit too small and too far forward"

hehe. Odd, I found the windshield much larger than our Camry =)

"It's hard to tell exactly where the wheels of the car are"

Here's a trick that works for most cars. Your left foot on the footrest is roughly where the front left wheel is


Otherwise the articles seem true to your views and what you intend to get out of these vehicles. The speed limit in my area is around 80-90km/h and the max people would do is about 100km/h (on average). So the 80-90mph average traffic speed must be a California thing.

[green01]

Thanks for the review. I also rented a 2005 Prius for a day and took my wife along for 200 mile drive. Here's my reaction:

Mileage: Great
I averaged 48 MPG. I had mostly freeway driving but perhaps 25 percent was on windy country roads. I rarely drive over 55 mph but found myself going 70 mph many times because of the surprising power.

Brakes: Good
I did notice a different feel to the brakes than I'm used to, but didn't feel it was a negative.

Performance: Outstanding
I currently drive a old Cadillac Seville, and the Prius easily matches and probably outperforms it. This was a big surprise to me.

Steering: Poor
On the freeway I felt an unsteadiness - what I call a jittery feeling. The power steering seemed weak. I'm used to easier , single finger, steering wheel turning at low speeds.

Comfort: Poor
My wife had a backache when we completed the test drive. I felt OK but certainly is was not as good as my current car. We are used to the comfort of luxury leather electric seats.
Also the steering wheel seemed too far away, and not positioned right. It really needs to be telescoping and really adjustable. My arms were tired at the end of the ride.

View: Fair
When backing up, It seemed to have far more of a blind spot than I'm used to. Something is needed here, I heard that a camera to help in backing up might be a new option. Looking forward was good.

Electronics: Fair
Maybe being unfamiliar with how to do things caused the problem, but
adjusting the heater and air conditioner, radio, etc seemed confusing with too much reliance on Screen.
A positive surprise was the Navigation System. I always felt this was a gimic. Why not just use Google maps on the PC? I typed in some addresses into the Navigation System and it told me just where to turn and where I was. Having no sense of direction this was a great positive for me.

In Summary:
I'll wait until the comfort of the seats improves. I could live with the steering wheel, but would prefer it to be telescoping.
I visited a dealer today and got the comment that if I didn't like the comfort of the 2005, I won't like the 2006 either. Too bad. I'd like to get the great mileage, but not at the price of a backache.

[Potential Buyer]

Some of my complaints were apparently just things that take some getting adjusted to, like the steering wheel controls, which I hadn't bothered experimenting with. The brake-when-starting thing is obviously easy to get used to, but it just seems unnecessary.

By the way, I consider the mileage I got to be excellent. Well, 38mpg is good but the mid-40s that I got most of the time is excellent. It's not excellent for a Prius but it is excellent for a car. My goal is to drive a car that gets 40+ mpg on a regular basis.

If you're wondering about speed, in some places traffic just moves fast... not 90mph, but around 75-80mph. I noticed this in California and Arizona, in particular. Yeah, you could go in the right lane and slow down, but I enjoy driving fast.

[DaveinOlyWA]

The brake-when-starting thing is obviously easy to get used to, but it just seems unnecessary.

spoken like a true novice...

if you buy a Prius and want to turn off the backup beeper, i bet you will be glad you have to step on the brake to start the car since without that step, you would have no way of accessing acc. mode which is needed to change many of the functions of the car.

trust me when i say, the car was engineered by a very very very bright group of individuals. there is a very good reason why you need to step on the brakes to start the car.

[tmorrowus]

I will agree that while the LCD display can be distracting, it isn't really necessary for any normal day to day uses of the car except navigation. I normally just keep climate control turned on at 72 degrees and only rarely find myself adjusting the temperature up or down, using recirc mode, or turning on the defrosters. All of these things are done more easily from the steering wheel controls so the LCD doesn't have to be touched.

For the radio, I find using the power, volume, and seek buttons on the radio itself are most convenient. And you can do most audio things from the steering wheel as well (like next/last preset), although not as conveniently. Again no need for the LCD except when you want to go directly to a particular preset.

[DaveinOlyWA]

i use the radio volume controls because i can do large volume changes quicker. other than that, the only thing i use the MFD controls for is for air conditioning. and that is only because i never use auto mode.

i am constantly changing the air conditioning. speed up fan, slow down fan, up temp down temp... of course the latter two are done much easier via the steering wheel. really fan speed control is the only thing that the steering wheel cant do other than nav

[9G-man]

I won't call that Prius review ridiculous...but it is mis-informed.
-First, I would not consider 80-90 mph driving routine.
-Interior lighting is quite good and vanity mirrors do have lighting that comes on when you slide the mirror cover open.
-Brakes are fine, you just have to get used to them, plenty linear and plenty powerful.
-View outside is excellent and large windshield lends to an open and airy atmosphere inside the car.
-All the MFD interaction that was complained about could have been accomplished with controls on the steering wheel.

I, too, rented a Prius from my local Toyota TRAC dealer this weekend. 2005 Pkg. 6 with 1700 miles. Price: $40.00/day. I kept it three days, drove it on my routine work route for two days and then a typical Sunday routine for the third day. Lets get right to particulars....

My two day work route is a 100 mile round trip each day. 10% surface roads, 90% interstate around Atlanta, GA. The last day was just the inverse...mostly surface roads.

297 miles driven...54.9 MPG average over my three days.

Interstate cruise speed was maintained at 65-70 mph in 89deg F climate.
Needless to say, I am throughly impressed with this car. I had read a PDF of the owners manual and NAV manual prior to renting and every post on this site about driving technique. I employed throttle feathering, gliding, stealth driving in parking losts and neighborhoods and even neutral coasting on the long stretches of downward inclined interstate.

I was throughly impressed with everything about the car. I will be buying a new Toyota Prius after my current car sales.

[Potential Buyer]

I won't call that Prius review ridiculous...but it is mis-informed.
-First, I would not consider 80-90 mph driving routine.

80mph is routine for me, and I'm regularly passed or tailgated when driving at that speed. But in many places, including the eastern U.S., 70mph is more normal.

-Interior lighting is quite good and vanity mirrors do have lighting that comes on when you slide the mirror cover open.

There's much less interior lighting than on other cars, and apparently my mirrors were broken, since sliding them open didn't turn on any light.

-Brakes are fine, you just have to get used to them, plenty linear and plenty powerful.

My problem is that they are too powerful. Brakes of other cars, including the Honda hybrids, do not take getting used to since they're gentle when you want them to be.

-View outside is excellent and large windshield lends to an open and airy atmosphere inside the car.

Well that's a matter of opinion; I'd hardly call myself "misinformed" by saying it's not good. The view was definitely worse than in many cars. It's not unacceptable, but it was a downside in my opinion. But this is relative to whatever car you're used to driving, of course. My Jetta has a good view in front, and the Civic's view was good as well.

-All the MFD interaction that was complained about could have been accomplished with controls on the steering wheel.

Yeah, apparently. Alot of people posted that as well.

[Tideland Prius]

Actually, there's also a switch. So you have to have the switch on AND have the mirror cover open.

[NuShrike]

There's much less interior lighting than on other cars, and apparently my mirrors were broken, since sliding them open didn't turn on any light.

What other cars? It has MORE interior lighting than my Honda Civic '96. Count in the Prius: dome light above driver/passenger (1), map light for driver (2), map light for passenger (3), vanity light for driver (4), vanity light for passenter (5), another dome light for rear passengers (6). That's 5 more than my Civic.

My problem is that they are too powerful. Brakes of other cars, including the Honda hybrids, do not take getting used to since they're gentle when you want them to be.

They only feel more powerful because they're usually don't work in slipping surface contact mode, and they're self-adjusting. In normal cars you need pedal travel first to get the brake shoes to the rotor, then you still need more pedal pressure before the slipping surface starts to grip. That's a lot of pedal travel whereas in Prius, mag brakes start the moment you start pressing down, no slack travel.

It's like complaining the clutch in a car is too sensitive after the heavy-deep leg-muscle-building clutching in an old truck.

Mag-braking is also more consistent because you don't have to worry about brake fade, water/oil/rust/weather on the rotors/shoes, delining shoes, rotor warping w/ 'bumpy' braking. I'm not afraid of wet weather making my braking more slippery and dangerous anymore.

The steering wheel buttons aren't very dim to my eyes probably because I have younger eyes than some, or I usually work in dim lighting anyways. Reading in the dark has been good for me.