AWESOME!!

an article fit for framing!!

one point i did question... they say that the HCH will sell 25,000 for 2006 while Toyota's goal for the Prius was 100,000...

GOAL!!?? that is not a goal, its a limitation...

Agreed Dave. Very glowing article on the Prius from a place such as Edmunds and the 100,000 is definitely a limitation, not a goal. Just on sheer numbers, 100K vs 25K, pretty clear which is more popular. BTW, isn't Toyota trying for 150K for the 06 model year or I am just imaging things?

It was interesting how they insinuated that people were tired of hearing the Prius hype and wanted the HCH to win.

I thought they treated both pretty fairly though, and didn't try to dissuade someone from buying either one.

unfortunately Toyota is hampered by limited supplies of key hybrid parts. they are increasing production of hybrids but the liosn share of that increase will be for the mid year intro of the Camry hybrid...expected Prius production will not increase. a big mistake i think...

A little wordy and redundant, but fair. Their HCH city MPG must have been really poor, if their hwy. MPG was better than the Prius.

These gee-whiz-sounding guys probably would have been impressed with the rear camera, too.

Very cool! Is there any way that the video of the comparison of the two cars can be downloaded??? I couldn't find a way to do it - maybe someone else is tech savy enough to get it. If so, please let me know in this forum, or PM me or E-Mail me at prius2006rocks@yahoo.com THANKS!

This comment about Prius is what I found most amusing...

Worst Feature: Lack of physical buttons to control radio presets and CD changer.

The driver must not have had a left thumb, because I do and I use that physical button it touches to jump from radio preset to preset and to change CDs.

Makes you wonder what else they missed.

And of course, I wonder how long it will take them to discover that the 2006 model of Prius provides improved handling. But then again, you don't have to do what Toyota did to achieve that. Simply using bettter tires is an upgrade many of the 2004 & 2005 owners have already done.

Anywho, Prius kicks gas! But by next summer, it won't matter. Camry-Hybrid will over Civic-Hybrid by such an extreme that talk of Prius won't even be necessary. How the heck will Honda compete with that? HSD rocks!!!

ummm auntbee... i feel like you want to say something??

Good article overall. Fair to both vehicles in my opinion.

I find this quote funny : " And we're not talking about lame options like a tape deck"

I think I got a tape deck with my BC '05 for some reason... couldn't figure out why. lol.

So there is improved handling for the US 06' Prius? (On a seperate note - like a asked before, does anyone know how to download the comparison video that was on the site?) Thanks everyone!!

John, I submitted a comment to them to fix the error. Although it sometimes feels like feedback will be lost in the black hole that is customer support, they might just fix it. I (and probably others who noticed) got CNN to fix an error on a Prius article last year =).

Quite awhile back I read that Toyota was planning a minor tweak to that effect... but I can't for the life of me find the source. I'm really curious what they actually did now that the 2006 is available.

It was very clear they wanted the Honda to win this competition. As such, the Prius must have been MUCH better. It had to surmount their bias towards the Honda to break even and, add more to win.

I wonder how the handling tests would have gone had the Prius had a stiffening plate installed.

Still, in all, a pretty fair article.

jrohland

i also wish they'd had a stiffening plate available for testing - i'd love true testing done on it. I'll likely buy one anyway, because me *thinking* i've got more control is most important for my nerves, but i'd like good impartial actual data =)

Um, maybe I'm misunderstanding this, but that "feature" would assume that your consumption rate and MPG is a constant. That would kind of negate the whole efficiency and technology thing. Maybe they should rethink that statement?

I think they would do a sliding window average or something to that effect to compute the estimated fuel economy for the rest of the tank. For example, use the fuel economy that you have actually acheived over the last 100 miles to extrapolate -- I think that would be a nifty feature. They could even compute the variance of your fuel economy and do a 95% confidence interval. For example, it could tell you, "With 95% probability, your current tank will last between 80 and 100 more miles." The possibilities are endless!