How I learned to love the Prius

The Globe and Mail: How I learned to love the Prius

As I headed off to pick up the Toyota hybrid for an extended test, I felt like a Punjabi groom being pushed into an arranged marriage with an unattractive woman. I'd just finished driving three Mercedes and a Porsche – the idea of a two-week trip in a Prius was a serious comedown.

But the Prius had its own allure. In a high-performance car, this road was like a flight in an F16. Now we were in an Airbus, gliding along together. We talked, and we listened to the radio. The lights of Chattanooga glittered far below us, like diamonds spilled out onto a square of black velvet. I could see that Matt was watching the Prius's economy gauge. Going down the mountain was like pulling into a free gas station – the regenerative brakes were pouring a flood of electrons into the battery. I wondered how much we'd saved: the price of half an enchilada, maybe? Whatever it was, I liked the idea.

A week later, I was back in Toronto with a new test car, a luxurious German sedan that cost nearly $100,000. Like the Prius, it had an instant-read consumption gauge. I choked when I saw the numbers. In the Prius, I had typically hovered around 5.5 L/100 km. But in the German luxury sled, I was looking at 30 much of the time. This struck me as insane. And it is.

 

Yes, this car represents the sentinel event in a whole new approach to mainstream driving, and that was clear right from the start with my 2001 Prius. A lot of my friends had performance cars, but it was the Prius that always generated the most conversation, despite its unusual look and lack of power.

However, I must admit that although the main reason I got rid of the 2001 was because it didn't have fold down seats or a lot of storage, one of the other lesser reasons was because it felt quite sluggish. In contrast, the 2004 I own seems Good Enough™ for my personal preferences as a family car.

Friends who have driven my car have said the same thing. They find the 2004 responsive enough on North American roads, even if it's not sporty, but the coolness factor and the different approach to driving outweighs all.

My friends aren't 20-something Civic street racers though of course.

Heh. I think I beat you by a few seconds or something, as your thread showed up as the latest in the forum list. The funny thing is I saw the article hours earlier (as it's from my local newspaper), but only got the chance to post the link later... at precisely the same time as you. Cue the Twilight Zone music...