NY Times "Circuits" column 1/1/04

Today's "Circuits" column in the NY Times by David Pogue is entitled "A Techno-Geek's New Car". An extremely positive review.

Here's the link:

http://www.davidpogue.com/

 

OK, here it is:

FROM THE DESK OF DAVID POGUE
A Techno-Geek's New Car

Published: April 1, 2004


March 9 was my 41st birthday. It was also doomsday for our nine-year-old Honda Civic, whose last gasp included, among other problems, a transmission that requires a $3500 replacement. What better opportunity, then, to treat myself, like millions before me, to a Midlife Crisis Mobile?

There are two reasons the car I chose isn't a hot red sports car. First, I'm not actually having a midlife crisis.
Second, I'm a techno-geek. The car I lusted for was not a convertible, a 10-mile-a-gallon monstrosity, or a turbocharged anything.
I wanted a Toyota Prius.
It's pronounced "PREE-us," after the Latin "to go before" (according to a Dead Languages instructor over at the Toyota press department). This, if you hadn't heard, is the most efficient and least polluting car sold in America. The E.P.A. rates it at 55 miles per gallon (highway + city), and it produces one-tenth the exhaust of normal cars.
The Prius is a hybrid: it contains both a gas engine and an electric motor. When you're stopped, the gas engine shuts off completely, which makes the car eerily quiet and futuristic. At low speeds, the battery powers the car. At higher speeds, the gas engine kicks in; acceleration is 0 to 60 in ten seconds, just like a Camry.
The best part is that when you brake or coast, the car recaptures power from the wheels, recharging the battery. (And no, you don't plug this car into a power outlet. It takes ordinary unleaded gas.)
A dashboard screen tracks your mileage. When you brake or coast, it says, "99.9 MPG"-as close as it can come to saying, "infinite mileage."
The first Prius debuted in 1997. It was a neat technology demo, but not an especially impressive car. The bigger, more powerful, more efficient 2004 model, though, is a darling of the critics and recipient of several awards. You'll probably have to wait months to get one-for some reason, Toyota has made only 47,000 of them to sell in the U.S.-and you'll probably have to pay full sticker price ($20,000 for the base model) or even more.
On the other hand, you get a $1,500 tax break for buying a hybrid, and you save about $375 a year in gas.
To make the Prius even more attractive to techies like me, this baby comes with keyless entry and ignition. On your keychain, you carry only a transmitter that looks like a standard remote. To unlock the car, you just have to have it somewhere on you, in your pocket or purse. As you reach out for the door handle-before you even touch it-the car unlocks itself.
Once you're inside, the remote remains in your pocket. Instead of inserting a key, you just push a Power button on the dashboard. The car turns on like a light, and just as silently. Once again, the car senses that key fob in your pocket.
You can lock the car after exiting just by touching a button on the door handle-only the person with the key fob can do that. But if it's just a little too much magic for you to handle, there are also standard Lock/Unlock buttons on the remote, and even an ordinary metal key in a compartment inside the remote, just in case the battery dies halfway along your drive through Death Valley.
More goodies: The air conditioning system gets all its power from the battery, so you don't use any more gas, or lose any power, when it's running. The optional voice-recognition system lets you say, for example, "68 degrees" to turn on the heat; "FM" to turn on the radio; "Disc up" to switch to the next CD in the six-disc changer; "fast food" to have the optional navigation system start directing you to the nearest such restaurant; or "home" to have it start guiding you home. And the hatchback area offers enormous amounts of storage. (My only gripe: The hatchback window's crossbar doesn't do much for rear visibility.)
This is by far the most satisfying car I've ever driven; the hybrid gas-electric engine is a grand slam. It's all upside, no downside. That is, it behaves exactly like a gas engine, but you get smoother, quieter driving; two to five times the gas mileage; and a big fat tax break. No wonder Toyota is licensing its technology to other carmakers, and installing it in more of its own car models for next year.

 

Here's his follow-up column from today's edition:

More on the Toyota Prius

I was pleasantly surprised by the feedback from last week's e-column about the delightful, high-tech Toyota Prius and its hybrid electric/gas engine, which the EPA rates at 55 miles per gallon. I expected, "Hey, get back to writing about palmtops" — but received instead some of the most thoughtful questions and commentary ever.

For some reason, this seemed to be the week for hybrids in the news. Just this week, Ford unveiled the first hybrid-engine S.U.V., the Escape; as a publicity stunt, Ford filled it with a tank of gas and drove through Manhattan until it was empty, just to see what kind of m.p.g. it could get. (It's rated at around 35 m.p.g. in the city.)

Yesterday's Times also included a supplement about the New York Auto Show, where a phalanx of new hybrid-drive cars and trucks were on display, most of which are scheduled to debut by this winter or next. They include the Chevy Silverado, Honda Accord (2005 model year), Mercedes Vision GST (2006), Subaru B9 SC, Toyota Highlander/Lexus RX 400h, Toyota Tundra pickup (2006) and even a GM city bus, which will save 750,000 gallons of fuel a year in Seattle alone.

In honor of all of this interest, I thought I'd take a moment to answer a few of the most popular questions.

Q. I read that none of these hybrids — Prius, Honda Civic Hybrid, Honda Insight and so on — don't get anywhere near the advertised mileage.

A. It's true: even my beloved 2004 Toyota Prius doesn't average 55 m.p.g. as the EPA says it does. The car's own computer puts my average at 44 m.p.g.

I had assumed that I wasn't getting the rated mileage (in the three weeks I've owned the Prius) for two reasons. First, I don't do a lot of stop-and-go city driving. That's where a hybrid gets its best mileage — yes, in the city — because the car reclaims power lost during braking and deceleration. Second, hybrid drives don't do as well in cold weather.

But according to a USA Today article, two additional factors are in play: First, the EPA's city driving test involves slow driving (under 20 m.p.g.) and lots of waiting at lights, both of which inflate a hybrid's score. Second, the Prius displays its current mileage at all times, making owners more aware of their gas consumption. In other words, conventional cars may not attain their EPA ratings, either, but many owners are unaware of it.

A little online research shows that in the real world, most Prius owners get mileage "only" in the mid-40's in winter driving. Still pretty darned good in my book.

Q. How can you say that the Prius's air conditioning uses no power? Don't you have the faintest clue about the conservation of energy?

A. What I wrote was that the car's AC gets its power straight from the battery, "so you don't lose any power when it's running." A number of readers took this to mean that it no energy.

Instead, what I meant was that the car doesn't suddenly slow down — that is, you don't lose engine power — when you turn on the AC, as on gas cars.

Q. Why did you predict widespread adoption of hybrid engines, when Toyota is losing money on every Prius it sells?

A. Actually, I called up Toyota on this point. The original Prius was indeed an expensive experiment, a money-losing demo. But the company says that its 2004 Prius ($20,000 for the base model) is actually a profitable venture.

This, to me, is the most exciting part of hybrid drives: 90 percent fewer emissions, two to four times the mileage, at a price that can meet or beat gas-engine prices (or will soon).

Q. How does one get a Prius if one is not a newspaper columnist?

A. As I noted last week, there's a waiting list for 2004 Priuses at most dealerships. Getting mine had nothing to do with clout, and everything to do with luck and persistence. I'd been calling regional dealers for weeks. On one repeat call, a Connecticut dealer told me that it had just received an unallocated Prius from Toyota headquarters — a bonus car to sell as a reward for having the biggest volume sales in the region. I snapped it up. I had no choice of color or features, and I even had to pay more than sticker price, but I'm very glad I did. (Besides, the $1,500 Federal tax break for hybrid owners will ease that pain.)

Q. What about the original Prius? What about Honda's Civic Hybrid and Insight hybrid?

A. I haven't driven or reviewed them. But with gas prices hitting $3 a gallon, environmental concerns intensifying and diminishing oil reserves, I'm a big fan of all hybrid vehicles. Someday, fuel-cell technology may be the long-term solution. But hybrids are on the road right now, and they're a welcome sight.

David Pogue