Topic: Long-Term Test Intro: Toyota Prius C

[Autos_Editor]

We kick off our long-term test of the Prius C, the newest and smallest member of Toyota's hybrid family.

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[tpl]

If the 1.0 litre Fiesta arrives it will be fascinating to see this car against it in a comparo.

[sailor723]

"Whether you believe the internal combustion engine is here to stay indefinitely, or that pure electric and fuel cell vehicles (which run on electricity generated by a reaction between pure hydrogen fuel and oxygen) are the next step, the future of driving is definitely electric, in one way or another"

Is it just me or does this sentence make no sense?  If you believe the internal combustion is here to stay indefinitely how can the future of driving be electric? 

[OliverD]

Is it just me or does this sentence make no sense?  If you believe the internal combustion is here to stay indefinitely how can the future of driving be electric? 

He's saying even if you think the internal combustion engine will power cars indefinitely, at the very least it will be in hybrid form.

[chrischasescars]

Is it just me or does this sentence make no sense?  If you believe the internal combustion is here to stay indefinitely how can the future of driving be electric? 

He's saying even if you think the internal combustion engine will power cars indefinitely, at the very least it will be in hybrid form.

Oliver's got it. I could've been a little more clear, but that's the point.

[JRM]

Not a bad vehicle, but Toyota 's interiors have become what's got to be the worst and cheapest looking in the business.  This dash looks even worse than the Honda Civic, which I didn't think was possible.  Wake up Toyota and inject a little quality into your cars again or you'll be losing more buyers than me. 

[dragonfly]

 Gawd...it may be fuel efficient, but it's gawd awful ugly (as only Toyota can make 'em)...And really...how much better on gas is it than it's larger, and infinitely more utile (and slightly better looking) cousins? This looks suspiciously like the smallest Toyota offering..   
   Thanks for a nice article  Jack

[Thimble]

The Prius c's coefficient of drag is 0.28. compared to 0.25 for the regular Prius, which explains why its EPA highway fuel economy estimate is lower -- 46 MPG vs. 48 MPG for the bigger Prius.

But the in-town figure is higher -- 53 MPG for the c versus 51 for the Prius liftback.

cars.about.com/od/toyota/fr/2012-Toyota-Prius-C-Review.htm

So, the bigger Prius is more efficient if you drive more on the highway...

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Looks pretty good for the discount version.

[mik101]

The Prius c's coefficient of drag is 0.28. compared to 0.25 for the regular Prius, which explains why its EPA highway fuel economy estimate is lower -- 46 MPG vs. 48 MPG for the bigger Prius.

But the in-town figure is higher -- 53 MPG for the c versus 51 for the Prius liftback.

cars.about.com/od/toyota/fr/2012-Toyota-Prius-C-Review.htm

So, the bigger Prius is more efficient if you drive more on the highway...

Without looking at the numbers I'd suspect this is a combo of aerodynamics, a larger gasoline engine in the full size car that may be less strained at higher speeds or allow the car to be geared differently. (Think: do both engines rev at the same rpm at the same speed on the highway?). I know they don't use a conventional transmission but you see what I'm getting at.

I haven't paid much attention to hybrids up until now as they haven't really been what I want in a car, but this is finally something that would make a terrific fuel sipper for the girlfriend.

[Northernridge]

I'm actually impressed with the C. Smaller and at only $20,000 this seems like a great choice for city folks would like to get into a hybrid on a budget. Doesn't even look half bad...for a Prius. I do think Toyota should have been a little more youthful in designing the C, maybe more interesting colours and fabrics, that kind of thing...Scion-like.

[JohnM]

I just got back from Europe and something has changed.   Normally, I suffer the pangs of desire for the many slick small cars and hot hatches they have over there that we don't have here.

But although they still have many desirable and unobtainable models (and numerous 3 cyl diesel drivetrains), we in Canada now have in excess of 6 very good small cars available.

The Prius C is one of them.  I had one out several months ago and was very impressed.  There are more world cars coming into our market in the next year.  Probably in 3 years, although many brands of cars may be missing from the Canadian market, most of the available brands will make their best small cars available here.

The C is sold out for a few months from what I understand and if the specs don't illustrate to you why that is, one drive will.  It's great to see the choice of high quality small cars approaching world class levels in Canada and the C is a good example of what we can expect to become a big trend in the near future.

I'll be very interested to follow the author's progress with it.

Cheers,
John M.

[philmcneal]

i heard the 16 inch wheels affect the turning radius which kills the cityness of this car....

you would expect more economy from this car since it weighs 500 lbs less than the 04--09 prius that has the same 1.5 liter engine, but smaller battery pack.

[JohnM]

Pity about the garbage "leather" seats.  I found the cloth seats to be fine. 

On the subject of being a pricey small car, it seems every manufacturer is offering very high levels of gear on their smallest car so it is possible to pay close to $30k for an all-in Fiesta, Focus, Sonic etc. etc.

$21k for the C equipped as it is in "base" form is a pretty good deal.  Maybe even better since you don't pay more for worse in the case of the leatherette seats.

Cheers,
John M.

[nlm]

The nice thing about the option packages is that they don't really offer anything that is a must have like a/c or p/w/d so that the base model would still be comfortable.

If I was going to buy this vehicle I might think about shelling $2k for the standard package for the nav and keyless entry (actually the more I think about it the more I probably wouldn't buy this package), but no way would I pay the $4k+ for the premium package.