Topic: 2010 Prius?

[Ex-airbalancer]

Top Gear is to cars what The Colbert Report and The Daily Show are to politics.  Not serious journalism.  Entertainment with a light dash of journalism.

That BS, those 2 shows are better then Fox news

[Mitlov]

Top Gear is to cars what The Colbert Report and The Daily Show are to politics.  Not serious journalism.  Entertainment with a light dash of journalism.

That BS, those 2 shows are better then Fox news

Are those two shows awesome?  Yes.  Are they news reporting?  You watch these segments and tell me if this is a news show:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy0TOej9tWs
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbmsr9ZoW70

That's not a news segment.  That's news-related entertainment.

[Ex-airbalancer]

That was good
Come on, that way more information then you get on Fox news

[Leviathan]

Daily Show + Colbert Report = best hour on TV.  I wonder if McCain has found Mr Puddles yet.... 

[Ex-airbalancer]

Top Gear is to cars what The Colbert Report and The Daily Show are to politics.  Not serious journalism.  Entertainment with a light dash of journalism.

That BS, those 2 shows are better then Fox news

Are those two shows awesome?  Yes.  Are they news reporting?  You watch these segments and tell me if this is a news show:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy0TOej9tWs
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbmsr9ZoW70

That's not a news segment.  That's news-related entertainment.

Will, I did not Iceland pull out Iraq until I saw this,
and I always have the National on every night ( I maybe sleeping though it  )

[EV Dan]

Its confirmed!

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/10/the-new-prius-l.html

p.s. "In either case, the car will most likely still use Toyota's tried-and-true nickel metal hydride batteries." That licks 

[DriverJeff]

ah, but see, Rrocket, for people like me (and I suspect, like TurboBob), the Prius would need to be driven like the Top Gear team did around the track to derive any sort of enjoyment out of it whatsoever.  I could drive an M3 at a fraction of its capabilities and still have a huge smile on my face.   

Again, the comparison is an exaggeration for sure, but the ignorant masses buying Hybrids and thinking they're saving the planet, finger-wagging at the rest of us all the way really irritate me.  Puh-leeeease.   Buy a Jetta TDI, get a more enjoyable car that can achieve 1100km on a tank cruising at elevated hwy speeds.

[Serniter]

Toyota is testing a plug-in hybrid:

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/09/10/toyota-launches-plug-in-prius-hybrid-in-uk/

About Li-ion, I can't claim to know why they aren't using them... though I expect a good reason. Cost may be one.

I'm sick of all these comparisons to cars that don't cater to the Prius' niche. If you want economy within the city, which other cars compare in terms of passenger space, comfort, economy, safety and reliability?

If all you do is cruise at highway speeds, why consider a Prius?!! I spent half an hour today in stoplight to stoplight traffic. All I could see around me was a sea of idling engines. What good is an M3 or a diesel Jetta there?

[Mitlov]

Toyota is testing a plug-in hybrid:

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/09/10/toyota-launches-plug-in-prius-hybrid-in-uk/

About Li-ion, I can't claim to know why they aren't using them... though I expect a good reason. Cost may be one.

I'm sick of all these comparisons to cars that don't cater to the Prius' niche. If you want economy within the city, which other cars compare in terms of passenger space, comfort, economy, safety and reliability?

If all you do is cruise at highway speeds, why consider a Prius?!! I spent half an hour today in stoplight to stoplight traffic. All I could see around me was a sea of idling engines. What good is an M3 or a diesel Jetta there?

The M3 thing is a joke.  Nobody actually thinks an M3 is easier on gas than a Prius.  Did I mention that was TOP GEAR, not the New York Times?

And yes, nothing is better in the environment you describe, with the desires you list, than the Prius.  But who would buy a Prius for the highway, you ask?  Plenty of people.  That's why I see snotty people driving them around here, where stop-and-go traffic is a once-a-month thing.  A lot of people think a Prius is better than anything else out there IN ANY ENVIRONMENT, and that's just plain wrong.  Toyota's partly to blame, thanks to the Kammback design which screams "I was engineered for efficient highway cruising," when in fact, it really wasn't.  In the Prius's real niche (stop-and-go traffic), a normal wagon design would have been more useful and no less fuel efficient.

[Serniter]

Well, driving a Prius on the highway and claiming to be green is ignorant. I agree. When you say a normal wagon design, do you mean something like a Matrix? I can't think of other Corolla-sized wagons, but would they be as efficient as a hybrid? There was a total cost comparison (on Edmunds I think) between a Fit and a Prius where the Fit won. It seems to me though, that the Fit is smaller. Also, the Prius has a hatch which makes it somewhat more useful than a sedan.

The Edmunds link:
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/Comparos/articleId=130069


Prius/Fit
Length - 175/157.4 inches
Width - 67.9/66.2 inches
Height - 58.7/60.0 inches
Weight - 2936/2517 pounds

Economy - 42/28 mpg

[safristi]

the FIT doesn't have a hatch.....count yer chickens buddy boy........   wot they advertise.."If ya have a Priapus fer more than 4 hours...................."!!!!? consult yer schcwing DR.................

[Mitlov]

Well, driving a Prius on the highway and claiming to be green is ignorant. I agree. When you say a normal wagon design, do you mean something like a Matrix? I can't think of other Corolla-sized wagons, but would they be as efficient as a hybrid?

I'd call the Matrix a five-door hatch, not a wagon.  What I meant is making the cargo area of the Prius look like this:

(Hyundai Elantra Touring)


Or better yet, a slightly-miniaturized version of this:

(Previous-generation Volvo V70, with the most usefully-shaped cargo area ever made)


That would significantly increase cargo area, and probably increase rear-seat headroom, without costing an ounce of fuel economy in the city, the environment where it really belongs. 

[Cortina]

Looks like the Pruis has a centre stack. I hate that.

[vdk]

that new Hyundai sure looks good..