Toyota Prius Mini Review

I don't care what you believe, I am only reporting the figures produced by the trip in the car I did 130 miles every day in for the last four years.

I am 6'3" and with the seat all the way back there is not enough leg room in the front let alone in the back, if your uncle is 6'10" then he must be very flexable or you are talking out of your hole.

We call it a boot, and no it's not.

I will bow to your superior knowledge of a car that I have been using for the last week compared to your memories of a older version you once drove years ago in forrin climbs.

That's fine then...

The father-in-law. Perhaps he's just an odd shape, although, I didn't notice. Or the US specification machines are different...

...but not to my experience.

Trunk, boot, whatever. And we did. On many times, since that's what was usually at the airport to collect us.

It's a bit more than that, given that I've used three UK Prius cars (one older generation, two with the HSD technology) plus a few thousand (!) on the Californian Prius.

But I don't want to argue about that more that I dispute the concept that machine XYZ is dangerous because of tyres / suspension / whatever on the motorway. It isn't, it won't be. It's about adapting.

Only commute?

Yes as they are general purpose cars. The Prius I drove was hopeless out of town. And at the thick end of 20,000 far too expensive for town use only - as well as too big.

So you are saying a vehicle with soft suspension, skinny little tyres and poor brakes is just as safe on a motorway as one with firm suspension, speed rated tyres and good brakes ?

I suppose your argument would be that you should adapt to driving the shopping trolly at 50mph on the motorway and pray you don't get rear ended by a left hand drive lorry.

Hmm. I've no plans to take this one onto the track, if that's what you mean. My commute is in somewhere around 14,000 a year. Business use, well, at the moment it'll be 3,000 this year. The other 9,000 are for joyriding I suppose... :)

Hmm. I'd disagree, but then I've also driven a bunch of other Toyotas / Hondas / similar vehicles. Most of the time it's comparable.

The above written, the last generation Corolla was superb to drive.

Yes, absolutely too expensive. You could buy a diesel Passat for that sort of money. :o)

Both are just as safe, or otherwise, as the driver. Yes. It's entirely possible to stuff something with the biggest wheels and tyres you can find. It's entirely possible to stuff something with skinny 135s.

Me and countless thousand others have put many many motorway miles on something with soft suspension, 145 width tyres (hmm, my Fiesta come to think of it had 135/80s). As to poor brakes, I don't know of a car that cannot trigger the ABS or lock a wheel from 70. Poor brakes? Poor driving, you don't need to repeatedly brake hard on the motorway unless you're doing something daft.

Resistance to a cross wind is useful, resistance to tram lining, resistance to aquaplaning - all useful stuff. Stiffening up the suspension and slotting 215/40s on doesn't help by itself.

No. On a streaming wet motorway, everything else being equal, I'd rather be in something with skinny tyres and soft suspension than something with firm suspension and wide width tyres.

In a heavy crosswind, the Prius is a bit of a handful - skinny tyres and a lack of stabilising turbulence I should think. It still isn't dangerous. If I'm aware of it, I can compensate or expect it.

I could never get much over about 42mpg out of mine. Mostly around 40 if I'm honest.

Same car, B5.5 1.9TDI 4motion.

Workmate gets 45 with his Golf 100bhp TDI. That's driving it normally and not getting obsessive about it.

That must be a Marshall one then. I always reckoned a valve ECU would give a diesel a warmer sound.

Oops sorry - wrong group.

Heh - I've also got special extra expensive high performance platinum tipped fuel pipes that only flow properly in 1 direction.

Yes, the same with our all wheel drive Passat.

My commute is 65 miles each way, of that only 5 miles are not either dual carriageway or motorway (very rarely used it at the weekend), the No2 trip returned a average speed of 62-MPH and a MPG of 49 this was over several hundred hours, I can't remember exactly how many.

Not answering the question are you, this is all about having the correct tool for the job, the Prius is not a suitable motorway or cross country machine, not by any stretch of the imagination.

You clearly don't spend much time on M25 and the panic braking that takes place.

So the ABS kicks in or a wheel locks at 70 that makes the brakes good does it ?

Then you are a fool, I for one would like to be in a big heavy vehicle with a nice wide contact footprint to the road.

Absolutely no reason why it isn't for both. End of.

If one drives beyond the abilities of the car, it is the drivers' fault

Panic braking on a motorway is a sign of driver stupidity. Tailgate, do you?

Did you read the rest of it? Repeated braking.

May make it worse, may make no difference.

You clearly don't understand pressure, how a tyre works, or have not driven enough in adverse conditions. Considering your credentials, I'm surprised.

So you have never had to do a emergency stop ?

Trust me, it makes it worse.

I understand it all too well, you clearly missed the word heavy.

What bearing dose tyre width have on it's speed rating?

Yes there is nothing more they can do is there, you have moved outside the circle of friction of the tyre, there are only two things you can do to improve that circle: 1 increase the coefficient of friction between the tyre and the road.

A wide tyre isn't intrinsically capable of producing more grip but it is intrinsically more inclined to aquaplane.

True, but how often do motorways have standing water ?

Once is enough, but as it happens, quite often.

No it's not. It's a near 20 grand car - and I can't think of a worse motorway car at half the price.