I picked up my Prius at the dealer today, and drove it 107 miles with an average MPG of 46.0, including driving over a 2500 foot mountain and back on I-64. I really liked the vehicle's performance. The displays teach you how to drive it for best MPG pretty quickly. The car got about 25 MPG going up the mountain at 65 MPH. For highway driving, I think the cruise control probably gets better MPG than I could, and with no effort on my part.
I really appreciate the lack of a multi-gear-ratio transmission. Power transfer from primarily electric to primarily gas and from discharging to charging is undetectable without watching the display. The computer does a great job of matching up the electric vs gas engine power curves for smooth acceleration and deceleration.
I didn't do any hard driving, so as to push the tire grip limits or activate the ABS or traction control systems. That said, I did have fun driving the vehicle tonight. I'll try some more challenging roads sometime later.
The steering is quite responsive, and well designed. It takes a bit of getting used to, not to wander back and forth on the highway, if you are coming from a larger car with more play in the steering.
The car certainly does have a blind spot to the left rear. I was coming off a ramp, after dark, onto the highway, and the car which was to my left rear, which I'm sure had its headlights on the whole time, just jumped out of nowhere. It was as though it snuck up with its headlights off, and then suddenly turned them on just as it came up to my left rear. You do have to watch your mirrors and stay alert.
I enjoyed the A/C system's ability to maintain a set temperature. Coming from a car with manual controls, and having to adjust the A/C-heat balance fairly often, this is great.
I haven't used the radio a lot, but I enjoyed the performance of the CD player. It is not in the same ballpark as my home stereo, but it was not in any way disappointing. I was not playing any heavy duty rock tonight, so I don't know how it performs when pushed hard. It did fine with the vocals, jazz, and small classical stuff I played tonight. I found it worthwile to adjust the front/rear and left/right balance with a familiar recording to get a good soundstage from the drivers position. It did, however, sound quite good before I made this adjustment.
Don't read the owner's manual if you are tired. It isn't a manual so much as a large novel. This car has more modes just to unlock and lock the doors and to signal you to every possible situation pertaining thereto than any car you have ever seen. It would have been far better to select these modes from the color display in the car than to push combinations of door buttons and key fob switches to change between opening modes, listening for beep codes from the car to figure out what you just did.
All in all, it is a beautiful vehicle, and it impressed me with its comforts, its handling, and its seeming stability, given its size and weight. I'd recommend it to any average driver for average driving without reservation, as long as I thought they could handle the idea of a computer controlled car with no classic transmission.
Paul