The car of the future?? (Toyota Prius)

Member Name: PBlunts

Product:	Toyota Prius
Date:	02/02/09 (134 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Relatively good MPG, low emmisions, exempt from congestion charge!

Disadvantages: Battery needs manufacturing and replacing which is enviromentally costly!

The Toyota Prius has in recent years become somewhat of a must have for many celebrities and politicians due to its apparently "green" credentials. The car also benefits from low tax and is exempt from the congestion charge.

With a newer and apparently more efficient version due to be released in the summer, I thought I would look into how "green" this car is.

As a petrol head I often worry about the future of our motor vehicles, with oil prices rising and also the oil itself running low I wonder how much long we will be able to enjoy our great machines! So in my opinion cars which are purposely built to both save petrol or to use another source of energy are fantastic as this means we can enjoy cars for longer.

The Prius is a car which was built by Toyota to save the world's environment and save the customer money by making a more efficient vehicle with lower emmisions. The vehicle is a hybrid car which uses both a battery powered electric engine and petrol engine to move itself. The car uses the battery powered engine when the car is travelling below 28mph and then the petrol engine when it is over that speed.

Although the car has been designed relatively well and when using it around town is more efficient than most other vehicles, I feel the car does not deliver as much as some politicians and celebrities would have us believe.

Unfortunately, the biggest flaw in this car is the thing which makes it stand out, its battery. This unfortunately weighs the car down which means when you are travelling at 70mph on the motorway it is adding to your MPG, not efficient at all!! The battery will also need to be replaced in a few years which means making a new battery and also having to get rid of the old one which both have environmental costs. The car also only returns approximately 50-60 MPG which can be achieved by a diesel Mini, so it's not as efficient as the media portray!

But the cars worst flaw is its looks! Why didn't Toyota just put a battery in a Corolla??

I commend Toyotas efforts with this car but unfortunately it has not worked. I hope the new version is better but in my opinion as long as they continue to use a battery combined with a petrol engine I do not think they will create the car which we will all be using in the future!

Summary: New ideas needed!

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