[sploop!]

Which one has the best fuel consumption? No contest? Watch this: Vid

This kind of confirms what we already know. The Prius is shite. If I absolutely thrash my old Micra, I still get 40 mpg. If I drive it gently, it easily matches the Prius for fuel economy. Don't buy one - they're a waste of time.

And drive carefully...

[Maxim Litvinov]

It confirms absolutely nothing. Not only that, but it's dangerously biased for a show that claims to give the consumer good information on what cars are worth buying.

The Prius is a hybrid which is powered by the electric part at low speed and the fuel part at high speed. By racing it around a track as a test that is deliberately making sure that you are only using the fuel part of the engine, not only that but the Prius uses some of its power to recharge its electric battery - hence possibly accounting for the different fuel consumption.

If the comparison was a more reasonable one - eg. a 30 minute commute with stops at 10 traffic lights - then the Prius would be emerging with the better fuel economy and also running quieter.

[sploop!]

It's an entertainment show. It has absolutely no intention of providing consumer information. It is biased, because it is funnier that way. At least they are open about their bias.

The point of the piece is to show that the Prius is only as good as its driver. It isn't a magic bullet. If you use it out of town and drive quickly, the chances are very high that you will be causing as much pollution as anyone else, if not more. If you happen to be late for work and floor it, you will get a stupidly high fuel consumption - what was it? 19mpg?

The Prius is nothing more than greenwash. As I mentioned, I have a 10 year old car that has no major fuel economy technology included, and I can get better fuel consumption figures than the Prius in almost all conditions.

This is without considering the dust to dust costs to the environment, where the Prius does really poorly.

[Muck]

Not only that, but it's dangerously biased for a show that claims to give the consumer good information on what cars are worth buying.

I dont think Top Gear even tries to pretend that its an informative source for your average motorist. Its a piss take, and the only reason it still exists is because its a piss take. Top Gear, where they did test drives of the latest Ford Blamange, died in the 90s.

Anyway, yeah the Prius is a bit of a joke, but its a first generation joke. Give it time, and the battery/motor technology to develop, and it might become genuinely viable. Volvo will soon release their C30 hybrid. The difference is that, while it has a Flexifuel 1.6 engine, it never directly drives the car, as its only used to charge the battery. If two different companies can take such dramatically different approaches, Id say that there is still a very long way to go.

Oh, and I want a car that does 1.7 miles to the gallon.

Edit: I thought it was a diesel, but its not, its E85 ethanol.

[Maxim Litvinov]

I agree that Top Gear doesn't take itself *too* seriously, but in the end it is a show that reviews cars. Not only that, but the nature of its reviews is in many cases to purport to give hard data - the lap times of their fast cars or, in this case, the fuel consumption of cars. The nature of the test - ie. some sort of experimental method, race track, accurate measurements - indicates that they are claiming to provide some factual information to people, rather than just 'having a laugh'.

The point of the piece is to show that the Prius is only as good as its driver.

The point of the piece seems to be Jeremy Clarkson's latest effort to make fun of environmentalism, which seems to be his bugbear. If the piece was about testing driver ability and showing how important it is, you'd drive the same car at full speed with poor braking and more reasonably and compare the fuel consumption like-for-like.

There may be faults of the Prius, but this piece is just biased rubbish. It is even worse if there are all sorts of negatives about the Prius they could be talking about instead - things, incidentally, which they didn't point out in the even-less-incisive (if you can believe that) individual peice that JC did on the Prius... the one where one of his major reasons for badmouthing it was that it was silent at low speeds :/

[hannu]

Toyota are proven liars & cheats.

Why should anyone believe anything they say about their vehicles?

[Leo2]

I agree that Top Gear (my fave TV show) is just entertainment, and while it is a blast to see stuff like Astons, Ferraris and Bugatti Veyrons fanged around a track, Jeremy Clarkson cannot be taken too seriously (neither is he meant to be.)

But a more serious comparison between the Prius and a BMW 5 series was carried out by the Daily Mail. They organised an economy run between London and Geneva, and the participants were the small and light Toyota Prius, and the 1.6 tonne BMW 520dSE. The route was calculated to include similar amounts of city and motorway running and guess what - the 5 series BMW was 2 mpg more economical over 545 miles than the Prius.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/drivin ... 552994.ece

[Suska]

plug it in - plug it in

and now for off the shelf phev

top gear is retarded, clarkson is an ass, mpg has been adjusted since you bought your micra - i hope you measured it yourself to get your 40 mpg figure. calling the prius shite is just another way for people to be dicks to environmentalists, and its totally misplaced in this case unless you prefer war over oil to developing electric cars. do a little research before you upchuck your bile here. The only one's making any real effort to fix the problem the big 4 created and insisted on even when it was looking stupid as hell - the Japanese.

[Leo2]

Top gear is retarded, clarkson is an ass, ...

Top Gear is not retarded, it is entertainment and Clarkson is an entertainer. He is not seriously attacking the environment, he is just playing a part.

A number of people who run Toyota Priuses in the UK have questioned Toyota's claim of 65 mpg in overall use. It seems that the 48 mpg the Daily Mail obtained was much more representative of the average experienced by users.

A friend of my mum's has a Prius, and she reports mpg in the mid forties (cos she has a bit of a lead foot). She is also disappointed at how tinny (or plasticky) it is for a moderately expensive car (She part exchanged an A-class Mercedes for it.)

I accept that the Japanese make good cars in the sense that they are reliable, moderately economical and reasonably well made, but they do not make great cars. There are no Bugatti Veyrons, Ferrari 599s, Porsches, or even BMW M5s coming out of Japan.

Japanese styling ranges from derivative to downright fugly, and the kindest description of Japanese automotive dynamics is pedestrian. If you want lots of plastic cup holders, and MP3 players, allied to plastic wood and chrome; go buy a Lexus or something like that. But if you want a driving machine to take out on a deserted twisty mountain road, you need to look to Germany, or an Italian exotic (if you have bottomless pockets), or even a good old Brit like Aston, Lotus or Jaguar.

And don't be fooled that the Japanese (the most hard headed businessmen on the planet,) are intent upon saving the planet. They are a clever lot who are bright enough to see that all most people want is a mediocre vehicle that is not too badly finished and is reliable, (and more recently, economical). Their starting point, cos of the congestion in Japan, was small vehicles, and they have become masters at adapting these to world markets (to the great benefit of countries like the USA.) But have a look at their whaling practices if you think the Japanese are concerned with the welfare of the planet.

[QatzelOk]

And don't be fooled that the Japanese (the most hard headed businessmen on the planet,) are intent upon saving the planet.

Exactly. Don't buy a Prius.

Buy your way out of car ownership instead.

[Leo2]

Ooo - don't say that! I just got my first car. (It was my mum's, but she gave it to me as a birthday pressie, and I loves it. )

[Rippy The Razor]

Hybrids like the Prius are a technological dead end that will be slain by the extended range electric vehicle. Even a non ubergreen car like the Chevy Volt will blow the Prious out of the water on short distance fuel economy, and uber green little cars like the Aptera will be the greenist of them all.

What is truly absurd is California will not allow diesel engines on cars based on emissions per gallon rather than per mile. The environmentalists have successfully driven up air pollution by stopping diesel extended range electric vehicle that makes less overall pollution than a internal combustion gas engine because it gets great MPG because but it's judged on emissions per gallon rather than mile.

BMW makes great engines & great cars. The best way to go would be to have BMW make an extended range electric vehicle with a diesel engine and Japanese batteries inside.