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Pass the Gas, Please

Toyota Prius with Hybrid Synergy Drive

By Jeff Gottesman 

Okay....I don’t really consider myself a Geek (even though I have an electrical engineering degree)...but the thought of a vehicle that can operate on both batteries and gasoline while boasting an unheard of 50-60 mpg simply “had me at hello.” Now you have to understand that I also like to keep vehicles for an unheard of number of years (I traded a 1984 Datsun 300ZX for my Prius), so purchasing a car from a company with Toyota’s reputation for quality was an influencing factor when I thought about repairs on this newfangled Hybrid Synergy Drive. Finally, I must admit that I’m a sucker for underdogs, so even though some people might think the Prius is “unattractive,” I think it’s beautiful....but then again my first car was an AMC Gremlin.

If you’re looking for a car review full of technical specifications, road tests, and automotive mumbo jumbo....that’s not what you’re going to find here. Might I direct you to the toyota.com website. Instead, I would like to tell you about my own personal experience purchasing and driving what I think is the most exciting car I have ever owned.

When the Prius was introduced in the US several years ago, I was probably one of the first people to go into a local dealership to test drive one. Let’s just say that back then there wasn’t much of a demand...in fact, trying to find a dealer that had one on the lot was a bit of a challenge. When I finally located the little beauty, my salesperson admitted to me that he had never even sat in the vehicle and I was the first person to ever make an inquiry. So we both went out for our “first” test drive. I expected a “golf cart” with no pick-up and a ride like...a golf cart. Surprise!! It drives and handles like a car! Store this on my hard drive for future reference...I was not really looking for a new car, but just intrigued with the technology.

Let me fast forward to the end of 2005 when my poor Datsun gave up the ghost. The “new” Prius (no longer called the “classic Prius”) had new lines, more power, and more features. Usually I spend an endless amount of time comparing potential vehicles when it’s time to buy....but this time I knew what I was looking for (and gasoline was around $2.75/gallon). I knew you couldn’t just walk onto a lot and buy one (there was a 7 month wait here in Texas), but I thought that since the new model year was about to start I might have a chance on end- of-the-year vehicles.

To make a long story short....I walked onto the dealer lot and told the salesperson the “package,” and color I was looking for (I knew there was only one in the North Texas area...I checked the Toyota website). His reply: “I have that exact package and color on it’s way here. It will be here in 15 minutes and it’s yours if you want it! If not, I’m sure I’ll have it sold to someone else by the end of the day.” Could this be? Were my planets aligned? When it arrived, I fell in love with my 2005, Package 3, Salsa Red Toyota Prius. I traded in my classic Datsun and drove home with my new wheels.

Technology aside, the Toyota Prius drives like a dream. It has more than enough acceleration to jump out onto a freeway, incredible handling, and all the safety features I could ask for (front & side curtain airbags and ABS brakes on this model). But, when you talk about “technology,” that’s where the Toyota engineers really strut their stuff. Let me just describe a few of the technological features that impressed me the most...

First, the keyless entry system (comes standard with this package). You just carry the key fob around in your pocket and the car “knows” when you’re there. You just put your hand on the door handle and the car unlocks. When you sit in the driver’s seat, instead of having to insert the fob into the dashboard slot, you just sit there with it in your pocket and press the “Power” button on the futuristic dashboard. The car is “on?” The dashboard lights up but there is no sound. Place the transmission lever into “gear”, step lightly on the accelerator and silently move out. To end your ride, press the “park” button, turn the power off and step out. When exiting the car, just press one of the round “lock” buttons that appear next to the handles of all doors and hatches.

The power plant consists of a reliable 4 cylinder gasoline engine coupled with two motor generator sets through a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT). The CVT has no gears...no shifting...acceleration is smooth right up to cruising speed. It’s a strange feeling when you are used to feeling every shift of your automatic transmission (or manual transmission for those of us who still remember how). The motors are energized from a battery plant that is mounted behind and below the rear passenger seat.

Now, we all know what car batteries look like, and I was expecting to see a trunk full of those big lead-acid clunkers, but what I found was a relatively small, compact “block” of batteries that took up very little room whatsoever. In fact, the only way you would know they were back there is that sometimes when they get warm a small fan next to the back seat turns on to provide cooling airflow. So how do these batteries get charged? Well...the answer is “very effectively.” When the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) is running, the batteries are charged in the conventional way. But...when you step on the brake pedal, that’s when the magic happens.

If you’re timid, you may want to stop reading here, because the brakes operate via a “brake-by-wire” system. This means that unless you are making an emergency stop or are at speeds below around 7mph, conventional hydraulic braking with shoes and pads is not used.  Instead, movement of the brake pedal is detected electrically and the motors are thrown in reverse and act as generators. The energy required to turn the generators comes from the momentum of the moving vehicle and thus slows the vehicle down and charges the batteries at the same time. Believe me, these brakes are VERY effective! 

There is a Multifunction Display screen on the dashboard that actually shows you visually where the power is coming from, when electricity is being generated, and an instantaneous digital readout of your MPG. This display is fun to watch at first, but there are other more useful displays showing things like average MPG in 5 minute intervals and the amount of electricity generated. This touch screen display also controls the sound system, climate controls, and navigation system if so equipped.

So what is my realistic MPG? The sticker says 50 highway, 60 city which sounds backwards. The truth is that while you are in stop and go traffic, you use more of the battery power than when you are cruising down the highway, so your typical mpg is in fact higher. I have taken one road trip so far, and on the highway you are pretty much being propelled by the gasoline engine which gets between 45-50 mpg. But in the combination driving which is more typical, I have honestly been getting 53 MPG!

A caveat here. Driving a Prius definitely changes your driving habits! The instantaneous MPG displays and electrical energy diagrams make you more conscious of every movement of your accelerator pedal, so you begin to learn how to eek out every extra MPG while you are driving. The result is that you no longer tend to drive with your pedal-to-the-metal, but instead “feather” the accelerator trying to get that MPG graph up to “99” and coast to a stop whenever possible. Interestingly enough, since getting my “Pri,” my new driving habits have enabled me to get higher gas mileage on my other “gasoline powered” vehicle!

Another innovative idea incorporated into the Prius is the pumping of hot coolant into a “thermos bottle” each time you turn off the car. This keeps the coolant hot for as long as possible so that if you restart the car there is no warm up time. This part of the design lowers emissions and also allows you to get heat a whole lot faster when you restart the car, but takes some getting used to when you hear all these pumps operating as you walk away from your parked car.

Driving a Prius is always an entertaining experience....and in my mind it has really put the “fun” back in driving! There are always new things to get used to. For example, when there is no need for the gasoline engine to run and consume fuel, it doesn’t! That means when you stop for a traffic light or in a traffic jam...it turns off. Talk about a strange feeling! It’s also interesting to know that the air conditioning system is run completely off of electricity, so you can be sitting in your Prius on a hot day running the A/C without the engine running. If the batteries get low, the engine will come on to charge them up...but only when necessary. It’s also fun to drive around in “stealth mode.” Once the car is warmed up and battery charged, you can sometimes slowly accelerate from a standstill purely on battery power without the gasoline engine even running! The display shows all power coming from the batteries, and look at that MPG reading! I thoroughly enjoy driving through my block-long parking lot in this virtually silent operation using no gasoline whatsoever. Just be careful for unsuspecting pedestrians who cannot hear you coming!

A short note about roominess in the Prius. It comes in one body style. It has 4 passenger doors and a hatch back. There is plenty of room under the hatch and inside of several stackable compartments that are under the carpet of the trunk (along with the spare tire). Seating is comfortable and surprisingly spacious; however, my only complaint is that the driver seat has way too few adjustments. On a long trip, this seat was quite uncomfortable for me and my legs felt cramped. I solved this by moving the seat to it’s maximum rearward position and purchasing a lumbar support pad.

In summary, I am still having more fun driving this car than any other vehicle I have owned. As gas prices are once again creeping up past $2.50/gallon, I laugh as I drive close to 500 miles on a tankfull...and it’s a small tank! I feel I have given up NOTHING by purchasing such a technologically advanced vehicle. The handling, drivability, and features are akin to or better than many other vehicles comparably priced. Reading the owner’s manual can be a daunting task, but I recommend accepting the challenge. The information will enable you to be more comfortable with some of the new systems and sounds you will experience while driving and after stepping out of your Prius. With the extended warranty and reputation of Toyota, I feel that the reliability will be unsurpassed...well beyond that 8 year, 100,000 mile warranty on the batteries. As I’ve been told by many people who own a Prius...”don’t worry about how it works...just drive it!!”

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