Soon To Be Prius Owner

[MartinCBurgess]

Hi all,

In just over a months time, I will be embarking down the route of a T4 Prius. This is for several reasons, one of the main ones being how pleasantly surprised I was at the drive quality.

I currently have an MG ZTT (estate version) as a company car. My wife has a Peugeot 407 as a private car. The interesting part is that we both work for the same company and whilst I earn about £4,000 more in salary, because of the generous private mileage (and monthly lump sum of £300), she ends up with far more in her pay packet; why, because I get slaughtered on tax!

Carried out lots of sums, and worked out that exploiting a fuel efficient car against the standard mileage rate and lump sum would be far better that a company car (even if it were a hybrid or fuel efficient deisel).

I first test drove a Prius purely out of curiosity and took a shine to it.

Then at the begining of this year we went on a trip to Australia and as part of this trip we hired a Prius for about a week. We were based in Sydney, but drove both in town and on their highways. I was concerned how a Prius would cope with motorway driving - but at 70mph (110km/h) it was fine other than on steeper hills, when the engine noise was a bit loud.

My main objective was to assess the mpg, as I had already seen comments about it not performing to the published figures.

Right, at this point, I would say whilst still young (I think 44 is still young!), I do drive conservatively. With the Prius on holiday I took every opportunity to fully utlise the electric option at slow speeds and was gently on the accelerator at all other times. One of my big problems was the mental arithmatic required to convert l/110km into mpg! Anyway, with very gentle driving I achieved between 65 and 71mpg on a combination of city centre roads and highway driving, setting cruise control at 70mph (110km/h).

I have subsequently retried this on test drives back in the UK and achieved 55mpg at 70mph and over 70mpg in town.

Has anyone else achieved this - or am I being over optimistic on likely returns in practice.

However, deal has been done and car arrives on 3rd August and unlike my previous car (can see why MG went under!), I am REALLY looking forward to a unique car and enjoying the drive.

Will keep you all posted on my exploits!

[Julncamp]

Hi Martin

I drive a Prius Tspirit as a company car and on average drive about 30,000 miles a year. I have had my Prius since new in November 06 and I can share a few things with you to put your mind at rest with your decision. I mostly do motorway work and across the seasons I have never dropped below 51.4 MPG. I average out total fuel put in over total distance covered. The trip recorder gives an optimistic by journey average. Sure you can get 70+ mpg short term but for better meaning you have to average out over a longer period of time. . If you want to race pedal to metal etc etc along, perhaps the Prius is not the choice , but if you want a car to go A2B in quiet comfort its a good choice. Just remember when your staionary in those proverbial traffic jams itz money in your pocket cosyour not using any fuel! If you have the cruise control it will help the fuel economy and locks on to the set speed better than some other systems. It will take a little while to get used to it, but opnce your familiar as to how the prius is using its CVT you can gain good speeds and accelerations whilst returning a 50+mpg. Itz got a few quirky things .....that old chestnut No heated mirrors and it buzzes at you when in reverse, and a button for a parking brake , but hey its still a excellent car. I down sized from a tyota avensis 2.0L Auto and the saving in fuel is truly siginificant.

welcome to the clan I hope you enjoy your Prius