The Review

I felt like as if I was in a conventional Camry on the highway. Starting feels impressive and gearshifts are also very good, better than Hondas! It is quieter than the conventional particularly in the city with some audible acceleration upon overtaking. Body roll seem quite good surprisingly. My guess is Toyota's electronics have improved it's stability to a degree where passengers inside would feel safe. It is not an idiot car for tailgating or vroom vroom but in fact a very lovely car to own! I would be hard pressed to choose this hybrid Camry or the latest generation of 2011 Prius!!

Responded on: 11 May 2011 6:33PM

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The Review

I’ve got a bone to pick with hybrid cars; specifically the Prius. I can understand if you want to save the environment and still commute around in a car. But what I don’t get is the constant reference to the Prius as THE solution to save the world from smog filled Armageddon. The Prius is a luxury product, not our saviour. There are quite a number of other hybrid vehicles out there that do the same thing and most importantly, achieve roughly the same mileage at a lower price. In our market, there’s the Honda Civic Hybrid, Lexus’s GS, LS and RX models just to name a few. There’s also the little Honda Insight that’s not available here. All of them either ease up fuel consumption of a given model or like go as far (like the Insight) to use as little fuel as possible to cover a given kilometer. Yet none of them have gained as much reputation and thus as much sales as the Toyota Prius. Not even Toyota’s Lexus has had any success with selling hybrids. Before I get called out for comparing apples to oranges, let’s take the Civic 1.3 Hybrid against the Prius 1.8. That’s as close at it can get on a comparison scale for the local market. (The old prius with the 1.5 engine got replaced in the new iteration) The Prius costs $113,988 and the Civic costs $81,800. That’s a 28.3% difference in price with the Prius being more pricy. However, is there a 28.2% increase in performance? Let’s see. The Prius gets a claimed 25.6km/l and the Civic a claimed 21.74km/l. That’s only a 15% difference in fuel consumption figures. The Prius puts out 90g of Co2 verus the Civic’s 81.5g. That’s 9% less, and in the Civic’s favour. Of course you might argue that the Prius has a larger petrol engine and it does put out more combined power than the Civic. Yes that makes it torque-ier. But do you need that much power just to move off? Be honest, you want that immediate move off the stop line. The Civic pushes out 94bhp and the Prius pushes out 134bhp. 94bhp might be a paltry amount by today’s standard but it is still enough to get you around. It won’t be particularly quick and the car’s modern (read: heavy) equipment will see that you won’t be going anywhere fast. But that’s exactly the point; you’re trying to save fuel, not speed. If you want speed, you’re in the wrong category. And most people are in the wrong category. Yes, the Prius is cheaper per kilowatt hour than the Civic but come end of this year, the Nissan Leaf and the Chevrolet Volt will see production. And by the looks of it, the Leaf looks to undercut the Prius’s production cost, by a significant amount. Google it. But, will it or any other new EV/Hybrid vehicle see as much sales as the Prius? Would you stand proud and say, I drive a Leaf! I’m not so sure about that. You see, the Prius nameplate is more than just a name for a hybrid vehicle made by Toyota. It represents a lifestyle, a positioning statement, a proud declaration that I am self sacrificial, stylish and green. (In that order. Note that green is placed last) In this case, this is definitely an example of the messenger being more important than the message. The Prius is now an icon but its message has been lost in translation.

Responded on: 11 May 2011 5:54PM

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Responded on: 26 May 2010 10:29AM

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Responded on: 25 May 2010 9:27PM

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The Review

A solid built car with Fuel saving in mind. Can out run a honda civic 1.6 auto anytime, acceleration is 10.2 sec to 100km/h. Spacious and comfortable. One of my FAV car, waited 4 months for it and never once regretted it eventhough it cost so much more than a civic. Compared it to a civic hybrid, it thumps it hands down. Civic hybird is not a full hybrid as it cannot run without the gasoline engine while the prius can and can run in stealth mode. It is so quiet in EV mode that when parking your car please be extra careful. Parking is always in EV mode never use gasoline engine at all. Driving a prius is easy and effortless. Starting it is like powering a PC. There are many gadgets found for prius that can put many other drivers in envy. It is just about how much money u willing to burn to bring them to SG. A great family car that can sit 4 passenger comfortably and even can put in a adult bicycle if only one rear passenger is in the car. Toyota sure has a winner in this one. Stop buying useless non-hybrid car, future is here with Prius!

The Review

The car itself is rather futuristic in design, spacious (more so than an Altis actually), and when stretched delivers strong performance (although the slipping clutch sensation of the CVT takes some getting used to). Overall, it is just like any regular family car, albeit packed with more gizmos. There is a B mode in the CVT gearbox and that is for engine braking mode, which is particularly useful for downslopes where the engine brakes whenever the foot is lifted from the throttle. The handling is rather neat and feedback from the electronic power steering (EPS) via the smallish steering wheel is average. Personally, I don't really fancy the minor shudder when the petrol engine kicks in but that is really a small issue. The best part of Hybrid ownership? Fuel efficiency. I drove approximately 180km in a day and the fuel indicator did not even move an inch. The consumption monitor shower an average of 5.5l/100km, which is roughly 18.2km per litre. Mind you, this was some real world driving which included some heavy right foot moments for overtaking. The car will also run perfectly fine on the cheaper 95 Octane petrol. But bear in mind that because of the premium in price they command over a similar petrol-engined car, it only makes sense in a long term ownership. After factoring in the initial extra you have to pay and also less the number of times you have to refuel, you have to be driving the car for about 5 years (just my personal calculations) before you can really feel the savings. I still rate it as good value as you do get tax rebates and pay lower road tax than a 1.6 litre car on top of having to refuel (significantly) less. Overall this is a more than capable alternative to the regular family sedans. But how many people actually accepts this technology and its benefits still remains to be seen.

Responded on: 16 Dec 2009 12:59PM

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Responded on: 31 Oct 2008 12:55AM

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Responded on: 8 Jun 2008 8:38PM

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Responded on: 27 Feb 2008 5:33PM

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Responded on: 27 Feb 2008 2:51PM

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Responded on: 27 Feb 2008 1:50PM

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Responded on: 26 Feb 2008 1:01PM

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