Pretty much a wrap up for the theoretical discussion in this thread: my Toyota Prius was delivered late Friday.
I've been pretty busy the past few days but I finally got to drive it a bit on the 70+ mile round trip to where I've hung my current photo exhibit. I have 190 miles on the odometer now, it had 2 when I picked it up. It meets or exceeds my expectations so far: - Performance is more than satisfactory, at least as good as the Land Rover Freelander overall. Handling is good ... It's not a "sport sedan" but given the ride and quiet, it handles well: predictable, stable, good grip in the corners, tight turning radius, easy to manage. It has excellent cruise and passing power for highway driving between 65 and 85 mph. The drive system works brilliantly too, you just drive it and it does all the business seamlessly, smoothly. - Load capacity surprises me. I put the 16 16x20-framed photos for the exhibit, my trolley cart to roll them around on, two bags of installation goodies and equipment, plus my briefcase with camera, notebook, etc all into the rear cargo area without having to even flip the rear seats down. Nothing was in the rear seats. That's better than could fit into the Land Rover ... I always had to flip down the rear seats for that size load. - Ride comfort and quiet are excellent, you can actually enjoy the sound system (also excellent) due to the isolation from road and traffic noise. The climate control system works very well, although we haven't had temperatures like the heat wave of several weeks ago this past weekend. The seats are comfy if a little short under my thigh (I have long legs). All controls and such work with a light precise touch, are easy to find. It has a *lot* of features with the #6 option package, will likely take me several weeks to understand all of them. The hands-free Bluetooth cell phone control package is next on the list to read about in the manual... - After 190 miles, I'm down to about 3/4 tank on the gauge from full ... The Freelander had a bigger fuel tank (15 gallons) and would be down to about 1/4 tank at this mileage: I'd be looking to refill it in the next 30-40 miles at most. According to the consumption monitor, I'm averaging 44-45 mpg at present. That's pretty amazing considering that I've done nothing to "optimize" my driving for fuel efficiency and it seems to have more space, comfort and about the same performance. I think the Prius will easily go 400-450 miles on a 10-gallon tank of fuel, that's a very welcome change. I'm very pleased with it for an initial impression. A very nice car that suits my goals well. Godfrey BTW: My exhibit "Traveler In London" is now hanging at the Zocalo Cafe in San Leandro. 16 color prints, 11x14 matted/framed to 16x20. The reception is scheduled for Saturday, August 19, 6:30 to 9:00 pm. An official announcement and website link will be sent shortly. Hope to see some of you there! -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
