Toyota Prius – First Steer
July 9, 2009 by David Twomey
Driving the pin-up car of the green motoring movement, the Toyota Prius, has become even more fuel efficient but also a lot more dynamic following our first, although limited, real world experience of the Generation Three vehicle.
By David Twomey
With a price of $39,900 for the base model, that’s $90 less than the original introduction price for the Generation One Prius back in 2001, the trade-off is a higher basic specification, more power, and more fuel efficiency.
Add to that the better driving dynamics of the Corolla-based chassis and suspension and the Generation Three Prius is a definite step forward.
In fact the new car costs $2500 more than the one it replaces but Toyota says it brings with it $4000 in added specification.
There’s just two grades of Prius now, with the top spec car being the i-Tech that adds a bundle of features, such as satellite navigation, radar cruise control, a solar-powered cabin cooler, pre-safe crash protection, automatic parking and LED headlamps, but there’s a price to pay, $53,500 actually.
Standard features in the new Prius, such as seven airbags, Electronic Stability Control (ESC), Smart Entry and Start, a multi-function display, Touch Tracer and Head-Up Display, are all new or were previously only offered in the i-Tech.
In essence the latest Prius looks like the previous one, at first glance and for a good reason – it’s the best aerodynamic solution, but the shape has changed subtly, resulting in a benchmark co-efficient of drag of 0.25 that has been equalled only by the new Mercedes-Benz E-class Coupe.
Look over the new Prius beside a previous model and there’s a refined cabin shape with a more aggressive nose.
It’s still a five seater, at a pinch, but at least there’s now more legroom in the rear, plus some extra cabin width. The boot is also a little bigger; up by 31 litres to 446 litres, able we’re told to accommodate three golf bags.
Underneath the new Prius is essentially the basis of the current Toyota Corolla, a move partly aimed at cutting costs, but also designed to improve the driving dynamics of the Prius, which previously could be described as pretty much non-existent.
At the same time the engine in the Prius has grown to 1.8-litres, with power growing from 56 kilowatts to 73kW, and torque increasing from 110Nm to 142Nm, while the electric motor has seen a 20 per cent increase in power to take the total to 100kW.
Conversely efficiency has increased and the Prius now returns a staggering 3.9 litres per 100 kilometres for petrol consumption and produces just 89 grams of CO2 for each kilometre travelled.
This makes it the first car in Australia to go below 100g/km, a title it is likely to hold for some time.
Overseas the Prius has been a sales sensation with 210,000 orders in Japan and while the 3500 that Toyota aims to sell in Australia this year, growing by 1000 next year, may be tiny in comparison, it is a significant increase for the local market.
Toyota admits that a large number of the cars currently sold go to government and business fleet buyers, and it privately also admits that the big problem with growing private purchases is the price. If the car in Australia were $10,000 cheaper then we would bet they’d be flying off the showroom floor.
The Prius has so far been the flagship of the hybrid push in Australia for Toyota, but that will go a lot more mainstream next year when the Camry Hybrid is launched.
In fact that car will be the next in a string of hybrid launches for Toyota, with the company planning to eight hybrid models in the next four years.
Some of those will be updates of the current Lexus range, but it leaves room for three new models, one of which will almost certainly be the Prius-like Lexus HS250h, launched at the Detroit motor show earlier this year.
Our experience of driving the new Prius was restricted to relatively too few kilometres around suburban Sydney for us to form a strong opinion of how the latest iteration performs.
The real evaluation of that will come in a couple of weeks when CarAdvice pits the Prius against some interesting rivals.
What we can say is that the latest Prius feels more compliant than before, it handles much more like any other car and its level of grip has been greatly improved.
All that is down to the Corolla chassis and the suspension bits adopted along with it, the ride is smoother and the steering a lot sharper.
Performance is nothing ballistic but strong, thanks to the enormous instant torque from the electric motor, and the car holds its own in the cut and thrust of city driving.
Inside there’s a lot of new detail to explore and we’ll need more time than was on hand at the launch to full come to grips with the numerous innovations. The i-Tech, or the standard car with a $5000 option pack, will even park itself!
The Prius certainly makes a strong pitch against the ‘flavour of the month’ European diesels, but it still doesn’t match them for driving enjoyment.
The really interesting confrontation will come when Honda finally launches its Insight hybrid locally, a car that is somewhat smaller and somewhat less technically sophisticated, but could potentially be priced much more sharply.
Print it: 
Very nice everyday car for the suburbs and/or city life. Unfortunately too expensive for the majority of private car buyers to consider. Also the dash is abit too reminiscent of the new Lexus RX’s. Can’t be a good thing for their Lexus side of business.
*****PRIMO!*****
Nice update, nice vehicle, THE cleanest emissions [ie cleaner than a DIEsel] of any.[For now*]
Love the little word-tiff BigT[tm.F-O] and Mini[BMW] are having, makes so nice light reading!
*If Kia sell that Hybrid/LPG job with the first figure being a $”2″ its going to turn this frugal [tm.F-0] fuel users on its head BIG time.
As always the Prius is GREAT BUYING as a 2nd hand vehicle!
Cheers
F-0
An unbelievable improvement over the previous model but I still wouldn’t buy one. I’d still rather a diesel Passat or something like that.
For fifty three large, could Toyota not have found space in their hearts to give i-Tech buyers some decent alloy wheels that don’t like like plastic wheel covers? Overseas versions look much gutsier. This is our special punishment for being Australians, as it’s well known that Australians will take all the world’s oversupply of grey interiors and crap alloys.
Apart form this, I think it looks good, and I wouldn’t knock one back if I was a government worker or Westpac mobile lender.
Oh, nice capitalisation of Apple’s branding, too.
I don’t mind the interior, but why does the steering wheel have to look like a Cruze centre console?
The “i-pod storage” area looks like where the airbag should be.
Bring on the fiesta/focus/mondeo econetic
My thoughts exactly DesignEng [in relation to the i-pod storage area]. most other cars costing $53K have front passenger and side airbags but not the Prius.
Why didn’t they store the i-pod in the compartment just below the gearstick?
The other thing that seems to be missing are cup holders.. where are the image conscious trend setters going to put their cafe-chocco-moccha-latte-espresso-cinnos?
DesignEng:
The air bag is probably stored behind the little garnish strip above the glovebox top lid.
wow, sounds like a big step up from the previous prius. i’d drive it, wouldn’t buy it, not a hybrid kind a guy. but radar cruise control… i saw a video of car safety on youtube and radar cruise control doesn’t work as well as laser cruse control
A few things piss me off about this car, other than the price. Like Golfschwein said, those alloy wheels look terrible. And that steering wheel – It looks like an alien robot or something staring at me. And finally, the Cd 0.25 figure. If Mercedes can get the same figure with its svelte and handsome E-class, why do Toyota insist on this strange shape and then insist it was their only real choice???
!This makes it the first car in Australia to go below 100g/km, a title it is likely to hold for some time.”
!Once again the KiaCerato/HyundaiElantra Hybrid/LPG jobs are going to blow this out of the water.
!$53k, are BIGT on drugs? You can buy REAL cars for this sort of coin.
!You want cleaner emissions and lower $/km, a bog-stock Corolla on LPG would kick it to kingdomcome and be a good $15k cheaper to buy.
!Total P.ISS-OFF is my council rates being used to buy this overpriced underdone job, next council meeting i will give them a good spraying about its flag-waving pretend being green image!
Cheers
F-0
What a ridiculous price!
I was a fan of the last Prius but clearly Toyota is more interested in high profits than in the enviroment.
Expecting buyers to be conned that this model is only $2500 dearer than the last one for the supposedly $4000 of ‘extra features’ ignores that toyota will save thousands buy using the mainstream (CHEAP) corolla running gear.
Be a trendy geenie and get ripped off by toyota!
Time for Hyundai to bring out a decently priced copy (not the poorly safety rated 3 star elantra)and do it better.
Or spend you $53k on a Mercedes and probaly get a greener car.
why does Toyota insist on 20 shades of grey for the interior of their cars ??
The amusing thing is that they have “finally” admitted that the largest buyers of these are either Govco or Fleet (with over 70% being Govco) it kinda just proves that the PUBLIC really don’t want Hybrids. I know of one fleet that has the choice of Prius, Golf TDCi and Mondeo TDCi and the largest uptake is the Mondeo followed closely by the Golf with Prius falling way south of the two.
Why are we paying 50K for a car that starts at 22K in the US. Absolutely ridiculous.
well there is a currency difference
currency difference has nothing to do with it, it’s taxes and duties the Aussie gov’t sets. If the Aussie dollar matches the U.S dollar sometime in the near future ,they will still pay what they pay and we will still pay what we pay to a degree
Aleks, stop it. The price is the price. America is America. We’re here. You can’t compare. I’ll say it one more time: You can’t compare, for a whole bunch of reasons. If you try to compare, you’ll just get terribly, terribly upset, and the stress it will have on your heart beat just isn’t worth it. I don’t even know why I replied.
This stupid car continues the tradition of Toyota Australia ripping off everyone. 54k for a car that doesn\’t even have 17-inch wheels is a joke and Toyota Australia continues to offer shocking-value cars. It makes you wonder how the hell they could be number one in sales here (hint, idiots who just want an A to B appliance or fleet cars are what do it).
The Prius (plus all hybrids) is only fuel efficient in the CITY CYCLE but if you took it on a highway it would be gutless. BUY A DIESEL!
There are faster, better-looking (look at it from rear-on!), much better value, more practical and just as fuel-efficient cars available for 50k, let alone 30k!
Also, I\’m sick of the motion that hybrids save the world. Look at the stupid green parking spaces just for hybrids, they don\’t relise that they\’re not that good for the environment!
I\’m with FrugalOne:
Get a Kia Cerato/Hyundai Elantra LPG hybrid, and feel truly green! Especially with $8 a week fuel bills!
Wheelnut®™ Says:
July 9th, 2009 at 11:20 am
My thoughts exactly DesignEng [in relation to the i-pod storage area]. most other cars costing $53K have front passenger and side airbags but not the Prius.
umm, it has 7 airbags, the full complement of driver, passenger, side and curtain, as well as a driver’s knee airbag. Please get your facts right before you post.
Quote from the article:
“Standard features in the new Prius, such as seven airbags, Electronic Stability Control (ESC), Smart Entry and Start, a multi-function display, Touch Tracer and Head-Up Display”.
I never questioned whether it had a full compliment of airbags, I was just commenting on the dash design.
However, just imagine having a crash with that cover open. I can’t imagine the the airbag would deploy properly.
DesignEng, I was commenting on Wheelnut’s comment not yours. Unless you are the same person?
^ Wheelnut refered to my post, hence my reply.
Nah VERY different person to Wheelnut, diff states.
And I still think that the cover would interfere with airbag deployment, or not be nice to headbut in an accident.
Two bottles of water in the rear cup holders- that’s not very green! Car is also way too expensive now.
Okay the Prius has a front Passenger Airbag…. Where does it come from? because going by the photos of the dash and the interior there isn’t a cut-out for the airbag to come out of [which has the SRS logo on it] like you see in most cars – where there is an airbag
I can only imagine that its either located behind the i-pod storage area and it shoots up and over the dash which would mean that it would be just as big as the drivers airbag. Which could mean the front windscreen pops out too
Or its inside the glove box where the i-pod is and when it deploys the glove box door flies off and hits you in the face first
Sorry to acually go into defense of (gulp) Toyota, but the SRS bags have sacrificial panel skins over them in the dash. Similar to the covers on a Commodore steering wheel (mentioned because Wheelnut knows what they look like) The bag deploys from the large flat panel above the Glove Box area ripping throught the dash skin….. (boring response but hey someone asked…. (Now excuse me whilkst I go and wash my mouth out for defending Toyota :p)
Ripoff.
Wheelnut, it’s true that many passenger airbags use the windscreen to assist the deployment of the airbag. If you have a look at a slow-mo crash video, the airbags are fully deployed before the maximum damage is done to the vehicle.
I hope Kia fix up the Cerato’s dynamics, introduce an attractive 5 door version, install the 94Kw 1.6 diesel from the Soul and their new 6 speed torque converter auto. This would blow away the i30 in looks and specs and if you could have it for under $30K then why would I bother with the overpriced Prius. While I’m at it the current Corolla hatch is a major disappointment, too small boot, 4 speed auto, no diesel, cheap plasticky interior (esp the floating console)… honestly is this the best Toyota can do?
Hmmm.. wouldn’t buy a prius ever.
err this is a bit random… but does motor magazine have a website. i’ve heard many people talking about reviews from it but I haven’t seen it b4.
“Two bottles of water in the rear cup holders- that’s not very green!”
What do you want D?
It can be hold two bottles of beer. What’s your problem?
TOYOTA AUSTRALIA! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO THE 17″ ALLOYS THE REST OF THE WORLD GETS???
IT MAKES THE CAR LOOK SO MUCH BETTER!
WHY THE HELL DO YOU INSIST ON HUB CAPS FOR A +$50,000 CAR!!!!
Nice evolution from previous two models…but still wedgy, looks tad odd at rear tail lights and to front as wedgy. Front looks too pushed out to flanks (sides) as angular and very full as runs right out with headlights and wheels. Guess that defines the wedge shape and reduces drag.
Nice one Toyota Australia, as per usual, you have absolutely no idea! The iTech would be a better value car if;
Leather was an option
SatNav was an option
Sunroof with silly solar cooling was an option
Not everybody wants the above stuff. Most ppl have portable satnav units, some ppl hate leather in summer, some ppl would prefer not to have a sunroof.
So that might drop the price back to about $45-$46K?
On top of that, the iTech should have the following!!!
The MUCH nicer 17″ wheels, the nice JBL stereo, LKA (Land Keep Assist) and Toyota Link telemetics. All this stuff is available on US spec models. And where in the hell is some dual zone A/C?!?
Toyota, if you followed VW Group’s model in making high-end items optional, then you might have a better chance of selling more cars!
Sorry about the rant, but I’m sick of Toyota’s pathetic attitude towards car buyers in Australia.
Toyota = Pfffttttttt!!!
Aghhh missed the edit. That should say “Lane” Keep Assist not “Land”.
Well, I think it’s safe to say that most of us won’t end up buying Prius anyway. But this car will find and has its own market… The techno/enviro geeks or companies wanting to put a halo on top of their heads.
Regardless, hybrid technology needs some time to become viable preposition for the general public and car enthutiasts. Meanwhile, we need some people to buy all the Prius and Insights to give these companies profit to make the real thing.
Paul,because Australians will buy it regardless because it’s a Toyota.
$53K? What’s Toyota smoking?
I think the only people that will buy this is the people smoking the same thing as Toyota.
It will probably take you 100 years to break even when compared to something like a Citroen C4 Diesel at around 30k. I’ll take it any day over this fridge.
Some manufacturers are showing their true colours through these tough times and slugging the customer at a time when they are losing money due to the economic crisis.
Stick to the manufacturers that are trying to scrape through this period without asking the customer to pay for it.
Toyota = Fail.
Pauls You have a valid point, but by the time they do become viable, the liquid dino juice which we use to fuel our road rockets will be either gone or in the hands of our American overlords.
Shak, I think it’s gonna happen sooner than that!
Has Toyota done a life cycle assessment of the Prius? If the addition resourss, energy and waste involved with the hybrid systems can be offset within 10 years then I think this car is good for the environment. However, if it takes more than 15 years then an ultra efficient diesel powered car of similar size would be better.
In the future most cars will be electric, not powered by coal, but by renewable energy. So I think hybrids are a bridge to full electric and there will be a point where petrochemical powered cars will unfortunately be exclusive special cars, so enjoy the combustion power now while we have got it!
53k.Toyota is again trying to test the market with an unrealistic price.Recall the 25k pricing of the first Echo which was way over the top.
The market soon brought the price down.
Loading a car with options of little practical value is an old ploy.
Why can’t the Corolla have good looks like the Prius…
I have held off buying a new vehicle until the Prius pricing was released. $53K for the top model seems far too pricey and does not offer value for money.
I think I will stick to a diesel that offers better bang for buck.
Toyota is kidding themselves with the new pricing. Compare the old prices in the US and UK and you see that Aussies are coppng it in the neck with the new models! Aust sales are 446 in Jul 09(release month) and only 295 in the whole of August 09. There’s your answer Toyota, Aussies can see a grab for cash by a manufacturer a mile off. All of your ‘new bits and pieces’ are incremental changes or steals from the Lexus range – minimal development costs giving absolutely no justification for the massive price increases. I am a present GenII owner, I won’t buy the new model because of the price gouging and I’m waiting for alternatives from ‘realistic’ competitors.