For the first time since I was a nipper, I ventured into a church last week. Not out of any longing to recite the Nunc Dimittis, or render my own tuneless versions of Mr Wesley's famous hymns, but rather to meet a few Prius drivers. In general, Prius drivers adopt such an air of studied sanctimony that I felt sure I would bump into a few of them shaking hands with the vicar.
"And how are things with you, this week?" enquired the rosy cheeked padre. "Excellent, excellent," replied the worthy parishioner, "Almost seventy to the gallon." However, I don't imagine all Prius drivers are god-fearing church-goers: I suppose a few of them must be geography teachers.
But you really do have to be a certain sort of person, and a particular kind of driver, to fully appreciate, and fully benefit from, the remarkably low fuel consumption of the Toyota Prius. And the fuel consumption of the latest model is even more remarkable, given that it now has a 1.8-litre engine, in place of the 1.5-litre engine used in previous models. I know that more sometimes equals less, and it is a fact of automotive engineering that at certain speeds, and for a given mass, a slightly larger engine is usually more fuel efficient than an overworked engine of a smaller displacement.
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10 per cent more fuel efficient than the model it replaces |
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So it is with the new Prius: despite having more power and a larger engine, it is some 10 per cent more fuel efficient than the model it replaces. But it's not just the engine that's new. The full-hybrid system is lighter and more powerful, too, and the combination results in a car capable (with optional 17-inch wheels) of almost 75 mpg on the extra-urban cycle, and a 0-62 time of 10.4 seconds.
But to achieve such a figure, the car must be driven with extraordinary prudence, and a constant weather eye on the many and varied digital read-outs that inform the concerned driver of his (or her) instantaneous, elapsed, this-time-last-week, and average fuel consumption. These displays can be set to update themselves at one- or five-minute intervals, which, says Toyota, enables the driver to have an '....instant feedback on the fuel efficiency of their driving style.' The whole thing is a sort of digital guilt-generator.
But you need to care. I didn't, and just got on with driving the car for the week without a second glance at the complex displays. I preferred to concentrate on reading the road. After a week's driving in extra-urban conditions - I live in the country - it was time for a reckoning. My 'best' fuel consumption for a single journey was 57.3 mpg, and my 'average' for the week was 43.8 mpg, some 30 mpg less than the official figure. Now, I'm not a particularly heavy footed driver, and can usually tease almost 16 mpg out of my V8 Range Rover, but nonetheless, I felt like saying to the vicar, "Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned."
Which brings me back to my point - that to extract the most from the Prius you have to be a very particular kind of driver: one to whom every journey must be a nightmare both of computation and of an ever-present Polish truck inches from your tailgate as you steadfastly maintain 53.75 mph in the centre lane.
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