Toyota Prius 2004 test drive - 2006 hatchback

Driving the First in the world

In the editorial park, replenishment. It looks like a car like a car. But the title does not deceive: Toyota -Prius really became the world's first serial machine with two engines - gasoline and electric.
In other words, its power plant is hybrid.
Similar machines are being produced more and more: there is a Honda Insight compartment, the SUVs of Lexus started, and solid all -terrain vehicles, pickups, and spacious universals with double thrust promise very soon. They assure that the Prius is a profitable car in all respects. We decided to try how an unusual car will take root in Russia, where there are so far.
 
In ZR, not without a hybrid
In Japan, sales of produces began back in 1998. Soon, hybrid Toyota went to America and Europe. They are officially not being officially taken to Russia. New Pruises are expensive, especially for Russians. But the used - quite rational choice.
They decided to buy a car in the Land of the Rising Sun. Pros: a car with a clean reputation (in confirmation - a service book with notes about that) will cost cheaper than the European version brought from the West. The minus, perhaps, is only one - the right steering wheel. But after all, the car is urban, in addition, with the variator - you will not have to get used to gear shifting with your left hand.
A five -year priest is a gray with a lilac tint, running 136 thousand km, taking into account delivery to Vladivostok and customs clearance, cost $ 7,200. By Japanese standards, the equipment is quite modest, by domestic - rich: two airbags, electric windows, central castle, climate control, ABS, audio system. The last maintenance of the car passed 3 thousand km ago - with a visit to the service you can wait.
Two months of languid expectations, and our hybrid finally came to the metropolitan commodity station.
 
His name is the priest
The first disappointment - the engine did not react to the turn of the ignition key. While the hybridica traveled from end to end of Russia, the battery was discharged. Instead of lighting wires, the anti -scenes chains that the Japanese gave along with the machine came down. And it came to life ...
The usual striking of the starter is not heard. The feeling that he started ... if not a spaceship, then a microwave. On the screen of the display - the main attraction of the torpedo - the greeting was displayed: Welcome to Prius. While the gasoline engine warmed up, the generator recharged batteries. After all, there are two of them: a small launcher is hidden in the corner of the trunk, and the supplying electric motor is behind the back of the rear seat.
Who said the car is a means of transportation? This is a toy! At first, you look more not at the road, but at the color monitor, where orange and green arrows show how the power plant lives. Acceleration - both engines work. I slow down - the energy from the wheels flowed back into the battery.
I smoothly roll up to the traffic light. Now it is a trolleybus, only small. The engine stalled, the hand instinctively reached for the ignition key. But he did not have time to turn him, remembering that you just had to press the pedal. The priest touched silently on the electric motor. It was worth pressureing the gas a little stronger, gasoline jumped to the aid of electric horses. By the way, it’s still nice to realize that in traffic Japanese protects the Russian atmosphere.
To verify the profitability of the purchase, we will deal with arithmetic. According to the manufacturer, the prose in the city consumes an average of no more than 5 liters of gasoline per 100 km. In Moscow traffic jams, when frosts are noticeable, asks about 7 liters. Everything is clear: the gasoline engine does not turn off until it warms up to the operating temperature and protopes the salon. However, such an indicator is unlikely to beat a classmate with an ordinary gasoline engine. On the suburban winter highway, the prius ate about 5 liters per hundred. Very good!
Fuel economy is the main trump card of hybrids. But not the only one. I was pleased with the machine’s ability to climb the mud and snow: after all, the electric motor gives out a solid torque, barely starting to rotate.
 
Electricity - free!
And again in the hands of the calculator. The necessary procedure is the purchase of a compulsory insurance policy. In the documents of the Prius, only the power of the gasoline engine is recorded - 58 liters. with., But under the hood, 30 unaccounted electric kilowatts are hidden.
So, arranging insurance, they paid 4158 rubles. Not cheap: Moscow wrappers plus the condition: Any employee of the editorial office will be able to sit behind the wheel. But after all, a gasoline engine on The priest is relatively weak, which is why it falls under a reducing coefficient of 0.7. If they paid for the real 99 liters. p., then the cost of insurance, on the contrary, would increase 1.3 times - more precisely by 3564 rubles.
And we can also save 495 rubles on transport tax annually. The money, of course, is small, but almost for the gasoline tank is enough - consider it free 700 with a yakki kilometers.
A profitable machine is quickly mastered in Russian open spaces. Ahead of distant races, interesting tests at the training ground, the first in a foreign land. How successful will our attempt to overtake time be? Do we not lose, chasing after the cheapness? We will find out very soon: the numbers on the odometer are replaced very quickly ...
 
CRY FROM THE HEART
The queues in Moscow traffic police are like sausages in the early 1990s. We decided to use a new, widely advertised service - registration by preliminary entry. I called, I was waiting for two weeks, but standing for hours (or even days!) In a live queue even worse.
At the appointed time, he appeared in front of the preliminary window in the 6th department of Motrar of the ATS of the North-East District of Moscow. The inspector, having checked and took the documents, asked to wait. To get a statement (now it is filled in the traffic police), it took ... 1.5 hours. Hooray! It took very little to pay receipts and inspection of a car of time. And I received the numbers. After ... five (!) Hours. They say quickly. Those who come without a preliminary record sometimes spend more than one day at the coveted windows.
I wonder why you can fill the form by hand in minutes, and the computer needs a clock? The artificial intelligence, more and more perfect means of communication, won and the machine of the future to Moscow, have come to a doom. And here - time seemed to freeze, along with hundreds of people at the closed windows ...
In the center of the instrument panel is a monitor informing about the operating modes of a hybrid installation. Under the left hand - the variator control lever.
The main information is reflected on the second display - an electronic speedometer, odometer, fuel pointer, as well as variator modes and signal lamps.
The beneficial volume of the trunk eats the battery of batteries. Because of it, you cannot fold the back of the rear seats. In the niche - a jack, a cylinder key and a dock.
Many classmates will envy the maneuverability of the Prius - the hybrid can turn on a patch with a diameter of 9.4 m.
Design solutions, the Prius resembles a new Toyota-Corollah.
Two engines with mounting equipment and a variator fit under the hood.
Manufacturer: Toyota motor
Release year: 1998
In operation while driving: Since December 2003
Mileage to the editorial office
at the time of the report: 2.5 thousand km
General mileage: 139 thousand km
 
Sachkov Maxim
Photo: Konstantin Yakubov

 
 

 

Source: The magazine "Driving"