Review: 2010 Toyota Prius
I sent a text to a friend when I first took the Prius out for a spin (hey, it’s not illegal YET), and it said: “I’m so green!” But what’s really scoring for Toyota is the fact that the Prius not only is the most fuel-efficient hybrid on the road, they’ve improved it for 2010 with some changes that make it much better than earlier models. Here’s what I found…
For a change, I’m going to tell you what I DIDN’T like about the new Prius first, and get it out of the way. Because the review is actually quite positive.
I think that designers are way too caught up in showcasing the whole “look at us, we created a car that uses gas AND electricity.” Yeah, I get it, so I don’t need an endless amount of instrumentation staring me in the face, showing me what’s going on under the hood every single second. Yes, it’s a combo between electric and gas, I know, I know. Enough already with the animated display.
And the view out the back is horrible. There’s a bar that runs across the back window, so that when you look in your rearview mirror you’re looking at a black band. It’s unsettling.
The only other thing I grimaced about was the constant nagging. Now, I understand that hybrids are quiet when you start them, and I understand that maybe a total of 3 people in the country have walked into a moving hybrid in a parking lot. But really, the obnoxious beeping whenever the car is in reverse is not necessary. It’s more of the car industry’s nagging (beep for reverse, beep for seatbelts, beep when you get within 10 feet of something, beep, beep, beep). Leave me alone, already! Sheesh!
Okay, that’s it for the negatives. Now for the real deal: If you want a good, reliable, easy-to-drive car that will save you money and give you a warm snuggly feeling about the planet, then go buy the Prius. It’s redesigned for 2010, and the improvements were mostly very good. The car looks sleeker, there’s more power, there’s better fuel economy, the brakes are improved…and more.
The feel itself is better. I’ve driven older models of the Prius, and sometimes I felt a little uncertain turning the wheel. Now the feel is much closer to a “normal” car. Hey, sales last year put the Prius into the Top 15 in car sales, so it won’t be long until hybrids like this are possibly the “normal” cars.
Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive has tweaked the mileage up. Where the car once earned 48mpg in the city and 45 on the highway, those numbers are now 51/48. The Honda Insight is jealous, but it costs a little less, too. The Ford Fusion doesn’t do as well, but offers a look more closely associated with “normal” cars, for those who don’t like the look that screams HYBRID! But the Prius is the overall better value, in my opinion.
The dashboard controls are better now. The designers had fallen for the “we must make the dashboard controls a touchscreen” hysteria, which stinks. Now the Prius has easy controls; the engineers have finally figured out that we’re not stupid, and we can handle turning a knob to adjust the air flow much faster than punching through half-a-dozen screen commands to do the same simple task.
There are multiple trim levels, all with fancy Roman numerals to differentiate. Plus, for those of you who want to trick out your Prius, top-end choices abound, from heated leather seats to radar-based adaptive cruise control (the kind that matches the speed of the car ahead of you), to a lane-departure warning. Uh, no thanks on that last one; it’s more beeping. 
I drove the 2010 Prius V, and with lots of options it priced out at around $33k. My guess is that with the wide assortment of improvements, Toyota will see their sales numbers increase. I’m betting that the appeal for this particular hybrid will go beyond the original “I want to save the world” crowd, and quickly become a bit more mass-appeal.