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Daily Express Saturday February 27 2016
Motoring
Daily Express Saturday February 27 2016
britain’s
brightest
car column
Edited by Nat Barnes
AA Writer Of The Year
World Car Of The Year Juror
email [email protected] twitter @expressmotoring
Prius design’s spark of genius
Check out our video of the
Toyota Prius on the road
at express.co.uk/motoring
By Ryan Borroff
A
fter a very impressive
3.5 million sales worldwide
the Toyota Prius holds
the crown for the world’s
best-selling hybrid. If
only it didn’t look quite
so conservative.
Twenty years ago, when the
Prius was launched, design didn’t
matter to the people who bought
it. They cared only about the
environment, not how it looked.
Two decades on, this fourthgeneration Prius is anything but
conservative. When designing it,
Toyota was determined to create
a more emotional style and there’s
no denying it has drama.
Thankfully the car looks better
in the metal than it does in
photographs. It looks best from the
side which ironically is where the
car is at its most conventional.
At the front and rear it looks
futuristic, emphasised in the
curvature of its lights and graphics.
At the front it is a little bit toothy
and you can’t help but feel that
its design team could have been
reeled back in somewhat. Either
way the Prius really stands out.
Toyota says the car was designed
LOGBOOK LOWDOWN
ELECTRIFYING: The LCD dash can be a bit overwhelming but Toyota hopes this hybrid will attract buyers who care as much about looks as the environment
to maximise efficiency with every
crease and line located to optimise
airflow. Like it or not it certainly
has character and it looks sportier.
Which is entirely the point because
looks aside this Prius promises
good things.
The car is built on a new platform
and is longer, wider and lower
than any of its predecessors.
It also has improved suspension
and a stiffer body. All of which
suggests a better drive.
The new setup definitely gives
the car a sportier template
than before and it is clear that
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● Model: Toyota Prius
● Price range: £23,295 to
£27,450
● Engine: Petrol – 1.8-litre +
electric motor
● Power: 0 to 60mph in 10.2
seconds, 112mph top speed
● Average fuel economy:
94.1mpg
● CO 2 emissions range:
70-78g/km
● Rivals: Audi A3 Sportback
e-tron, Honda Jazz Hybrid,
VW Golf GTE
● Rating: ★★★★★★★★✩✩
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Toyota’s design team were keen to
cash in on it.
As before there’s a 1.8-litre
petrol engine linked to an electric
motor, which together produce
121bhp, and a continuously
variable automatic gearbox.
That’s enough to get the car from
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STREAMLINED: Toyota says the fourth-generation Prius has been designed to maximise efficiency and optimise airflow. The result is an impressive 94.1mpg
70g/km which means the car is
exempt from road tax and the
London congestion charge. As
always this alone means company
car drivers will be drawn to it.
Get behind the wheel and you
notice how much lower you
now sit which translates to
a much more amenable vehicle.
The handling is also better and
the steering feels firmer.
With acceleration that’s a little
slower than before it’s clearly
no sports car but the gearbox is
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0 to 60mph in 10.2 seconds before
going on to a top speed of 112mph.
Of more importance to most
buyers will be the considerably
improved fuel economy: 94.1mpg
on the smaller 15in wheels and
85.6mpg on the 17in wheels. Just
as impressive are emissions of only
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***/sea
smoother and more consistent
than it is in the outgoing model.
There’s also little road and wind
noise and the engine sounds
quieter. Simply put the new Prius
drives better than ever.
The interior is a better place
to be, both in terms of comfort
and the quality of the trim (the
great swathes of cheaper-feeling
plastic that used to make up
so much of the dashboard and
doors is gone).
It feels like there’s more space
NO ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT IN PEUGEOT SW
difference
SO, is size
during everyday
important?
use as a
When it comes
family car.
to modern
It might
estates you’d
sound like
think not.
we’re stating
That’s
the obvious
because the
but the ability
boot is often
of the Peugeot
only a tad
BIG APPEAL: SW has large boot to swallow
bigger than
anything and
it is in their
everything that we can throw at
saloon or hatch counterparts.
it is a boon.
But it’s a different story with
Moreover, knowing that it can
our long-term Peugeot 308SW.
do so is one less thing you have
There’s 660 litres of space with
to worry about, a big help when
the rear seats up and a huge
it comes to family outings.
1,600 litres with them down.
Forget small, fashionable
That is a massive amount
estate cars. Think big boots.
of space and makes a big
Aston Martin’s new Bond with Wales
EXCELLENT news. Aston Martin has
announced that the new DBX
crossover (right) will be produced at a
new plant in St Athan in Glamorgan
and that construction work will start
on the old MoD site next year.
Between that and its existing
facility in Gaydon, Warwickshire,
Aston will create more than 1,000
new jobs in the UK by 2020, when
the DBX will be launched. In the
meantime the maker will unveil
its DB11 sports car next week
and launch its all-electric RapidE
model in 2018.
It is a boom time for South
***
Wales. Only last September Ford
announced a £181million investment
at its engine plant in nearby Bridgend.
Production is due to start in late 2018.
inside, too, helped a great deal by
the position of the seats. Because
you sit so much lower Toyota has
worked wonders with the view out.
It really is that good.
A lower bonnet and thinner
windscreen pillars mean a
huge width of glazing that most
drivers will appreciate. Similarly
the glass panel that spans the
width of the car beneath the rear
spoiler gives a great view of what’s
going on behind you.
The interior is styled somewhat
retrospectively as if it were
originally designed in the 1990s to
look like something that had
travelled back some 20 years. It is
attractive enough and clearly still
very Japanese but the mass of
LCD displays on the dashboard
assaults the senses somewhat.
Because the hybrid battery is
now smaller and located entirely
beneath the rear seats there
is more boot space with up to
502 litres on offer. But tall people
in the rear may struggle to get
comfortable because of the slope
of the roof.
Unfortunately there is some cost
to all these improvements, both
literally and figuratively.
This model, which is a tad slower
than its predecessor, now costs
£23,295, though there’s more
standard equipment including
LED headlamps and Toyota’s
Safety Sense package that
includes radar adaptive cruise
control and pre-collision and lane
departure warning.
This latest Prius isn’t quite the
great leap forward some people
were expecting but it is a massive
improvement. For the first time
it stands a chance of attracting
buyers who aren’t just trying to
save the planet.
Whether the car attracts the
detractors with its new design
remains to be seen but it is a big
step forward in terms of quality
and confidence.
Toyota could have played it safe
but didn’t. This new Prius won’t
be everyone’s cup of tea but it is
significantly better than its
predecessors and a far more
appealing car to own.
61