Toyota Prius (2003 - 2009)
t spirit 1.5 vvti 5dr auto hatchback
very economical,easy to drive,reliable
we bought this this car back in may 2014 for our cleaning buisness after doing much research we finaly went with a hybrid as our work is town based and where the prius is very economical delivering 48-52 mpg round town all day its very comfortable to drive very well equiped sat nav(i find built in systems much more convienient than something stuck on your windscreen despite some limitations),rear camera ,superb jbl hifi system and has plenty of power when you need it once you get used to the hybrid system were the electric motor acts as a turbo charger to give you very quick acceleration at lower speeds ,also we find the car very comfortable and quiet refined as a motorway cruiser and find the economy very good beetween 52-60, on a recent holiday down south we averaged 58 which i feel is exceptional for a non manual car.The cvt can be a little noisy when worked hard but has its a cvt drive is instant as theres only one continous gear with no lag unlike a normal auto. Weve so far done just over 30k in a little over 2 years the only parts being tyres ,brake discs and pads and the amall 12v aux battery which needs replacing every 5 years or so .Overall a superb car that handles quite well is reliable and much more economical for town driving than a diesel and good economy for motorway driving,the only downsides are badly affected by crosswinds due to the weight distribution and also the economy drops off quite dramaticaly in extreme cold weather down to about 34-42 a common problem with hybrids.