T3

the car in front is starting to get left behind by newer diesel models.....

I've now covered 60k miles in my latest gen prius, so thought it worth writing an update to my previous review (written at 23k miles).

I've recently completed a 2500 mile round trip to Lake Garda in Italy (including some local driving around the lake) from Leeds where we live. Average fuel economy over the trip was 57mpg, which is not bad considering autoroute speeds of 130 - 150 kmh.

By contrast I've just done a return journey from Cardiff to Leeds (230 miles) on which I achieved 73.5mpg sitting at a steady 65mph. Clearly, the key thing to achieving good mpg with this car is how you drive it. This is where the latest diesels seem to beat it - if you're the sort of driver who sits at 80 - 90 mph on the motorway I think you'd probably be as well / better off in one of the more recent diesels, however if you are able to cope with the boredom of a 65mph cruise the prius could be for you.

The performance of the car is better than expected - I've never really felt that it is short on power, and I do like the CVT gearbox - it is just so smooth and lovely and quiet when driving slowly, however try and accelerate hard from 50 - 70mph up hill and the engine revs to its maximum and is therefore quite noisy - in complete contrast to a diesel where the torque does the work.

The car has been completely reliable so far, but I have been disappointed by the build quality of the interior - there are one or two rattles which simply will not go away. The other disappointment is refinement - my wife drives the new toyota yaris and it is quieter on the motorway than mine. The main problem is wind noise - which is greatly exacerbated in windy conditions.

In summary, this is a great company car - very low company car tax and if you have to claim your business mileage back (i.e. you do not have a fuel card) it is classed as a normal petrol car for this purpose which carries a higher ppm rate than an equivalent diesel and so makes sound financial sense.

Would I spend my own money on it though? No - afraid not. I'd buy a slightly used ford mondeo.

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