By FRANK A. AUKOFER
Scripps Howard News ServiceThe 2010 Toyota Prius adopts a theme from a revered song: "I'm going to change the way I strut my stuff."
In less than a decade, the Prius hybrid automobile has gone from an oddity to an icon. With 1.2 million on the roads world-wide -- 700,000 of them in the United States -- it is far and away the most successful and innovative of a new breed of vehicles that combine gasoline engines and electric motors to substantially improve fuel economy and reduce air pollution.
The first Prius was introduced in the U.S. in 2000 as a 2001 model. It was re-designed for the 2004 model year.
With the introduction this year of the third-generation 2010 model, the Prius is strutting its stuff as a more mainstream mid-sized car that could appeal to buyers who now gravitate toward the Honda Accord, Chevrolet Malibu, Nissan Altima, Chrysler Sebring, Hyundai Sonata, Mazda 6, Kia Optima, Volkswagen Passat, Ford Fusion and, yes, the best-selling Toyota Camry.
By the government's definition, which is based on interior volume, the current Prius is classified as a mid-size car. But with its tidy exterior dimensions and hybrid power train, it has been perceived as a compact, albeit environmentally friendly, economy car.
The 2010 model, though its exterior dimensions are within fractions of an inch of its predecessor, picks up five cubic feet of interior space, placing it solidly in the mid-size category. It has 94 cubic feet of passenger space and 22 cubic feet for cargo.
That, combined with an enviable reliability record, even for the expensive battery pack, and a 90 percent new hybrid drive system that delivers better fuel economy, gives the Prius the bones to be accepted as a mainstream family car.
"It's an everyday car for everyday use," says Bob Carter, Toyota's U.S. general manager.
The gravy is that new Prius has an EPA fuel consumption rating, for combined city and highway driving, of 50 miles to the gallon. You can do even better than that with fussbudget driving. This reviewer managed 75.1 miles to the gallon over a 39-mile course that included city and highway driving.
It entailed some extreme (read: slow) driving and fancy footwork to keep it moving in purely electric mode as much as possible. But even competitors who drove more normally, though carefully, recorded mileage in the neighborhood of 65 miles to the gallon.
Unless you're a feather foot who is not in a hurry and not worried about angering your fellow motorists, you should not expect such results. But without much effort, you should be able to duplicate the EPA number.
A host of innovations have gone into the Prius's new hybrid system, starting with a new 1.8-liter gasoline engine linked to an electric motor and a continuously-variable automatic transmission. The combination produces 134 horsepower to drive the front wheels.
It's not the fastest off the line. Acceleration from zero to 60 miles an hour happens in a leisurely 9.8 seconds, according to Toyota's test figures. But it is not embarrassed in stoplight sprints.
With a fully-charged battery pack, the Prius can be driven on purely electric power at speeds up to 25 miles an hour for anywhere from half a mile to several miles, depending on the speed. Helping out is a .25 coefficient of drag, a measure of how slippery the Prius is through the wind. It is close to the best on the planet, including those of most six-figure exotic cars.
On the road, the Prius is quiet and comfortable, with plenty of space for five passengers. Even the center-rear seating position, which is punishing in most mid-size cars, is almost reasonable because of decent seat padding and a nearly flat floor. Moreover, the hatchback design, with folding rear seatbacks, offers practicality similar to that of a small station wagon.
The only place where the Prius designers regressed is in the newly designed shrouded instrument cluster, which now crams into a narrow, dark slit a multitude of small hybrid information displays that wash out and are difficult to read in bright sunlight, when the driver's eyes have to quickly adjust to the dimmer digital readouts.
There are five 2010 Prius models, designated I, II, III, IV and V. The price for the base car is $21,750. Each successive model adds equipment such as upgraded audio, satellite radio, Bluetooth communications, leather upholstery, garage-door opener and bigger wheels and tires.
But the Prius also can be ordered with an array of high-tech option packages that can drive the price as high as $32,520. Toyota officials say these are aimed at loyal customers who are attracted to high technology, of which the Prius has plenty.
Among them are dynamic radar cruise control, which automatically maintains a distance from a car ahead; voice-activated navigation; so-called lane-keep assist to prevent an inattentive driver from wandering on the road; solar ventilation; remote-controlled air conditioning, and even a Lexus-like "intelligent parking assist," which automatically parks the car while the driver takes his hands off the steering wheel.
Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service. For more columns, go to scrippsnews.com
