Toyota > The Prius Is Not A Slug

Filed in archive on August 28, 2007

By Gunnar Heinrich

In what must be one of Toyota's own P.R. machine's more lax moments, the company has used the recent story about Californian state police arresting former US V.P. Al Gore's son for speeding in a Toyota prius at 104 mph to advertise the Prius' open road prowess.

"For those who thought buying a Prius meant giving up a chance to hit the open road and let it all hang out, it seems Al Gore III has proven you wrong," Bruce Ertmann wrote on Toyota's own blog, "We don't advocate traveling 100 mph on our nation's highways or anywhere for that matter, but we've heard from some of our Prius owners that say it's kind of nice to know the car is not a slug."

Still, at 110 horsepower, the Prius isn't exactly a cheetah when charging to sixty in 11 seconds.

[Source: Detroit News]

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Response from: Glenn (08/28/07 11:44am)

I own a 2005 Prius, and it can do 60 in about 10 seconds. Truthfully, that's plenty fast for a family car, and in fact, when I was a kid (in the 1960's), such performance was on par with normal mid-sized V8 family cars with automatics. Which got 15 to 20 mpg instead of 45 to 55 mpg, as does my Prius.

Nope, 335 pound feet of torque (combined gasoline & electric maxima) certainly does NOT make a car a "slug". This equates to about what modern pickup truck V8's can produce, in fact....

110 horsepower in the Prius simply means the top speed is "limited" (to about 106).

My wife's 2007 Sonata 4 cylinder will do 0-60 in about 10 seconds, and tops out at 125-130 or so, has more horsepower and less torque - to be honest, I don't need the extra tops speed. The Sonata gets 25-30 mpg.

I'd rather get 45-55 mpg, and forego the top speed (that I never use)!

Response from: universityupdate.com