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Review: 2007 Toyota Prius
I've owned a Toyota Prius for half a year so far, here's my experience.
Miles per Gallon
The Prius is a feel-good vehicle for those of us who are concerned with our impact on the earth, and for whom an all-electric car isn't yet practical. The affordable electrics were too limited in both speed and range to be practical when I bought, perhaps they'll improve by next time. I live at the top of the Berkeley (California) hills, and going anywhere requires an 800 foot descent, and a climb on the way back. Unfortunately, the Prius battery can't store nearly enough power to make the climb, which runs at between 8 to 12 miles per gallon as reported on the video screen. If I lived in the flat area of town, I'd probably be getting about 50 miles per gallon average, as that's what I get on highway trips and the Prius can generally improve upon its highway mileage during local trips. With that frequent climb, I get 42 MPG. That's still pretty good.
Pollution
The Prius is classified as a Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle. The engine seems to be very clean, because it's an Atkinson cycle and only runs at one RPM there is no smell of unburnt hydrocarbons. It's funny, but I now notice the smell of other cars more when standing next to them. The engineering is set up with low pollution as the primary goal, mileage second. For example, the engine management will try to get warm quickly as it pollutes less when warm, and this overrides the goal of economy which would be achieved by not running the engine. It goes to great lengths to stay warm, transferring the coolant to an internal thermos bottle when parked.
Safety
The car has active anti-skid (which really works) and front and side curtain air bags. Seat covers must have special cut-outs for the air bags, and there are spots on the dash where aftermarket equipment can not be mounted for risk of becoming a projectile during airbag deployment.
Size
The Prius is a pretty big car inside. One reason it's a mid-sized car outside is that the hood is short. It's a pretty small engine. The hood is also sloping, and you don't really see the hood while driving because of that. Valerie and I are both tall, and it's comfortable for us in the front seat. We have to move the seats up somewhat to handle tall adults in the rear seat, but it's still workable. The battery isn't that big either, and it's just behind the rear seat, leaving lots of room for storage in the rear hatch. If you need to carry something big, the rear seat folds down. It's split 60/40, so you can still carry a passenger, maybe even two, with part of the seat folded down.
Out of Gas
I have run the car out of gas twice. From a highway, I was able to get to a nearby gas station on the battery alone. Another time, going up a steep hill, the Prius didn't have the power to continue the climb, but was able to get to a gas station on the battery once I turned around. This trick won't work for much of a distance. The Prius does beep and display a video message when it's low on fuel, and the gas gauge blinks. You have to ignore all of that to run out of gas.
Package
There are lots of packages to choose from. I bought one with the electronic key, the less expensive radio, the back-up camera, and the anti-skid system. You can easily add $10K to the price of the Prius if you get Navigation with speech recognition, the nicer JBL stereo with DVD changer and Bluetooth speaker-phone, and the "touring" package with 1-inch bigger wheels, maybe some chassis improvements.
Power
The car is peppy enough for my needs, though no racer. It climbs steep hills successfully if not economically.
Visibility
The backup camera is a great help, because the rear window visibility isn't very good. The camera is wonderfully clear during the day and works pretty well at night, too. Judging distance on the screen is nothing like judging it through the mirrors. I'm so spoiled by the downward-pointing back camera that I'd like a front one just for finding curbs, etc. The Prius is low, I think the wheels are only 16 inches in diameter. You can do significant damage to the car by hitting an over-high curb during parking or a turn.
Height and Weight
The car is lower than others that I've driven, and the wheels are smaller. It's not a good car for poor roads, and it gets pushed around in high winds.
Anti-Skid
The Prius won't spin a wheel. It refuses to do so. The anti-skid stuff activates surprisingly often, there's a big bright light to inform the driver when it does. It controls the throttle, and the four brakes individually. It has individual tachometers per wheel.
If there's gravel on the road, or if your wheel catches a little air over a bump, the anti-skid system will be activated. Which is fine. The only annoying thing is that if you try to pop into a wheel-spinning sharp left turn from a stop, the anti-skid system takes away all of the power for a moment and you do the turn without spinning wheels. That only has to happen once to train the driver not to make left turns with oncoming traffic too close.
Navigation
I didn't buy the navigation system, because the annual updates to it cost as much as a stand-alone navigation system, and the initial cost of the system added thousands to the price of the car. I have a Tom-Tom sitting on top of the multi-function display.
Noise
It's not as quiet as a large luxury car, but it's quiet enough.
Key
The Prius uses an electronic key. In all but the lowest feature package, the electronic key doesn't have to leave your pocket, it is a radio transceiver and will authenticate itself to the car and let you open the door and push the "On" button. In normal operation the metal part of the key never contacts a lock.
One of the most annoying things about the Prius, unfortunately a feature shared with most contemporary vehicles, is that it can't be driven with a metal key copy, one must use the electronic key. A metal key copy will open the door but will set off the alarm when it does so, and you'll need the electronic key to reset it. RF-driven electronics will refuse to lock the doors from outside when the key is inside the car. If you want to successfully lock the electronic key inside the car, you must put it in a metal box that acts as a Faraday cage. I'm a kayaker and a skier, and taking the electronic key along with me during those activities is a hardship.
Because of a nuisance government regulation, the Prius has anti-theft electronics, and that's why metal key copies won't work. The car comes with two electronic keys. Additional electronic keys cost about $200, and in the 2007 model it's not clear whether they can be installed by anyone but the dealer.
Video
I bought the Coastal Electronics Ultimate Lockpick III just to enable the video input on the multi-function display. It works excellently to display the video output of the Icom 7000 ham radio on the multi-function display. It's really cool to have an integrated ham radio display in the dashboard. The 2007 Prius still uses NTSC-style composite video, but a transaction on the "entertainment bus" is necessary to enable the video input, thus the Coastal device. The first time the video input is used after powering up the car, a hint about how to access the DVD controls is displayed, and you have to push "OK" to see the video. This is of course wrong for the device I'm using, and I don't know if there's any way to disable the hint.
RFI
Although I have a HF ham radio on the car, I can't operate most HF ham bands while the car is moving. The electrical propulsion system generates too much RFI for me to hear other stations. I've not started to work on RFI suppression yet, and the one person who has reported some success in RFI-suppressing the Prius claims to have put more than 200 hours of work into the project. Prius uses bundle shielding and thus any wire in the bundles with the power wires will radiate. VHF and UHF work fine, and I'm content to use HF while parked for now.
Hitch
I am using the Curt bolt-on receiver hitch to hold a bicycle rack or a ham radio antenna. This requires no drilling, but does need a slot cut in one of the under-body protective panels. The Curt tends to be slightly bent when shipped due to manufacturing process problems. Two units were tested, the first was much too bent to use and I had to push on the other with a cargo bar to get the holes aligned.
Using the hitch receiver for a bicycle rack is best, because it doesn't contact the body and mess it up as a trunk or roof rack would. The Prius doesn't have the power reserve necessary for pulling a real trailer. Some have used small cargo trailers successfully.
I tried and do not recommend the Coastal Electronics hitch, it's too flexible, and I had to return mine because the bicycle rack was doing the hula. The Curt hitch is much stiffer, contains much more metal, costs less, and doesn't have problems with clearance past the exhaust pipe as the Coastal hitch does.
Ham Radio Antenna
I'm using the Curt receiver hitch to mount a Tarheel Antennas model 300 screwdriver antenna for HF. The antenna is tall enough so that the base of the adjustable coil is at the roof-line of the car. The antenna was supplied with a 6-foot whip. I added a quick-release, and two stiff springs to protect the coil from being broken if the whip hits something. For some reason the 300 is not on Tarheel's web site, although they sold it at Dayton Hamvention.
Antenna Auto-Tuner
I am using the 7000 Screwdriver Control and 7000 Tune Control from BetterRF. This is unlike any other screwdriver tuner I found in that it integrates with the IC-7000 and uses the 7000's SWR measuring electronics, so there is no RF connection to the tuner. It's not working yet, perhaps I'm getting RF feedback from the motor lead back into the screwdriver controller.
Ham Radio Mounting
I removed the insides of the left trunk pocket and there was enough space for the IC-7000 and accessories in there. The 12 volt battery is in the right pocket. This doesn't interfere with the middle cargo box or the spare tire.