Is the Toyota Prius a bad car? #blogpost

The Toyota Prius gets a lot of hate amongst car enthusiasts, chiefly because it stands for the one thing that most of us don’t care about: fuel economy. But does this make it a bad car? We don’t like it, so it must be bad, right? Right? Or has almost the entire community of car enthusiasts got it wrong? Is the Toyota Prius a good car?

Well, let’s think as if you are the average person. You want a cheap, practical car that won’t cost too much to run. And you want to show your hatred of climate change deniers. What do you get? That’s right. A Toyota Prius. What do you not get? A Challenger Hellcat.

And yes, the production of the batteries ruins Canadian forests and yes, different parts of the car have to be shipped all around the world, by ships that produce more carbon dioxide than some countries. But the amount of carbon dioxide that hasn’t been produced by the 5.264 million Prii and Prii variations vastly outweighs the amount of damage that producing the car causes. And all other cars, while not causing quite so much damage before they are even built, will do more damage in the long term, of course with the exception of electric cars.

But, you may ask, what about said electric cars? Would it not be much better for the environment if we all drove electric cars? And yes, indeed it would. But is that practical yet? Nearly, but not quite. Yes, they are cheap enough (Nissan Leaf). Yes, they have a good image (Tesla). But the batteries have to be recharged, and that takes quite a long time, and there are fewer recharging stations than really necessary. Maybe in ten years time electric cars will be just as practical as normal cars, but until then the Prius is the best option.

Of course, there is another big problem with the Prius: it has pretty much turned into a status symbol. In July 2007, the results of an experiment were published revealing that 57% of Prius buyers bought one because “it makes a statement about me”. Only 37% cited fuel economy as a prime motivator.

And some Prius drivers can be a little… arrogant.

And does the Prius have to be the complete opposite of what car enthusiasts look for? No. If people are prepared to modify perfectly normal Civics, then why can’t you modify a Prius? There’s nothing stopping you. In fact, it’s perfect. Thanks to that endless pursuit of efficiency, the drag coefficient of the latest Prius is just 0.24. Only three production cars are slippier. Or even better, go make a race Prius. Do what Toyota themselves did and enter it into the extremely competitive GT300 category of Super GT in Japan, and win. The Prius does not have to be a bad car.

Why can’t people accept the Prius for what it is? It’s a massive advance for technology, a massive advance for awareness of climate change, a massive advance for the car industry as a whole. Without the Prius, the TheFerrari, McLaren P1 or Porsche 918 would not exist. Without the Prius, hybrid vehicles would never have been entered into the World Endurance Championship, and today’s F1 cars would definitely not be hybrids. The Prius has changed the face of automotive history.

Thanks for bothering to read this. It’s serving as final revision before my English exam tomorrow, so please comment with any writing tips :)