The Prius is Better

The Prius Has It All!

We have all heard the same ole same ole about the Prius - it's slow, it handles like a tub of lard, it's ugly. Guess what? Those are all subjective points of view. That makes each one of them wrong as no opinion is right. You lost.

The Prius is better because no other car has solar panels. These solar panels RUN the AC unit in the car eliminating drag on the batteries. The result is a constantly cool car even on the hottest days. The AC will run in a parking lot while you are off watching a movie or whatever. Self-cooling = better.

The Prius is clean energy on a budget. Who needs a Chevy or a Ford for $80,000 when you could get a Prius for $25,000? Who wants to wait for the IRS to do something right? I don't. Take the power away from them and their dumb tax credit. Get a Prius and save $55,000. It is just the right thing to do.

The Prius has advanced traction control and air intake management systems. Dyson, the cyclonic vacuum maker has licensed their technology to Toyota. The result is a Dysonic Intake and Traction Control. Let's discuss the Intake first. Dysonic Intake simulates a vortex within the intake runners by reticulating the intake splines and causing the air to swirl as it moves past them. This maximizes the efficiency in the gas part of the engine giving it awesome power and efficiency without the use of a formal turbo. The Traction Control is fairly simple as well. The cyclonic effect of the vacuum, is applied inside each wheel. When the system is on, it effectively sucks the car down to the ground allowing it to handle 2 g's of cornering force. It could climb the side of a building but the entry/exit angels don't allow access. What happens to all the air that is vacuumed up behind each tire? It is mixed in with the air pulled thru the intake for a super cold charge of dense air for that extra boost of speed.

The Prius has two engines, and electric one that can drive the car up to 15 mph and a gas helper engine that takes over once speeds exceed 15 mph which is not too often. The gas engine can be thought of as a 98 hp turbo booster to the main electric engine which already makes all of the torque at 0 rpm. The combined effect of the two engines, working together seamlessly, is equivalent to the power of 400 elephants charging out of control over the Serenghetti. It is a very powerful engine.

Toyota, however, in their infinite wisdom and learning, have figured most people like to drive slow cars and have dialed back the performance of these systems to allow for more fun. The Traction Control system only allows for .8 g's during cornering as no one wants a car that can fly around a 25 mph corner at 100 mph without a loss of control. They are borrowing from the FR-S model here to great effect. Likewise, the cyclonic intake uses just one spline allowing for modest swirl and decent punch. The one flaw they have with the engine tuning however, is tuning the electric engine's torque to peak higher in the rev range rather than at 0 rpm. There's no fun to be had at a stop!

I hope this lets you all know just how much better the Prius really is and how fortunate we are to be able to buy one of these fine pieces of automotive awesomeness. Toyota should be heralded as the Enthusiast's Choice for cars since they apply so much technology from unlikely sources to make every product that much better than the rest.

Next time you see a Volt or a Fusion Hybrid or even a Golf TDI, you can scoff at them knowing full well they overpaid for their overrated vehicle. The Prius is King. The Prius is awesome. The Prius is BETTER.