intial thought: AWESOME.
second thought: REALLY AWESOME.
i let mel drive it around all weekend to get around since she was nice enough to drive it up here for me in the first place. i took her to the airport on monday morning, and then dove into the carpool lane to go to work during mad rush hour at 7:30.
45 minutes.
it’s great being able to drive in the carpool lane, and yet strange at the same time. i feel vaguely elitist, like i bought my way into some super-exclusive first class private highway right next to the regular one. which of course, i did. mine is congestion-free and paved with silk, while theirs is filled with potholes and smells of cabbages.
talking with chip who also has a prius with stickers, he says that it’s not only the fact that you’re passing all of the traffic, but also that you get into a different mindset: you arrive stress-free, without all of the aggravation of that stop-and-go. i have to agree; it’s much more relaxing and allows you to just zone out. and even when you do stop-and-go, you’re oddly a little excited by it, as it’s an opportunity to regenerate some energy into the battery.
i just hope that the stop-and-go wasn’t the only thing that was keeping me from falling asleep while driving.
as for the prius itself, it is totally a geek car: huge multifunction display shows you exactly what the car is doing, whether you’re being powered by battery or by engine, or whether the battery is being charged by the wheels as you coast for a bit. it shows your average mpg for the last half hour in five minute increments, along with how many 50W light bulb equivalents you’ve regenerated. and then there’s the touch-pad controlled everything else: gps, audio system, bluetooth integration with the phone.
finally, a car that’s quiet enough to have an honest phone conversation without me having to mute constantly and show. now i can talk without the people on the other line complaining about how they can’t hear me. yeah, i’m talking about you. you know who you are.
the smart key is pretty slick as well: i can walk up to the car, it automatically unlocks, and then just sit down, push the on button, and drive away. and then when i get out, just push the button on the door handle, and lock the car back up. at no point does the key leave my pocket. weird.
the only downside so far is that the audio system seems to be pretty, uh, crappy. although it might just be the ipod through the cassette adapter making it extra crappy. i’ll install the ipod thing next week and see if it’s better, otherwise i’m going to have to rip the entire system out. which from what i’ve read, is not a pretty process.
all in all, it’s pretty nice so far. it’s not zippy and not fun like i wanted in a mini, but it gets me to work and back pretty quickly. i do have to admit, though, to make myself feel better about that, often count how many minis i pass on the way to work…
Posted at October 26, 2007 6:53 PM | TrackBack