2011 Toyota Prius

The 2011 Toyota Prius isn’t the most comfortable or fastest car on the market, but the Prius makes up for these faults with its stellar fuel economy ratings of 51/48 mpg city/highway, the highest on the market.

Toyota hasn’t released pricing for the 2011 Toyota Prius, but the 2010 model started at $22,800, which positions it between the less expensive Honda Insight and the pricier Ford Fusion Hybrid and Toyota Camry Hybrid.
Overall, it's still more future-appliance than future-chic. The combination puts out 134 horsepower, but the 1.8-liter's better torque helps the Prius run at slower engine speeds on the highway.

The stiffer body shell helps reduce noise and vibration from the engine and continuously variable transmission. Backseaters get the knee room left behind by slimmer front seatbacks and better headroom from the rejiggered roofline, but in front things could be better—the new center console gets in the way of front knee room, and front seats are still skimpy on padding, though the driver's seat is now height-adjustable. Safety options include radar cruise control, a lane-departure warning system, a rearview camera, a "Safety Connect" system that alerts emergency crews after a crash, and the stunt technology of the day—Intelligent Parking Assist, which helps you parallel-park the Prius via the car's cameras, albeit with your foot on the brake to control speed. For 2011, the former Prius II, II, IV, and V models have been replaced by Prius Two, Prius Three, etc. A Prius One model is expected to bow later in the model year.

Although base 2011 Toyota Prius One and Two models are priced in the low-to-mid twenties, and power windows, cruise control, and an AM/FM/XM/CD player are standard, but there are plenty of features meant to woo affluent buyers into spending more on the expensively engineered Prius. There's a Touch Tracer system that mimics your finger-swipes over steering-wheel controls over the gauges, so you don't have to look down to adjust radio stations or climate-control settings.

The 2011 Toyota Prius is an exceptionally efficient car at a relatively low price for people who care more about conservation than the act of driving. The base sticker for the Prius Two trim level has risen to $23,520, and it's practically impossible to find such low-priced versions on dealer lots, but its 50 mpg in combined driving is untouchable for any car without a power plug. The 2011 Honda Insight hybrid starts at $18,200, yet its estimated 41 mpg trails even the previous-generation Prius' 46 mpg.

Prius owners love their hybrids with a freakish passion, but whatever it is they enjoy about the cars, it can't be the actual driving. All hybrids and electrics employ regenerative braking, which uses the drive motors as generators to recharge their battery packs. All hybrids and EVs exhibit this drawback, but I think the Prius is among the worst.

Honda's hybrids — and non-hybrids with continuously variable automatic transmissions — feel a little more normal, but their mileage results aren't as impressive.
The Prius has a selectable all-electric mode, EV, that allegedly allows for gas-free acceleration. It may raise the threshold at which the gas engine kicks in, but it's nothing like the Chevrolet Volt — which runs electric-only under full acceleration — or even the Prius Plug-In demonstration car from our plug-in comparison, which gives respectable electric acceleration to 60 mph. Prius owners will argue furiously that they drive all-electric all the time, up to about 30 mph.
Many small cars prove you can have pleasant ride quality at a fair price. Likewise, quietness is no longer the sole province of luxury cars, and the Prius stumbles in this area as well.
The interior is where the Prius earns its stripes. The backseat offers adults plenty of room, and parents will want to check out MotherProof's Car Seat Check to see how various child-safety seats fit the Prius. (Anyone who wants almost 60 percent more cargo volume than the Prius should check out the 2012 Toyota Prius V review.)

The Volt and hybrid versions of the Ford Fusion, Hyundai Sonata and Kia Optima have high-res color LCDs. To indicate the car's in Reverse?
The Prius received top scores of Good in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's front- , side- and rear-impact crash tests.

Like clockwork, when gas prices rise, so does demand for the Prius, and that means shoppers will encounter higher transaction prices and fewer choices at dealerships. There is no non-hybrid Prius and few comparable gas-only models, because most midsize cars are sedans. What frustrates the calculation is the true price of a new Prius.