Toyota Prius is Boring
Which came first, chicken or egg? Put another way, what comes first - form or function? In many instances, this is an academic question - with some things, design classics all, form and function are married so perfectly that one can just tell that they were inextricably intertwined right from conception, and that the thing in question is as exquisite to look at as it is sublime to use. There are some things, though, which are ugly in form as well as function.
One of these things is the Toyota Prius. Even the name suggests male genitalia - and it seems that one has to be a bit of a genitive organ to drive one. I certainly felt like one on the recent 500 mile round-trip I completed with some friends. It's roomy enough - the back held camping equipment for five adults, albeit for one night only, and the five weren't squashed like sardines. The Prius is quite a big car - certainly the back is tall enough.
But the room is perhaps the best thing about the Prius. Although the five adults were catered for in terms of room, it occurs to me that a barn is also roomy - and more comfortable. I and my front-seat passenger were fairly able to cope with the journey with adequate comfort - but there were squeals of discomfort from back-seat passengers. They ranged in ages from teen- to middle-aged, all in good health, and yet the Prius was, for some reason, responsible for causing some discomfort to their backs. They were also complaining about loose trim and whiny noises coming from the wheels.
The next bone of contention was the driving arrangement. For a start, the handbrake is operated by foot, and is where the clutch would be on a car with manual transmission. To start the car is a bit of a rigmarole which takes a bit of getting used to - you have to make sure the handbrake is on, push in the "key" and the footbrake, then press the start button twice until the word "ready" comes up on the dashboard. Then... nothing happens! You have to select the appropriate gear by pressing the footbrake (if in "park") and use the toggle on the bottom-left of the dashboard to select either drive or reverse - and the reverse comes with its own little annoying beep-beep-beep alarm system, probably so it can wake you up after the boring awfulness of it. And, were you tempted to reverse in the conventional manner - that is, looking back through the rear window - you would find that although the window itself is large, a very critical place is blind-spotted by the rear spoiler. The arrangement of extending the glass area down onto the vertical of the back is good, but I would rather not have to guess what is hidden by the spoiler.
But wait! There's also a TV screen on the dashboard, to tell you where power is coming from and going to. Thrilling stuff - but not for the driver when you are hurtling at 70mph down the motorway, whose attention should be on the road ahead. But the TV also serves as a control panel - which is all fine and dandy except that in order to get to where you want to go, you have to go through a series of options - which takes your attention off the road which means you have to stop to fiddle around with them.
Gripping (boring) stuff: Toyota make extremely boring cars extremely well - it is the basis for their success - so having to stop en route in order to adjust the air conditioning is rather beyond the pale. Why prolong the agony? I was just happy to get home.
