. too small, very little truck [sic] space.

False.

2. mediocre MPGs

Yeah, 61 mpg in the city is "mediocre". You're right. Now hop in your Dodge Durango.

3. too heavy.

Lighter than most vehicles.

4. horrible 0-60, way under powered.

Blatant lie. 300 ft-lbs of torque and 0-60 times under 10 seconds.

5. too expensive, buyers will never recover extra cost.

Breakeven is at 102,728 miles, well within the useful lifetime of the vehicle.

This is all neglecting where the money goes. You prefer giving money to people who produce oil (and all the lovely consequences of that) as opposed to organizations that build technologies which make the world better.

If you could build in the year 2000 a car as big and more flexible as the Prius2 ( the Audi A2 1.2 is 390/1140 Liter and the Prius2 408/1210 ) and safe with better fuel usage ( 81 G CO2 / 100 KM against 104 for the Prius2 ) w i t h o u t Hybrid so where is the Progress in efficiency with Toyotas way of building Hybrids ???

Comparing a little diesel car that never made it to the US market with a midsize car that can make it in the US (with its safety and emissions standards). It's much slower, too. Sounds like it was expensive as well. Apples and oranges.

Let's ignore the tailpipe (which is an odd thing to do on GREEN Car Congress), and look at specs. The Audi A2 diesel gets 4.2 L/100 km (56.0 MPG). The gas version gets 6.1 L/100 km (38.6 MPG). The Prius gets 4.3 L/100 km (54.7 MPG).

http://www.audiworld.com/model/a2/specs.shtml
http://www.toyota-europe.com/cars/new_cars/prius/specs.aspx

The emissions coefficient for gasoline is 19.564 lbs/gallon. For diesel, it's 22.384 lbs/gallon. So, CO2 emissions per 100 miles are 35.77 for the Prius, 39.97 for the A2 TDI, and 50.68 for the A2 gas.

The Prius hits Euro4 gas emission standards, compared to Euro3 for the A2 TDI. Consequently, the A2 TDI puts out 5-6 times the NOx, in addition to being more carbon intensive.

The Audi A2 diesel is not 4,2 l/100 km, it's 3,0 l/100 km. It was called the "3 litre car".

Aha. The 4,2 litres are for the Audi A2 1.4 TDI, while the 3,0 litres are for the Audi A2 1.2 TDI.

The Audi A2 diesel is not 4,2 l/100 km, it's 3,0 l/100 km. It was called the "3 litre car".

Ah.

So why'd they stop selling it?

Too expensive to produce , thats Audis line anyway,
It is a great little car all panels are aluminium over a
space frame,very strong and very light ,
In fact it is the perfect doner car for conversion
to BEV , has also very good aerodynamics , and a good sized
large free space under the boot floor for the batteries.
since audi stopped making them the prices secondhand
have fallen considerably, making them a good buy

My info regarding the prius come from an investigative report by the Penn and Teller show for Show Time Cable Cannels

1. too small, very little trunk space.

False.
True!!!!! there was not enough room for a husband and wife to take a single child to grandmothers house for a week-end....Have you ever taken a kid any where? you have to haul a lot of junk with a kid.

2. mediocre MPGs

Yeah, 61 mpg in the city is "mediocre". You're right. Now hop in your Dodge Durango.
Penn And Teller tested the mpgs and only got 41 mpg....

3. too heavy.

Lighter than most vehicles.
Prius is the heaviest in it's size class.....period...
4. horrible 0-60, way under powered.

Blatant lie. 300 ft-lbs of torque and 0-60 times under 10 seconds.
Penn and Teller tested the car and it took 18 to 20 seconds for it to get up to 60mph...(that's a lifetime if you are trying to pull out on some highways) test drive the car yourself it's a numero uno DOG!!!!

5. too expensive, buyers will never recover extra cost.

Breakeven is at 102,728 miles, well within the useful lifetime of the vehicle.
never a breakeven bc the car doesn't get 61 mpgs..

This is all neglecting where the money goes. You prefer giving money to people who produce oil (and all the lovely consequences of that) as opposed to organizations that build technologies which make the world better.
IRRELEVANT!!!!

Posted by: aba | Jun 2, 2007 9:44:37

Audi A2 1.2 liter 0-60mph: ~15 seconds
Prius 0-60mph: ~10 seconds

The MPG might be comparable but the performance is out of league.

Audi A2 was never intended for the mainstream like the Honda Insight. They were built on exotic materials.

Majeasy,

Check out the real owner video on real world driving road.

Fully loaded Prius accelerates uphill from 41mph to 65 mph in 7 seconds at 42Min:45Second. Be sure to look at the overall MPG at the end of the video.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3823585124965059408

Psst, Majeasy: P&T is a comedy duo. You're welcome.

My info regarding the prius come from an investigative report by the Penn and Teller show for Show Time Cable Cannels

LOL!! Are you kidding? My information comes from objective data. But your crackpot Heritage Foundation wannabe nutters know better than cold, hard, unbendable facts do. Ha! Gotta love it.

True!!!!! there was not enough room for a husband and wife to take a single child to grandmothers house for a week-end....Have you ever taken a kid any where? you have to haul a lot of junk with a kid.

Malarkey. They would have to be the world's tallest and fattest couple and baby for that to be true - and even then. It has more rear legroom than a Mercury Grand Marquis and the same amount of trunk space as a Ford Fusion. If someone's got so much crap for a "weekend at Grandma's" that it won't fit in a spacious vehicle, it's their lazy fault, not some car manufacturer's.

Penn And Teller tested the mpgs and only got 41 mpg....

They're full of crap. One data point is irrelevant, especially when it's produced by someone with a strong bias. Go to Greenhybrid or Fueleconomy.gov and look up real world numbers - they come in at 47 combined. Find me any non-hybrid on the MY07 market that even gets within 10 mpg of that.

Prius is the heaviest in it's size class.....period...

Oh, really? It's classified as "Midsize" by the EPA. Did the reliable Penn and Teller the Transportation Experts share that with you? Have you ever even been in a Prius? Here's some other vehicle's in its size class with their curb weights:

Honda Accord... 3,437
Toyota Camry... 3,428
Nissan Altima... 3,324
Benz E320... 3,860
Chevy Malibu... 3,476
Mazda 6... 3,395
Chrysler Sebring... 3,376
Ford Fusion... 3,280
VW Passat... 3,829
BMW 525i... 3,428
Saab 9-5... 3,470
Audi A6... 4,222
etc etc

Want to guess how many of those weigh less than the Prius? Zero. The Prius weighs 2,932 lbs -- less than a VW Golf, less than a VW Rabbit, less than a Nissan Sentra. There's a reason it gets such high mileage -- weight is one reason.

Penn and Teller didn't tell you all this?

==continued==

Penn and Teller tested the car and it took 18 to 20 seconds for it to get up to 60mph...

Then they're both idiots and Penn needs to shed a ton or two off his fat behind. Motor Trend clocked it at 9.8 seconds. Penn's a New Yorker - probably doesn't drive enough to even figure out where the accelerator pedal is.

never a breakeven bc the car doesn't get 61 mpgs..

That's using 47 mpg as the assumption, smart guy. Try again.

IRRELEVANT

Where your money goes is irrelevant? Please cut me a check for your entire net worth, then.

Why is it that nobody factors in reduced brake system maintenance when talking about hybrid savings. This could be as significant as gas for some people.

<"Psst, Majeasy: P&T is a comedy duo. You're welcome.
Posted by: richard schumacher | Jun 2, 2007 5:54:51 PM">

Clearly you have never seen P&T lastest on Show Time...
comedy is part of the show, but mostly it suggests how stupid and gullible some americans have become.

Prius owners fit that group....

i'm NOT suggesting anyone subscribe to SHOWTIME.

however if you what know what their show is about.

Click Penn & Teller

but mostly it suggests how stupid and gullible some americans have become.

That much is obvious. Just look at your comments on this thread.

There is no question, the Prius can go from 0-60 in less then 10 seconds. This has been measured by many people.

The Prius does get its advertised mpg if you drive it properly just like most other cars. Most non hypermilers report 45+ mpg, most hypermilers can beat the EPA ratings by a good deal.

The Prius is easily big enough to take three full size people and a reasonable amount of stuff for a weekend. You have the fourth seat and the hatch area to store call kinds of stuff.

Why if its such a bad car are the sales figures going through
the roof?
A friend of mine here in Italy has just bought one , and while
true its not quite big enough to move a troupe of circus elephants
around in , has done a number of long trips 700 miles plus ,with
two kids and the wife ,plus all the bags required for a week away,
and the car (Prius) returned 5.4 litres per 100 km , which is pretty
good by anyones standards,
I think that these days you find that there are many people out
there who find some sort of wharped pleasure from rubbishing
products that deep down they know to be good , the same thing
has always exsisted between the Apple and PC users . I have always
used Apple and yet my nieghbour insists they are rubbish prefering
the PC route , I have had my present Mac for 6 years with not one problem,
In that time he has replaced almost everything on his machine including
a hard disk crash where he lost 3 years photos, yet he still insists the
PC is better !
The Prius is a fine car and is also a fully integrated system , it does
not have many shortcomings , but I can understand why the Pc users
dont get it !

hi, sorry for my bad english, im spanish and live in japan with my wife, her parents has a second gen prius, i have drive it several times, the feeling is pretty different to all my previous cars, feels very gentle to drive it, the feeling of no noise or vibration when in electric mode very satisfaing, luxurius-like i would say.
what i mean is i dont know how good or bad is mpg or other specs, but when u are driving this car u really feel that u are driving a more evolved version of the idea of car, since i got my hand on the prius, normal cars seem to me like something from the past.
especially when i watch the cms of cars on the tv i realize that they dont have nothing to say in their ads, cause after all they just keeping selling the same car as 10 or 20 years ago, with diferent colors and designs.
here in japan there are many prius in the streets, and makes me feel good to see them around.

OK, for the seemingly dim amongst us, here is some information:

Penn & Teller are entertainers and have an entertainment show. They are not experts, nor do they claim to be.

Because they are entertainers, they will do whatever is necessary to keep their names out there. See how a bunch of you (including me) are mentioning their names? No such thing as bad P.R. in showbiz.

So, if/when it comes out that they blatantly lied in their test, would there be any legal ramifications for them? Nope. They are not bound by any law. Toyota might choose to sue, but that would be a civil matter.

So, Penn & Teller are as reliable a source of information as Bozo the Clown. If you don't understand that now, you are at a serious disadvantage for living a long and happy life.

Now back to reality.

Wanderer,
for 5 seasons now this program has played.
your comments suggest you have never seen it...

toyota can't sue P&T bc they are only the reporters.

if you want bozo the clown info go to motor trend and all the mags that toyota has paid-off with their advertising...

consumers are fed a line of info and P&T only debunks it.... consumers are manipulated.... we all need to learn to think for ourselves....

if anybody does their own study, and they think that having two power trains in their vehicle makes sense to them.... than a hybrid is for them....

personally i think only one drive train is the way to go for me...

Oh my GHODDD!!!! Is it too late to trade back my Prius for the Jeep Cherokee?

we all need to learn to think for ourselves....

Says a guy who blindly takes the word of a graduate of Clown College (no joke) on the issue of transporation and technology, and when confronted with the massive disconnect between the beliefs he absorbed from the Clown College graduate and actual reality, sticks his fingers deeper in his ears and yells even louder "This is the way it is!"

please,
instead of, all of us making fools of ourselves...

read some common sense pro and con from some people who have actually seen the show and know what it is about:
P&T season finale: Environmental Hysteria

instead of, all of us making fools of ourselves...

Dude, you're doing a solo act on that count. Please address the facts presented which counter your beliefs. I thought you wanted to "think for yourself". Or is your adoration for the Clown College grad all that matters to you?