The new Toyota Prius has been awarded the Top Gear City Car of the Year award.
I’m not too sure how much input the Top Gear boys – Messrs Clarkson, Hammond and May – have in the judging of the Top Gear Awards. But we would have to guess precious little judging by the announcement that the Toyota Prius has been awarded the Top Gear City Car of the Year Award.
But even Top Gear as a team has to acknowledge that the appeal of the latest generation Toyota Prius – which went on sale in the UK in August – is significant. In the four months since going on sale the Prius has clocked up sales of over 4,000. Which is not insignificant by any measure. Due in no small part, we’re sure, to Toyota’s decision to peg the price of the new Prius at old model levels
In fact, the awards are selected by a combination of Top Gear’s online, TV and Magazine teams, so the existing Prius bias from the TV show was obviously overwhelmed by the rest of the team. Top Gear said that thanks to the Prius’ full hybrid technology it is ideal for slow moving traffic with its ability to run in EV mode for certain distances, reducing fuel consumption and tailpipe emissions. They went on to say that the 72.4mpg and 89g/km for a full size, five door family car were ‘Awesone numbers’.
And they may be right. We have been distinctly underwhelmed with the Prius in its previous iterations, and found it dull, dreary and nowhere near as economical as the headline figures say. But we’ve had no chance to do a review of the new Prius as Toyota hasn’t offered to send us one yet. But we are – as always – open to every point of view. If the lastest Prius is as good as Toyota are saying we’d be thrilled.
But we’re not holding our breath.




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