SMOKE SIGNAL
I have seldom seen a man more perplexed than the fellow manning the PUC van we stopped at. Having stuck the measuring device into the Prius' exhaust and observed the reading, he scratched his head and said '<I>Iss mein toh carbon hai hi nahin<I>' ('there's no carbon in this at all'). In fact, he wrote a figure of 0.4 per cent (against the permissible CO limit of 0.5 per cent) on the certificate, until he realised the reading was actually 0.04 per cent. Needless to say, the Prius came in under the other parameters by whopping margins. What we have here is a car in which all that technology really works when it comes to reducing emissions, not to mention increasing fuel economy. The Prius returned almost 17 kpl during our test, and this in Power mode with the loud pedal floored most of the time – for a car of its size and weight, that's brilliant. With more gentle use, there's absolutely no doubt you'll get figures upwards of 20 kpl. Of course, a well-driven Fiesta diesel can match those figures, but I'm just being fussy here.
COLOURED VISION
All right, we didn't actually paint the Prius in Gulf colours, but there's no reason it can't be done. By itself, it's a... well... it's, er... 'interesting' looking. That hopeful SLK-like power bump on the hood and the double-bubble roof can't hide the fact that the Prius isn't the world's most eye-catching car (to be fair, it looks a damn sight better than some other cars sold here). You'll certainly get looks if you're in one, but they'll be more curious than admiring. Still, it looks the way it does out of necessity, because it needs to be as aerodynamic as possible. If we bought one, we'd pimp it out for sure – there's no reason why you can't be green and sporty at the same time. In the end, though, the question is this – would you buy a Toyota hatchback for roughly Rs 2 lakh less than a Mercedes-Benz C-Class, simply to save on petrol and cut emissions? Frankly, I don't know if there's a definitive answer to that question – if you buy a Prius, you probably have a Merc stashed away in the garage anyway. What I can say is that the Prius is a unique, stand-out automobile which deserves high praise – get used to it, because it's the future. Skeptical? Porsche just announced a hybrid 911 GT3, and the next Ferrari will be a hybrid.
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