I purchased an ex Demo Black Prius T3 (Bottom of the range model) with 2500 miles from our local dealer at £2300 under list price after some bargaining. After a wait of 5 weeks to enable them to order a replacement I picked it up 2 weeks ago and these are my impressions so far. Equipment Standard equipment list includes front & side/curtain airbags. Heated and electrically adjustable side mirrors, Climate control aircon, radio with single play CD, Rear wiper door lights, VSC (vehicle skid control), ABS (and a host of other mnemonic type gizmos) Likes Reduced road tax, Normal car £165 per year, Prius £65 per year. It’s also cheap to insure and is exempt from the London congestion charge, currently £5 per day. Economy, after 1,000 miles in the last 2 weeks over hills, motorways and some town driving I’m averaging 55mpg. Best journey 150 miles - 62 mpg with 2 people, worst 260 miles motorways at an average of 80+ mph with 5 people, 44 mpg. Space, it’s the roomiest car I’ve owned in many years, rear passenger legroom and headroom is outstanding. Good road holding on both narrow twisty country roads and motorways. Dislikes Why should the car bleep like a 1970’s calculator every time I touch the screen, I know what I’ve done so don’t need a reminder. Reverse bleeper is a good idea but surely it should sound outside the car to warn pedestrians no inside to tell me. I have 2 odometers to tell me how far I travelled it would be much more useful if the trip info on the screen told me how far I can travel before refuelling, especially in Britain where the cost of fuel varies by up to 25p per gallon. All in all, an excellent car at a reasonable price, I’ll submit another report after 6 months
Based on all the comments I see with gas tank issues, I'd wager that the car itself probably doesn't know how far it can go. I know with my own tank, I always fill when I get to 2 bars. Sometimes that's 8.7 gallons, sometimes 8.3, and once it was actually 7.6. That's a lot of variability!
I thought that it actually stands for "vehicle stability control"? At least, that's what the glossy says.
