Car Blogging-Prius
Friday, May 2nd, 2008I got to drive a Prius the other day, for the first time. I’ve been curious for a while now about the technology, and about whether it was an easy switch to make.
After driving it for a bit, I’d have to say that, at least in the case of a Prius, it’s not a smooth switch to a hybrid. It really takes some getting used to. In fact, I actually started to get used to the weird feeling like it was stalling whenever you stopped at a red light, and it switched from gas to battery power. I might have even gotten used to just how light it felt as we were driving around and how odd it is to have a park button instead of a park on the gear shift. What I don’t think I’ll ever get used to is just how little power it had! Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not a big SUV, V-8 kind of guy. We have two Subaru’s in our family, a Forrester (lightweight SUV) and an Impreza so it’s not like we’re blowing people away with the engine power, but there’s enough there that I can step on it and get up to speed merging on the freeway, or turning out into traffic, as quickly as I need to. I didn’t feel that in the Prius. I felt like I was in danger of getting run down by other vehicles on the road as I put-putted along trying to get up to speed. That’s not a good feeling.
So techies and early adopters, is this a hybrid thing, or just a Prius thing? Any of you own a hybrid? What are your thoughts? Do you expect the technology to get better and eliminate the lack of power, or are we headed to a future of driving around in golf carts? 
