Review of 2012 Toyota Prius C

Posted by on Feb 22, 2012 in Automotive News | Comments Off

Review of 2012 Toyota Prius C

The 2012 Toyota Prius C is getting ready to debut at the Tokyo Motor Show in late November, as the Toyota Aqua. From there it will debut at the Detroit Auto Show in January. It is expected to show up at Toyota dealerships after that debut. The claim to fame for this third generation Toyota Prius is the 2500 pound curb weight. This makes it one of the lightest cars in the B-segment category.

The 2012 Toyota Prius C hosts the Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive system. This is an inline four cylinder engine 1.5-liter. It is mated to an electric motor and battery pack. This battery pack is 24 pounds lighter than the one currently in the Prius, weighing in at 67 pounds. While it lightens the car’s load, the capacity is a third lower as well. Overall you can expect a mere 99 horsepower, making it one of the slowest cars on the road. Drivers that do not mind getting from 0 to 60 in about 11 seconds or so, and having a second-guessing throttle input, they will enjoy the up to 50 miles per gallon fuel efficiency. The speculation is that American drivers will accept less gas mileage in order to feel some power in their driving.

There is a standard collection of features in the 2012 Toyota Prius C including Bluetooth phone connectivity, steering wheel-mounted audio controls and nine airbags. There is a four spoke steering wheel and angular dash board design that includes a dashboard mounted digital instrument display. Entune will be available as an option. It features a takeoff from the standard joystick that has been used to shift gears in other Prius Models. Instead it has a traditional floor mounted shift level that is common in the Yaris and other Toyota models. Entune is Toyota’s new infotainment system that has a touch-screen that reads emails aloud, does Bing internet searches, and can access Pandora.

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