Well, let’s see: a new color – Spectra Blue Mica, as pictured here. A new 5th generation DVD navigation – DVD update, not hardware from what I can tell.
2008 Prius has narrower wheels – 5.5 in vs. 6 in on a 2007 model. An attempt to make them even less rolling resistant? The specs show the same tires and so the profile is going to be a tad different.
Anything else? (more…)

Those of you lucky ones on the West Coast: do not miss a great opportunity to catch up on the latest and greatest in the alternative cars and other non-traditional means of transportation. There is a show at The Barker Hanger in Santa Monica on October 19-20. Attendance is free! There promises to be a lot of fun down there with the historic EV1 display (I believe, the only one left!), special collection of super high mileage prototype cars, Honda Civic GX test drive and more.

GM’s Volt and Tesla’s Roadster are notably missing. Oh, well. See if you can catch a test-drive in a Zap instead. Don’t forget to take a picture of yourselves inside! Send me your pictures to infoAtfuelzilladotcom and I’ll make sure to post them here!

Read on for the list of exhibitors and the address … (more…)

This post is here just for fun. There is no high-tech stuff below. Not a single chunk!

In case you were not sure how spacious the trunk of a Toyota Prius is or how useful a Prius can be in gardening, here is the proof
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I was working on a larger post about Prius plug-in conversion kits (come back soon for it) and this mini-rant I wrote up for the post did not quite fit here, so I made a separate post for it.
Here is what the peculiarities are: (more…)

Toyota unveiled a new concept on the Geneva, Switzerland Auto Show on March 6, 2007. First thing that comes to mind: Does it look like Prius to you or what? I would guess Prius’s 0.26 aerodynamic drag coefficient is hard to beat which is going to dictate the shape of the future fuel saving cars. Let’s see what else is nice about the new hybrid:
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So, the word (and the picture that’s worth a thousand more words) got out on the new ’09 Toyota Prius. Kudos to folks at Popular Mechanics for publishing their spy report in the March 2007 issue of the magazine. There are scarce details about the next-gen Prius yet but here is what’s known so far:

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I have kept this (horrible quality) cameraphone picture for a couple of months until now hoping that I might beat the 52.4 MPG mark that you see there. Well, it was not that easy… (more…)

It is very nice of Uncle Sam to offer any incentive for purchasing a hybrid car at all in addition to the money you are saving on the gas. I’m not sure how the car manufacturers were able to pull it off and I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know, but it’s there for you if you bought your Prius in 2006 or the first nine months of 2007. Read on for how to apply for your credit (more…)

I would have to say that I don’t really get why it is such a big deal when your Prius is beeping when you switch it in reverse gear. However, I keep finding discussion after discussion about the issue around the Net and it looks like the hottest topic on Prius forums. When I first saw it I did not have a Prius yet, and I thought that they are talking about noise that you would hear from a big bus or a truck (LOL). I can see where this could have been a problem when I pull back from my driveway at 5:30AM. Turns out, it’s just a tiny buzzer inside the salon they are talking about. So, I decided to post the instructions here (as found in the Prius newsgroup). So, here is how you turn it off: (more…)

This has got to be one of the coolest features of Prius, and certainly one that saves you gas and brake pads, but it has to be used with some caution. It makes the car behave differently from what the driver of a car behind you expects and might cause some issued. (more…)