priapus i had the opportunity to drive a prius for a while. my review is pretty simple: this car sucks ass. the user interface for cars has been developed and standardized over literally 100 years. here's a common sense thought: if you deviate from such a standard, you're more likely to make things worse than better. and prius deviates from the standard car interface a lot. and for no good reason. start with the keyless fob. get in the car. push the power button. where is it? i'll give you a hint. it's nowhere near where you'd put the key in every other car. the gearshift is a small stick on the dashboard, again away from the standard location. the lever moves in an 'h' path. it's labeled R-N-D-B. B? what the hell is B? it's engine braking. we looked it up in the owner's manual. apparently the transmission disengages both the gas engine and the electric motor when they're not being used. like say, when you're going downhill. faster and faster. use B to use the engine as a brake instead of using the brake pedal.which is what the brakes are fucking FOR. sheehs. the stick doesn't stick in R-N-D-or-B. it snaps back to it's neutral position. which isn't the N position. you can't tell what gear the car is in by looking at the gearshift. that's just fucking stupid. there's an lcd display next to the speedometer with a virtual representation of the gearshift. except it's an H, not an h. you have to look at that instead. it's nowhere near the physical gearshift. and at certain times of day, sun glare makes it fucking invisible. apparently, someone on the ui redesign committee noticed this. so they added that horrible beep beep beep sound that trucks make when they back up. but they added it INSIDE the fucking car. so when you're backing up, the driver and passengers all know it. but no one OUTSIDE the car knows you're backing down the driveway over them on silent battery power. did you notice there's no P on the gearshift? heh. P is a button. again not on the gearshift. but it's at least close by. did you notice i said the real gearshift is an h and the virtual gearshift is an H? yeah, the extra spot in the H is for the P. the fuel gauge has a giant E and F. it looks like the real thing. i'd like the actual fuel quantity meter thing to be somewhat larger. i should not have to squint to see if i'm running out of gas. occupying prime real estate on the dashboard is an ipad like display showing me how wonderful the car is. and yeah i can see the point of this. there's only so much fuel economy gains the car manufacturer can make. the biggest variable is the driver. so this ipad thing is an attempt at persuading the driver to modify their behavior. it'd be cool if it could show a gps map. that'd be useful. but no. we got into a state where pushing the unlock button didn't unlock the fucking doors. stupid. we were considering piling four people and stuff into the car through the driver's door when someone found the fob and pushed that button. cars should not feel like they think they're smarter than me. the gas pedal is weird. it's like the top half is for fine cruise speed adjustments. and the bottom half is where the power actually gets applied. so when the light turns green and you ease down on the pedal to gradually ramp up the acceleration, the car goes exactly nowhere. literally. and i mean literally. it doesn't move at all until you get to that bottom half. so you learn to stamp the fucking pedal all the way to the floor to keep from being honked at by the real cars behind you. such "rabbit" starts just seem like anathema to good mpg driving practices. i said "rabbit" cause the car's a slug off the line. which is odd, considering that real electric cars have massive torque. which makes them range from peppy to fair imitation of being shot out of a cannon. just not this frankenmobile. speaking of which, the prius has a fancy hybrid transmission. the gas engine and/or the electric motor can power the wheels. and the gas engine can power the car while the electric motor charges the batteries. this sounds pretty cool. but it switches modes often. and seemingly without rhyme or reason. like you're driving down the freeway at 65 mph and the electric motor boosts then two seconds later switches to charge. then two seconds later switches back. wtf? to their credit, all this shifting is pretty subtle. but it's noticeable to me. and sickening. literally. it's been a very long time since i've been carsick in a car. i'm not some sissy bellied barfing sissy boy. i fly airplanes upside down. but i was very glad to get out of that damn car. the other much more sensitive passengers were unhappy too. even through the dramamine they took in preparation for the trip. so final word: would not buy. would give away for nothing more then goodwill.  ¶ 8:00 AM