Time to welcome a new member to the family: a 2008 Toyota Prius.
When we bought the minivan, we decided to keep the Passat for a while and see whether having two cars was useful. It was, but the Passat got horrible gas mileage (about the same as the Honda on the highway and worse around town). Hello Prius!
This is our first car built in Japan. Our Nissan was built in Tennessee, our Subaru in Indiana and our Honda in Alabama.
HID headlamps!
Cowmooflage!
Audio, climate control, GPS... it's all on the screen.
This screen shows the current state of the hybrid system. The arrows change to show what's going on (here, the battery is moving the wheels using the motor).
There's also voice recognition. Our Honda has that and about the only time I ever use it is to amuse Henry by asking the car "what time is it?"
Having everything on one big display could be pretty annoying, but all the most common stuff is available on the steering wheel.
The shifter is all electronic. To put it in park, you press the button above the shifter (or just use the power button to turn to car off; it will automatically shift into park).
What's the deal with dual glove compartments? Our Honda has 'em, too. I don't even like to wear gloves.
The CD changer can play MP3 CDs. Whee, we've caught up to 2001.
Wait? What's that little green phone doing there?
Ah, Bluetooth! The car will do hands-free calling with a paired Bluetooth phone. It took about a minute for me to pair my iPhone. Now, whenever I get in the car it recognized the phone and re-connects. Cool.
You can set up mileage or time-based reminders for all sorts of maintenance stuff. What's LLC?
The center console has a convenient little shelf, perfect for a cell phone or iPod. Down there in the inky depths are an AUX input for the audio system and a power outlet.
The "premium" audio system is actually pretty good.
