KALLE AKERSStaff Writier
It sets the standard for environmental friendliness and comes in a variety of sleek colors. Movie stars and students alike, glide down Pacific Coast Highway without stopping for gas nearly as often. After all, it is known as the “heart and soul of the whole hybrid movement.”
Meet the Toyota Prius. It frequently appears nestled cleanly in the tight parking spots of Pepperdine’s hill-laden campus. Cameron Diaz, Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep or Leonardo DiCaprio in one, stamping the Prius with the celebrity seal of approval. The Prius’s numbers are on the rise for both the aesthetically conscientious and the environmentally aware.
With 60 miles to the gallon on the highway, the Prius is a refreshing face in California’s sea of gas-guzzling SUVs. Compared to price tags of the eerily common Mercedes, BMW, and Lexus vehicles on campus, a new Prius is not only environmentally responsible, but is also reasonably priced at approximately $22,000.
Professor and Pepperdine alumnus, Henry Price, loves his Prius.
“It’s like driving an iBook,” said Price. “It’s white, you press start, and you’re ready to go.”
It is true that the Prius comes with “all the little bells and whistles,” as Price calls them. The Prius doesn’t have to be plugged in, but it does have a separate battery in addition to the standard battery of all cars. This additional battery kicks in and helps when the driver accelerates quickly. A touch screen inside the vehicle shows the gas engine, the electric motor and the additional battery working with one another.
The drivers can literally watch how much gas they are saving and know, at any given point in time, the gas mileage they are getting. When the car goes downhill or coasts the normal gas engine basically cuts off, and allows the second battery to take over, saving gas. The battery is recharged as the wheels of the car turn and every time the brakes are used.
Price and his wife have put 65,000 miles on their Prius in the two and a half years they’ve owned the car. The Prius is also incredibly roomy. The Prices have taken several cross-country trips and had enough room to bring their three Bengal cats.
“The cats love watching the world go by,” said Price.
The Price’s previous car was a Chevy Tracker, a small SUV. Price said he believes his Prius has even more room than his old car, which only got 18 to 20 miles per gallon. He says the Prius is really like a short SUV. This vehicle is known as a hatchback, which means the two back seats can be folded down, creating room to cart around bikes, camping supplies, or in the Price’s case, cats, keyboards and supplies for cross-country driving.
The Prius is slightly more expensive than cars in its size range, but in the long run, a California driver ends up saving money because of gas. Price doesn’t claim to be an environmental guru, but he said he feels good about driving an environmentally responsible car. He feels even better about the money he saves on gas while simultaneously taking a stand against our country’s dependence on foreign oil.
“The car ends up paying for itself,” says Price, “and I’d rather pay a car company than an oil company.”
The Prius does a great job of appealing to most people on the car-buying market. When the car originally came out, they sold more than they made. Price said Toyota should spend more time advertising what a great car they’ve made.
Most people know that it saves on gas and that it is a car for the conscious consumer. Price says Toyota is “sneaky,” because besides saving on gas and money in the long run, the car serves a lot of other needs including comfort.
01-18-2007