Wednesday, December 06, 2006

The next car

My old car in JabiruWhile I was away the time limit for the selection of a renewal vehicle for my current lease car passed. So when I returned I quickly looked though the Telstra Fleet vehicle list. (I have a policy of only taking vehicles from the Telstra Fleet list.) My original intention was to go for one of the lower priced options. But I noticed that they had added the Toyota Prius to the list. I did some research on the Internet and decided to go for a test drive after a few emails to Charl. The car is very interesting to drive. Beside having an unusual dash layout, it has no gears. Driving only involves the accelerator and brake. Under heavy load there is a small effect when the engine kicks in, but nothing compared to the effect of an auto changing gears. So with my test drive done, I decided to spend the extra money and get the electric blue version of a car that gets 4.4 liters for every 100 km. It actually have a better consumption rate in town to the highway. It will arrive around the end of May in 2007 when my current lease vehicle term expires...

Wikipedia has an interesting entry on the car, including information on how the continuously variable drive works. It is simple and clever and much better the wobble plates. It lets the engine run when stationary and also lets the car move when the engine is turned off.

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