Review: B is for Badly Placed Windows

Lulu is still in the shop. Oh joy!

She will be in the shop probably until the end of the week. Since Julibean started school today I couldn't continue to use her car to drive myself to work. Instead I got a rental.

It's a Prius.

It is the strangest car I have ever driven.

First of all you have to push a button (A BUTTON?!) to park the car. The shifter is not a shifter at all, it's actually a little knob on the dashboard that hops back to the rest position even if you're in Drive or Reverse.

Speaking of Reverse. It took me 5 minutes this morning just to get the car into gear. I had to turn it off (which is also done by a button) and turn it back on again to get it to shift into Reverse and get me out of the driveway.

Secondly, there are windows where there shouldn't be windows. I mean the Tank used to have little opera windows next to the side view mirrors that I loved to jinx open and get a good breeze directly against my face in the summer without all the noise of opening the window. But these opera windows don't open. They're past the mirrors, almost over the wheel well and it's just odd to have a window there. It's wildly distracting in fact. Please see the beautiful interior photo I snagged off the internets below with said offending window.

The hatch just pisses me off. I love hatchbacks, they're all I drive. I like to know EXACTLY where my trunk ends and having the rear windshield wiper is a godsend in the rain/snow/muck. However, the hatch on the Prius has a ridiculously steep incline to it, a very thick casing around it, oh and it's also segmented into two different windows. So basically despite the fact that it's a hatch, there is barely any actual window to see out. It's almost like I'm driving a sedan which I don't exactly enjoy.

Why should I be able to see clear out my back window Toyota? Why? When you can put a bar across the back window to make it look a little different, why would I need to actually see out the back?

The car also seems like a huge Cadi on the inside when in reality it's kind of small. It's odd. It really messes with my spacial reasoning while I'm inside. I feel like I'm sitting extremely high up, as if I'd hit my head on the ceiling but there's no way to lower the seat vertically, or at least no way that I can find.


There doesn't appear to be a trip odometer. I may have missed it, but I couldn't see it glancing down while driving and that's bothersome. I also despise digital readouts that are right in your face. If I want to know exactly how fast I'm going I'll glance down quickly at my speedometer, I don't need numbers flashing in my line of sight. So the bubble on the dash right near the windshield is annoying.

The windshield itself is huge. Or rather, driving this car is much like driving Casey's old Honda Civic. Basically I can't see the nose of the car, so it is literally like driving around a windshield and guessing how far out the front of the car goes...that's not my favorite.

One thing I do like: the readout on the mileage. I love knowing what kind of mileage I'm getting. It helps me get every last ounce of gas out of my tank before refilling and it also helps me determine how my car is feeling that day or if it needs maintenance. We are anal about recording how many gallons, what the price was, keeping track of mileage, major (and minor) maintenance and all that jazz. So this little computer on my dash is kind of interesting.

The one thing that threw me most: There is a B on the shifter. I mean obviously there isn't a P since you push a button to park so what's left? A D, yes I know what Drive is. N, ahhh neutral. R, reverse reverse! But B? What on earth could it stand for? Not anything like Backup, or Bullshit?

Apparently Ashley has a Prius, who knew? She has informed me that the B stands for downshift. Wow Toyota, where'd you come up with that letter? I mean I know that D is taken but you couldn't just write 1-2-3?

Oddest car ever.

Not a fan. Sorry Toyota. Just because it's a Hybrid doesn't mean everything has to be different about it. I'd rather have a Hybrid version of a standard car mmmkay? Thanks.

Ashley likes that it's different. She's dubbed it a Space Pod. I'm glad there are people who enjoy this Space Pod because the more hybrid cars out there the better, I'm all for a greener car. Just maybe one that's slightly more familiar.