Dear Member,

Thanks for the big response to my blog last week on my taking the plunge and buying a Prius. For those who don’t know I now have the solution to how to convert miles per gallon to miles per litre, divide by 4.546. Simples. Judging from the response just about everyone else in the Institute did know!

And thanks also to everyone who spotted my deliberate mistake – there were 20 shillings to the £, not 12 shillings. Very glad you were all reading that closely. Glad I was decimated at an early age. Actually I think I mean decimalised.

Despite my clearly shaky knowledge of pre-decimal era economics we do have some interesting comments on the budget lined up for you from a variety of sources. Click here for the latest news and opinions. Keep clicking, we’ll be updating happily as the long day wears on.

As a Toyota Pius (sic) driver I seem to have drawn a spot of flack from some of you who doubt that the car is as green as I think. You’ve sent me some intriguing evidence that various Golfs and Skodas can save more than the Prius without being so annoying. And as to the chap who told me the mpg figure of his Rover 75 diesel, well I think he’s solved the whole of any future oil crisis. Buy one of those and it sounds like a gallon lasts a lifetime!

And there is also the little problem of the Prius’ hybrid system battery, which a number of you have pointed out, uses valuable and rare resources from the four corners of the globe. I imagine its key components are Frankincense and myrrh.

None the less I was getting a good 15mpg extra out of it – and enjoying the slightly clearer conscience of knowing cleaner stuff was coming out its tail pipe – when the car’s smooth aerodynamics were altered into some interesting upright and distinctly non streamlined shapes because an Audi driver reversed at warp speed into me.

You know how it is, the whole slow motion this can’t be happening thing. We were in a narrow road and the car in front bottled a Mexican standoff with an oncoming car and reversed rapidly towards a space to let the other car past. A space the Prius and I were now occupying............more

David Jinks  Editor

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