IMAGES: GETTY, MANUFACTURER
“AS IT PILES ON THE YEARS AND MILES, A
PRIUS REFUSES TO DIE”
At the end of 1997, Toyota launched the Prius in Japan. Nobody here cared. Its weird ‘hybrid’ powertrain was complicated and would probably go wrong. Its performance was tepid; its small-wheeled three-box bodyshell timid. Meanwhile VW had launched the Golf MkIV, marrying a high quality cabin with the famously efficient 1.9 TDI engine. If you wanted an economical smallish car, the VW was the go-to. A quarter century on, hybrids vastly outsell diesels here, helped of course by VW’s villainous own goal. The Prius had the last laugh.