Toyota is losing no time in pushing out its aftermarket proposals for the all-new Aqua hybrid that will be marketed as the Prius C in markets outside of Japan and which will make its North American debut at the forthcoming Detroit Motor Show in January.
On the same day that the regular Aqua went on sale in its home market, Toyota's TRD racing and performance division announced a slew of tuning upgrades for the sub-compact hatchback.
In what may be if not the worst, one of the nastiest and most expensive supercar crashes of all time, 14 vehicles including eight Ferraris, three Mercedes-Benzes, a Lamborghini, a Toyota Prius and an unspecified Toyota, were involved in a massive pile-up on the Chugoku expressway in Shimonoseki, southwestern Japan on Sunday. Luckily, no fatalities were reported though ten drivers suffered bruising and some minor injuries. “The accident occurred when the driver of a red Ferrari was switching from the right lane to the left and skidded,” Mitsuyoshi Isejima, executive officer for Yamaguchi Prefecture’s Expressway Traffic Police unit told Bloomberg News. “It was a gathering of narcissists," said Isejima who added that the drivers were aged between 37 and 60 years old. Unidentified eyewitnesses told reporters at the scene that the group of Ferraris, which included several F360s and a white Testarossa (or 512 TR / F512 M), were travelling over the speed limit going around 140km/h to 160km/h (85mph to 100mph). Local media estimated that the total worth of the supercars alone is somewhere around 300 million yen or about US$3.85 million / €2.85 million. "I've never seen such a thing," highway patrol lieutenant Eiichiro Kamitani told the AFP News agency. "Ferraris rarely travel in such large numbers."
In what may be if not the worst, one of the nastiest and most expensive supercar crashes of all time, 14 vehicles including eight Ferraris, three Mercedes-Benzes, a Lamborghini, a Toyota Prius and an unspecified Toyota, were involved in a massive pile-up on the Chugoku expressway in Shimonoseki, southwestern Japan on Sunday.
Luckily, no fatalities were reported though ten drivers suffered bruising and some minor injuries.
“The accident occurred when the driver of a red Ferrari was switching from the right lane to the left and skidded,” Mitsuyoshi Isejima, executive officer for Yamaguchi Prefecture’s Expressway Traffic Police unit told Bloomberg News. “It was a gathering of narcissists," said Isejima who added that the drivers were aged between 37 and 60 years old.
The Union of Concerned Scientist, a non-profit science advocacy group in the U.S., has released its second annual Hybrid Scorecard. The organisation criticised hybrid car manufacturers for not delivering on the technology’s promise, for placing performance above fuel efficiency and environmental benefit and burdening hybrids with features that put them out of the price range of average Americans. A total of 34 hybrid vehicles from the 2011 to 2012 model year were tested for their fuel efficiency, environmental impact, value-for-money and their so-called “forced-feature premium”. The latter is features that don’t improve fuel efficiency but probably make the cars more appealing to money-conscious consumers.
"Prius" is not a verb but a Latin comparative adjective or adverb, the neuter nominative singular form of the adjective whose corresponding masculine and feminine nominative singular forms are prior (see also Latin declension - Irregular adverbs and their comparative and superlative forms) with meanings "ahead, in front, leading; previous, earlier, preceding, prior; former; basic."
A Toyota spokesperson stated that "Toyota chose this name because the Prius vehicle is the predecessor of cars to come."
Toyota Prius
Toyota Prius
Toyota Prius
Toyota Prius
Some enthusiasts enjoy using "Prii" as the plural, which would be correct if "prius" were a regular second declension Latin noun. The actual Latin plural of the adjective is "priora" (Reference is slightly in error here). All of these forms are nominative case and there are several other forms for the other cases. As for the plural of "Prius" in English, Toyota has said that it is simply "Prius" and also that owners are welcome to use whatever they like.
