Friday Fleet Notes: 4.11.08

This week’s fleet notes takes on two competing hybrids, the Honda Civic Hybrid and the current champ, the Toyota Prius. In addition the Ford Focus makes an appearance, so if you’re interested in how our staff felt about the Sync system, this might be a Friday fleet note you don’t want to miss.

Toyota Prius

• Having driven a rental Prius in Denver a few months back, I was dreading the worst: an uncomfortable ride, a whiny engine at freeway speeds, a brake pedal that felt like a steel rod pressing up against the tires. Boy, was I surprised. This non-rental Prius could not have been more different. It was a much smoother ride. The engine, even at 70 mph, purred quietly. The brakes still felt a little funky, but I wasn’t in any doubt about their abilities and I still managed to get around 50 mpg. This experience gets the Prius off my hit list. — Patrick Olsen, Editor-in-Chief

2008 Ford Escape Hybrid

• For being a car-based small SUV I was surprised by the Escape’s rough ride while driving through the heart of downtown Chicago and outlying areas. By no means are the roads forgiving — especially post-winter — but the Escape uncomfortably jolted and jumped at every pothole. I could look past that, though, with the hybrids excellent fuel economy during my romp around the city. With a light touch in heavy traffic I would regularly see the Escape accelerate up to almost 30 mph in electric-only mode. — Joe Bruzek, editor Ask.cars.com

2009 Nissan Murano

• I was impressed with the Murano on the car show circuit and was blown away by it in the night I got to take it home. The V-6 under the hood makes this baby fly down the freeway. I was gunning the Murano as much as the Pontiac G8 I recently tested. The interior was very nice and plush, but for the tested price of roughly $32,000 I expected a sunroof. The Bose stereo though was sublime. — David Thomas, senior editor

2008 Mercedes-Benz GL550

• The GL was big and bold — the size of the emblem was ridiculous — but I didn’t find the ride as comfortable nor the engine as much fun as I did in the smaller ML550 I tested last year. I also didn’t dig the tiny side mirrors on the thing. If there’s one thing you want in a $75,000 SUV, it’s visibility. — David Thomas, senior editor

2008 Ford Focus

• Like a lot of kids who grew up in the ‘90s, my parents drove a Taurus, which for various reasons left me with a strong distaste for Fords. That said, I was pleasantly surprised by the 2008 Ford Focus I had over the course of a recent weekend.

  There was plenty of power for a car this size, and the manual transmission was exceptionally easy to drive; the clutch was probably the lightest I’ve ever felt. We had an SES version with enough options to put the price around $19,000, which strikes me as a bit much for a Focus, but there were enough little luxuries (seat heaters, auto-dimming rearview mirror, leather seats) to justify that cost.

  My favorite feature by far, though, was the relatively inexpensive Sync system. This alone might be enough to woo me over to a Ford. The commands were exceptionally intuitive, and the voice-recognition software is the best I’ve ever used. I plugged my iPod into the USB port and shuttled between tracks, artists and playlists without even needing to open the instruction manual. It recognized commands from a variety of passengers on their first try, even from the backseat. Within minutes of driving this car I had my phone synced up with the system and was making and receiving calls with ease — and completely without hands. I’ve heard varied reviews on Sync, but I had nothing but positive experiences with it.

  There were a few annoyances, like a shift light that, were I ever to buy this car, I’d set out to shut off before doing anything else. The door handles are placed too far forward on the door for my liking, making them slightly awkward to pull shut, and one passenger noted that a piece of plastic on his door handle was already coming off. Oh, and the cartoonish turn signal light noise has to go. Minor gripes aside, though, Ford’s clearly got a lot more to offer these days than I gave it credit for. — Beth Palmer, copy editor

2008 Toyota Prius Expert Review 
2008 Ford Focus Expert Review
2009 Nissan Murano
2008 Mercedes-Benz GL 550