Encounter with the Prius α (Alpha)

2012 Toyota Prius α

Upon exiting the Beacon Hill Dental after my appointment with the friendly Asian female dentist, I've encountered a black Toyota Prius Alpha on my way back to our old 2002MY Mazda MPV heading home before my class starts at 5:00PM at the Seattle Central Community College.

This isn't the first time I've encountered the Toyota Prius Alpha (Prius V in North America and Prius+ in Europe) on the roads of Seattle, WA. The first time I met up with the Prius Alpha MPV is while I was at the 2012 Seattle Auto Show last month.

2012 Toyota Prius α

2012 Toyota Prius α

2012 Toyota Prius α

For a quick recap, the Toyota Prius Alpha was launched in Japan since May 13, 2011. What a weird release date they've set. Friday the 13th... Anyway, this is a Prius with a bigger boot, focused on spacing while retaining the same Prius technology from the regular. The fuel efficiency of the Prius Alpha is about 26.2km/L JC08.

2012 Toyota Prius α

2012 Toyota Prius α

As for the interior, surprise, surprise. It looks more different than the Prius and there's a cool feature that it is somewhat called, and I'm not joking, "One Dial Air Conditioner Control", that allows the user to shift the knob through three different modes and twist it to adjust. This is somewhat a good air conditioner control that I have never seen before.