We're back on schedule with our favorite end-of-month activity, logging the most popular posts of the last month-or-so on AllAboutPrius.com. Autumn is here (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere), and we've got a fresh crop of favorites.
We only held over two of August's most popular posts, and we had one reappearance from June (on the continuing Prius TV ads). The topics of two new winners: price-gouging on the 2010 Toyota Prius and, surprisingly, drag racing a 2010 Prius against a 2009 model.
# 1: 30 Days of the 2010 Toyota Prius: Your Reference Guide. This gets to be a broken record: This one's been on top almost since the start of our top-five lists. It rules the rankings, offering an easy way into all the basics you need to know on the 2010 Toyota Prius. Bottom Line: Start here to find any and all the 2010 Toyota Prius information you could ever need.
2010 Toyota Prius
2004-1009 Toyota Prius battery pack, second generation
2010 Toyota Prius
# 2: Behind the Prius Scenes: How They Made the Harmony Commercial. This article from May last hit the top five back in June, so we assume everyone is still watching the "Harmony" ad for the 2010 Toyota Prius and grinning just like we do. Bottom Line: A fascinating video from Toyota's production team shows how they digitally composed the ad from discrete shots of many, many people in colored leotards. We wrote, We wonder how it feels to spend a day paid to crouch on all fours in a green bodysuit wearing a Burger King-like crown, covered in sheepskin, waiting for the cue to rise in one continuous wave.
# 3: 2010 Toyota Prius Price-Gouging Pops Up. This late August article, written just as the Cash-For-Clunkers plan boosted sales of the 2010 Prius and then ran out of money, has proven prescient as the 2010 Prius continues to be scarce globally. Bottom Line: Some dealers added "Market Value Adjustment" markups, and we can't help but agree: The fact that the elevated MSRP erased or even surpassed the Cash for Clunkers rebate was likely a hard pill to swallow for many buyers.
# 4: Drag Race Video: 2010 Toyota Prius vs 2009 Toyota Prius. OK, this one caught us off guard. Drag racing...who knew? Still, the comparative performance of the new 2010 Prius, with its larger engine, versus the older generation is a good question to explore. Bottom Line: No real surprise here: The third-generation 2010 Toyota Prius noses out its predecessor to win the race.
# 5: Should Toyota Prius Owners Buy a Spare Used Battery Pack? This one might just become a regular top five winner, since battery pack life is always an open question for first-time Toyota Prius buyers. Bottom Line: Your state requires Toyota to warranty its high-voltage packs for either 8 years / 100,000 miles or 10 years / 150,000 miles. If you plan to keep your Prius longer than that (or buy a used one), one owner suggests buying a used nickel-metal-hydride battery pack and storing it for future use. We remain less than convinced.
So what has fallen off our Top Five list lately? Here are three perennial favorites that we expect will return to the rankings in future months:
30 Days of the 2010 Toyota Prius: Day 1, First Impressions and 70 MPG.
30 Days of the 2010 Toyota Prius: Day 4, Equipment Levels and Packages.
And if you want to see what rose and fell over the months (never mind the eternally first-place Reference Guide), here are the previous Top Five roundups for AllAboutPrius.com:
Most popular posts: April 2009
