Five Things You Shouldn't Do To A Toyota Prius...Ever Page 2

By Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield

Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield

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Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield is a self-confessed petrol head. She grew up in a carless family but was able at a very early age to name cars passing her on... More

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AutoBeYours' Toyota Prius

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The Prius pickup

The Toyota Prius is a fuel-efficient family hatchback. It is not a utility truck.

Believe it or not though, there are rather a lot of people who seem to disagree, from commercially-available, professional looking Prius Tote through to backyard butchery and one creation which is more an art form than it is a vehicle.

We'll start off by dealing with the people  who took this sorry looking Prius -- presumably a rollover survivor -- and turned it into this two-seat pickup truck. 

What we find particularly shocking about the Prius Tote is that the rear doors appear to still be in place - and at least technically operational, rather than welded up for rigidity.

The rear load-bay? That appears to be mainly constructed from some thick polyurethane pond liner with a wooden frame holding it all together. 

As for the tail-lights? We’re stumped which car these once belonged to, but they’ve been tack-welded on in place of the rear tailgate, next to what looks like some aircraft-style riveting. 

What influenced this badly-built travesty of Japanese decent? We’re not sure, but perhaps it was the Prius Baja Plug-in Hybrid (in photo above) created by Indiana-based Prius salvage specialists AutobeYours. 

With only the kind of looks a mother could love, this freakish creation combines a rear-ended Prius with a Subaru Baja pickup truck to create one of the only cars we’ve wanted to gouge our eyes out after seeing. 

The Pruck, as it was affectionately named by its creator, is apparently alive and well somewhere, although we’d advice persons of a nervous disposition to steer clear if they see it on the local freeway. 

The Morris Minus

Meet the Morris Minus, or should that be the Toyota Prior? 

Forgive us for not being able to give this Frankensteinian creation a name, but we think when we’ve explained what it is you’ll understand. 

Outwardly, the Morris Minus loosely resembles a vintage 1960 Morris Minor Woodie, a car that at least two members of our editorial team have a soft spot for. 

But instead of being powered by a small, surprisingly economical 1 liter British engine which was designed shortly after World War II, the Morris Minus is powered by the 1.5 liter hybrid drivetrain found in the 2001-2003 Toyota Prius.

That’s because the Morris Minus is a Prius. Or at least, the chassis of a first generation Prius covered with the body panels of a 51 year-old car. 

In theory, it should work, but given that the donor Prius is a good deal wider than the original British car it has some...err..issues. 

The car isn’t finished yet, but the video below should give you some idea of how it looked earlier this year, and it wasn’t pretty.

We suspect that Alec Issigonis (or Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis, CBE, FRS, to give him his full and proper name and titles)--the Greek-born designer who created both the Morris Minor and the original 1959 Mini--might have something to say about further changes to the dimensions of the car he widened by 4 inches shortly before it was due to enter production. 

Any more?

Have we missed out any other travesties of automotive tinkering? Do know of a Toyota Prius which isn’t quite what it used to be, or doesn’t look anything like it did when it rolled off the production line?

Let us know in the Comments below.

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