At very low speeds the Prius is an electric car – you can drive it as one for a mile or so before the batteries run down to a level at which the brain decides that the engine ought to start recharging them. When you are parking you just flick a little level up or down for reverse or forward and the whole process is done silently on the electric engine Somewhere between 5mph and 20mph the petrol motor cuts in. And all that for £17,500 to £20,000, depending on equipment.

So what do you get? Well, it is a biggish, nondescript looking, five-door hatchback. It has two engines, a 1.5-litre petrol one and the equivalent of a 1.2-litre electric one.

Under the boot there is a large battery, which is recharged by the petrol engine and, when you slow down, by the momentum of the car. Its electronic brain decides which combination of engines should be used at any particular time. Its appeal in the US is largely environmental, for it has very low emissions. But here it is largely economic – it has extraordinary fuel economy; Toyota claims the best around town of any car on the British market. The Prius is the world’s best-selling hybrid petrol/electric car, the vehicle de choix of Hollywood stars. The Smart isn’t up there in the firmament of consumer porn, but it’s still a cute accessory They go well together.

But £12,500 for a two seater still seems a lot, even if it comes with iPod magic.. I really felt that I had seen the future of motoring after driving the new Toyota Prius for 10 days earlier this month. Time poverty put an end to such innocent fun, but with iPod, happy times are here (or hear) again.Most of all though, the iPod gives off a real “must have” aura You don’t hold one of these white wonders, you fondle it. I confess that I have happily spent entire afternoons selecting tracks from my vinyl collection, transferring them to ferrous metal tape – all in real time, of course – and then gleefully playing the whole lot back again on a night out in the mobile disco that was my Mini City E.