2023 Toyota Prius: It's Hot, But Is It Good? | First Drive Review

It has a sharply rigged windshield flowing into a traditional hatchback design gone is the split rear hatch that was hard to see out of and its replaced with a small window thats also surprisingly difficult to see out of the car has curves and angles and looks way More elegant than space shipping, it wont blend in on the highway, because it looks weird but rather itll, draw attention from folks wondering. Is that really a Toyota? The Prius comes in two flavors, traditional hybrid and plug in Prime and three different trim levels. Our time was in the standard hybrid Prius, with a proper Prius Prime Drive coming in March, the standard Prius comes in either front wheel, drive or electronic all wheel drive the EPA estimated fuel economy from the front drive model is 56 MPG, while the all wheel drive Comes in at 54 MPG, the front drive model makes 194 horsepower, while the all wheel drive makes 196. nearly 200 horsepower from a Prius is a bit crazy. The three trim levels are Le XLE and limited. All wheel. Drive is available on all versions. Toyota safety Sense. 3 comes standard and theres tons of new tech in the Prius lets, get behind the wheel and see what its like to live with. We are in currently a limited version, which is the fully loaded fully specked version of the car weve added a couple throughout the day, all wheel, drive stuff like that, they all drive very similar.

The all wheel drive is a little bit quicker to 60. According to Toyota um, I cant tell a huge difference to be completely honest, um, but all wheel drive for the new version actually works at all speeds, so the previous version of the of the Prius and all wheel drive once you were past 25 miles an hour. The rear, axle wouldnt just never engage so um. It now works at all speeds, which is nice um. Also lets start with the interior uh up front. It has the steering wheel from the bz4x as well as the instrument cluster uh. For me, Im able to get the steering wheel kind of low enough that I can see the instrument cluster, okay with the speedometer and safety features and all of that um. My colleague Craig. If you watch his uh bz4x video, he complains that he cant get the steering wheel at a right position to also be able to see the instrument cluster, so youre probably going to want to sit in one um and see if you can get comfortable before you. You kind of settle on that, otherwise, its standard Toyota, Fair, which is its new. The this one has the available 12 point something inch infotainment screen, which has Wireless Apple carplay wireless Android, auto its based on Android automotive. Toyota wont necessarily publicly admit that, because they designed it in down in Plano but um, it keeps getting better in each Modern Toyota that I drive if youve driven it in like tundra or in um Sequoia.

It feels kind of feels kind of dated the RX felt a little bit better, its actually pretty Snappy here, which I definitely appreciate. I mean we havent had any issues uh using it, you can ask and because its a Google base, you can ask that both appropriate and inappropriate things, and it will answer which we tested earlier, but we wont do now um, because the car is, I think, an Inch wider, its like two inches longer and its lower, but they also ex dramatically increase the rake of the front of the front windshield, which actually limits a little bit of your Headroom, especially getting in and out uh. I have enough Headroom, as I sit here, driving and the same in the passenger seat, but Ive hit my head a few times on this climbing in and out um. You feel a little bit more claustrophobic than you did in the previous Prius, where you notice. The real lack of Headroom, though, is in the rear seats uh. You lose several inches of Headroom over the previous model and maybe thats not a big deal to you um. But if youre, somebody that owns a Prius, because oh I Uber or I lift with it or its a taxi or something like that, your passengers are going to definitely not appreciate the reduced Headroom uh. If its just a little kids and stuff that you put back there, you probably wont notice that are fine or if you never really use the back seat, then then you know its no big deal but thats kind of the real big takeaway inside uh, the storage.

The rear cargo capacity is also down from the previous version. This really, I think, creates an opportunity if youre somebody that wants a bit smaller of a Toyota hybrid and wants sort of the space and stuff the Corolla cross hybrid will be probably be what you want and if you dont need sort of that crossoveriness uh Corolla, Hybrid and the control which now also comes in all wheel drive might be something you want to look at too, but where the Prius, I think, really excels in its performance, it has almost 200 horsepower on tap uh. The prime version that will drive – I think in March, well have even more the CVT drones a little bit loud at highway speeds. The car is a little bit loud. I wish it was a little bit quieter lots of tire noise, not really a lot of wind noise um, but a cbts are theyre fine, theyre efficient, but theyre, not the most Pleasant sounding things in the world, uh, some other things on The Limited model you get Heated and ventilated seats. Um you can get a digital review, mirror you can get heated rear seats, uh theres I mean you can get a lot of real luxury kind of features in the car and all trims come with Toyota safety sense, which is their automatic emergency. Braking adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring, Lane centering traffic sign, assists all of the everything that you kind of expect from a modern.

You know modern technologically focused car is here and its standard, which almost and its almost all here and its its, I dont say its free, but they dont charge you for it, whereas some other automakers, especially some premium automakers theyre like oh, you want adaptive cruise well, Youre gon na have to pay more Toyota. Just gets it to you. Some of the misses in the interior uh, especially on the more expensive models like the one that were in there, is only single zone, climate control, which seems a little odd, especially because I can get dual heated and ventilated front seats. Oh, why cant I get two sounds of climate. That seems like a little bit of a mess um. Also there is the the front. Passenger seat is not powered on any trim. Now I can see on the base model not offering it, but not having it on any trim is a little a little sus uh. I guess it depends on how often different people are in and out of the seats um. They are more comfortable than theyve ever been Toyotas made an effort to in some ways widen the seat, reduce the stress on certain um uh. Basically, joint points in your body, its you, so you can drive the car longer without as much fatigue. Um, not quite a zero gravity seat from Nissan, but they do feel nicer than they did in the previous car uh. The interior, though itself, is a little bit of a mixed bag; none of it is bad.

Nothing, nothing in here is is trash or um just terrible, but it doesnt necessarily feel premium now Ill. Get the pricing here in a second – and you know, youll be like. Oh hey, whatever it doesnt matter, but um a lot of it. Theres theres some hard touch materials where I dont necessarily like hard touch materials so such as along here, where youd Rush um on the windowsill um its soft, but its not super soft. My knee hits down here on some pretty hard plastic uh, its not bad, but its not premium and maybe thats how they were able to get to a 27 000 starting price, which is what Prius starts at with delivery and stuff youre. Looking at 28 28 and a half and you get for that 28 and a half, you get a lot of those options that Ive already talked to you about um, yes, a little bit smaller of an infotainment screen, but you still get all the safety features you Get the fuel economy you get all the horsepower going up in trim levels gets you things like a digital key, so you can use your your phone as a key as well as as the key that comes with the car um, you can power liftgates uh. You have a panoramic up panoramic roof like the the but the bases of everything that makes. I think the price. The previous a good car is there at that 28 000 price point and I think thats a pretty good deal uh the car that were in right now without all wheel drive is roughly 38 ish um, which actually still feels like a reasonably good deal, but it Doesnt feel as Stellar of a deal, I think some of the I think you start to notice some of the Plastics, maybe a little bit more in here um, but the outside is fantastic like it is a good looking car people like look at you and its.

Never happened when Ive driven up areas and it it looks, futuristic without being like a spaceship, and I dont know I think its. I think its handsome, I think its attractive, and you know, based on the feedback we received from viewers like you, its youre excited about it um. Ultimately, the driving Impressions, I think, are good. If youre in any Modern Toyota, I think they all Drive reasonably well. This is the best driving Prius Ive, been in by far uh theres. I dont want to say theres, steer and feel, but theres definitely more of an effort to kind of make you better connected with whats, underneath the car, its all power system. You know electric power, so you lose a lot of that, but you know its its good over bumps. The the platform feels very solid uh. It takes it absorbs at least these California bumps really well um, maybe not Michigan potholes, but you know I bet it still. Will do pretty decent there and youre getting like 57 miles to the gallon, so its a very attractive car. I think that theyre looking for a buyer whos looking for more style in in their efficient vehicle. Now that Toyota has a showroom full of of hybrids, uh Kia Niro is probably the the closest competitor um their base card, doesnt feel as Tech focused as as techie as what this does in the base car um. However, I also think of some of the materials are a little bit nicer in the Nero so um.

If you are looking to cross shot, maybe you know maybe check that out. Uh youll definitely have some more rear storage space in the cargo area, because again you lose a decent amount here, but uh the pricings within 300. So you know maybe give that a look but like if you, if you looked at the Prius and youre like hmm, maybe this is for me, I mean 56 miles is a gallon. On the on the front wheel, drive 54 on the all wheel. Drive the pricings to go all wheel drives only like a thousand dollars more fifteen hundred dollars. More so theyre. Not ripping you off to do that that jump, um you dont, need to use premium, feel they recommend it, but they say you dont need it and it looks really good. So if you watch our other video linked below of the bz concept from the aliado show youll notice, it has similar headlight, design and stuff like that. This steering wheel and stuff being from bz4x gives us a good idea. This is kind of what theyre going to be doing in the future in their sedans. I havent asked them yet if theyre going to have a yoke for Prius, but maybe they will, I dont want it, but maybe theyll have it. But overall, I think its a real solid, a real, solid offering for a pretty decent price um, and I even joked that, like the perfect sort of two car garage for 55 grand would be this.

You know a base model Prius and a Maverick Im average hybrid. It kind of Suits everything youd ever need if you have the space form so um real, solid check out and its going to be on sale like soon. You know Ill get into a little bit more detail on price breakdown. Here, as the video continues, but theyll they claim winter theyre going to start showing up in January, so pretty excited Music lets. Take a more in depth! Look at how the 2023 Toyota Prius will set you back. If you want to have this attractive hunk of metal. In your garage, the LE model starts at 28. 545 to add, all wheel, drive, add eleven hundred dollars to the cost. There are no additional options, except for premium paints, windshield Pearl and supersonic red at 495 dollars. The XLE starts at 31, 990 and the jump to all wheel drive adds fourteen hundred dollars. Some big changes here include heated front seats and a power drivers, seat rain sensing wipers and even a wireless phone charger options include the before mentioned premium paints. Digital key support for 275 dollars and upgraded 12.3 inch infotainment system for 7.35 and a fixed glass roof for one thousand dollars. You want all the goodies youre going to want the limited trim. It starts at 35, 560 plus 1400. If you want all wheel drive, it includes niceties like ventilated front seats, a power liftgate all the optional features from XLE and JBL premium.

Audio options here include a digital rear view mirror for 200, which youre probably going to want considering. Rearward visibility should rear seats at 350 and The Limited premium package at 10.85 that includes Advanced Park, automatic parking and a panoramic view monitor again. Premium paint is 4.95.. All pricing includes the 1095 destination charge. This is the best looking Prius Ive ever driven and its the best driving Prius Ive ever driven. I dont like hitting my head getting in and out of the car, and I dont like the reduced Headroom in the rear and reduce cargo capacity. But the car looks fantastic, gets great fuel economy and provides a unique offering in the Toyota Showroom. If you need more space and still want a Toyota hybrid, the Toyota Crown is something youre, probably interested in Click. The video on the screen right now to hear about what that car is like to drive and live with.