From 13mpg to 50+mpg...first time Prius owner

When I saw the first pictures of the 5th gen Prius late last year, I couldn't believe my eyes. I've been a lifelong auto enthusiast and have always gravitated towards performance vehicles, both on road and off road, so a Prius has truly never been on the radar. My daily driver and off road vehicle is a heavily modified Toyota Land Cruiser that gets 13 mpg on a good day, and while I truly love it, the gas mileage and subsequent range has always been a bummer. We've actually had 6 Land Cruisers in a row and currently have 2, so to offset the fuel consumption my wife drives a Tesla which I use around town whenever possible.

I was Prius-curious as it were and started calling around dealerships in Colorado to see if I could go see one in person. They were never available on the lot and I was told it would be a solid 6 months minimum but more likely a 12 month wait to get one, and it required a non refundable $500 deposit to get on the list with 15 people ahead of me in line. I decided it wasn't worth it since we didn't really need another vehicle (we also have a diesel Sprinter camper van - yes I have a problem), but I kept checking online to see if any inventory would become available. Even though I really wanted a fully loaded Prime, somehow a Supersonic Red XLE showed up and was available, so I went in immediately and bought it even though it hadn't physically arrived yet and I hadn't driven one.

After taking delivery, I only had a chance to drive it about 50 miles before my wife took it on a 2,100 mile road trip (no EV charging is going to make it much more enjoyable), but I have to say I am extremely impressed with the Prius. First off, the aesthetics are truly stunning. While I recognize some storage and interior volume was given up in exchange for the beautiful wedge shape, and it's absolutely worth it to me. The power is very decent, handling is good, comfort is excellent, quality is top notch including the very nice front seats, and the tech is totally acceptable which is an uncommon experience for me with Toyotas. When she returns with the car, I will be throwing my tent and camping gear in the back and hit a couple national parks while the Land Cruiser stays in the garage for a bit - quite the turn of events!

 

Thanks for the welcome everyone! I'm looking forward to getting it back after my wife's road trip and use it to start my own road trip!

These pics were taken in a parking lot at Red Rocks - my fav spot for some glamour shots!

 

"Auto enthusiast" as defined by the mighty Google: An automotive enthusiast is someone who has a passionate interest in cars or other motor vehicles—or anything associated with them, including the industry that produces them and the culture that surrounds them—and takes great pleasure in enjoying and appreciating them for reasons beyond their basic utilitarian value.

It sounds like your personal definition has more to do with track days and engine modifications, but that's a pretty narrow scope of the enthusiast world. While the Land Cruisers don't spend any time on road courses, they were/are set up for off road use which is where they spend the vast majority of their usage. The current main Cruiser has an off road suspension, front and rear off road bumpers, a winch, sliders/skid plates, snorkel, storage drawers, off road tires, etc. and has been on trail for ~35 days already in 2023. Side note - the most recent gen of Land Cruisers in the US, the 200 series from 2008-2021, only saw <3,000 units sold per year and skipped the model year 2012 making it quite literally one of the most rare vehicles in the US from a non-niche maker - truly an enthusiast vehicle.

While I love the Land Cruiser and off road vehicles in general, I've had the good fortune to own lots of fun street oriented fun cars too - heavily modified Audi S4, Audi TT, a couple BMWs and a Porsche, and a few performance EVs most notably a "stealth" Model 3 Performance with the smaller/lighter wheels from the long range but with the full performance motors. The third time I ever drove that Model 3 was on a race track and my wife was mortified when she saw me removing the rear seats and lots of other stuff before I left the house for that track day when it had under 100 miles on it. I've been called a lot of things in life, but the one that's probably most accurate is auto enthusiast haha.

 

Neither I nor my wife had ever owned a red car until our Model Y which was a very similar shade to Supersonic. I didn't have an order or a deposit for the Prius, so I had no control over which car we received but was thrilled the one we found was red! Something else I was quite happy about was the lack of tint. I'm personally a fan of the fishbowl look on cars with no visible tint, so this spec works perfectly for us.

 

Ours has no visible/noticeable tint. There’s UV protection in the glass of course, but none of the windows are darkened.