Review of my yellow 2023 XSE Premium Prime

Hello everyone! I’m brand new here and just wanted to give some insight and a review on my brand new yellow 2023 XSE Premium Prius Prime. Hopefully I can provide some help to people wanting to pre-order their car or who have already ordered it to get a better feel of the vehicle you’re getting as it’s basically impossible to even sit in one of these right now not to mention drive it. Plus I don’t see many reviews for the top of the line model so hopefully this is helpful for you!

Context: I purchased this car last week and I have already put on around 1500 KM, including 2 day trips. I am 20-25 and located in Canada. I purchased the car for MSRP and honestly had a GREAT buying experience, no markups or sales pitches at all which was nice. I was able to pickup the car within 3 days of it getting here and the only reason it was so long was I needed to wait for my rebates to come in ($7000 off the purchase price of the car after taxes). My previous car was a 2004 Toyota Celica GTS so pretty old but still VERY fun to drive.
Favorite features (In order):

1) Radar cruise control/lane keep assist
I can’t explain how well this works, it’s AMAZING and by far my favorite feature on this car. I have done about 8-10 hours of highway driving and almost all of it was with cruise control/lane keep assist turned on. You basically get on the highway, turn it on and set the maximum speed and the car drives for you. My mind is blown and it works SO WELL. There must be some sort of sensor in the steering wheel because if you let got of it for a while or stop looking ahead it will remind you to pay attention with a little graphic on the screen. But you only need to be touching the wheel, no giving it a small jiggle to know you’re there every 15 minutes like in other cars, I just rest my hand in my lap and lightly touch the wheel at the bottom so I can take control if I need to but you honestly don’t it works so well. I have had zero issues with the car not staying in the middle of the road (I know people on here have mentioned issues with this exact issue on older models) its drives straight as an arrow.

2) Powertrain/torque
This car is so fast, coming from something with an automatic transmission this is so smooth and not having gear changes is super weird. I though coming from what is relatively considered a sports car to this would be a downgrade but oh my goodness no this car has more then enough torque, I am so happy with it. Even in EV only mode this car is so fast that I basically always keep it in ECO mode

3) The looks
This car is gorgeous, period. I have had over 15 people initiate conversations with me regarding this car, 5 of which was while I was onsite for a job. Everyone loves the looks and its crazy to me to get this much attention. Feels like you’re driving a super car on the road since everyone is turning their heads (The yellow color might also add to this lol). I had originally wanted the car in red but once I saw the yellow I was sold, it is stunning.

4) Ventilated seats
Yes this is number 4 on the list, I love them. This is already a very rare feature to have on cars (Except in high end luxury vehicles) and they work so well. Everyone that has ridden in the vehicle is super surprised when I say it has ventilated seats. Especially with black seats in the summer, this is a game changer.

5) Carplay
I only have experience with carplay but I’m assuming the android auto experience would be similar. Overall very positive. Wireless carplay works very well and only failed to connect once which was solved by me clicking the “reconnect” button once. If you are using apple maps then the directions will display on the drivers display as well once you get close to the turn which I was not expecting and am VERY happy about. It will also show you who you are calling if you are on a call and the music that’s playing. The infotainment screen size is so big! And looks so much better then the 8” one that is standard, that one looks so outdated already I would 100% upgrade to the 12” display.

6) Smart locks
I know cars have had this for years but I have never gotten to even try this before. All you have to do is put your hand in the door handle and the door unlocks! And then you tap it with your hand when you’re leaving and it locks, so easy and it works every time and you never need to even touch your keys. Honestly I’d take this over having your phone unlock the car via proximity, it just works so well and its on both the front doors.

7) 120V inverter
This car as a 1500w 120v inverter stock. Let that sink in, 1500w. Unbelievable. I’ve seen so many people modding their older prius’s with large 1000w inverters off the 12V battery and then that goes dead so they need to setup weird chargers and stuff. The fact that this comes with it stock is amazing. You could literally go camping and just put a microwave in the back of your car and run it no problem. Or if you have a power outage, plug an extension cord in and you could run all your freezers, fridges, some lights and charge all your devices no problem, plus once the large traction battery is depleted the engine will just automatically recharge it. This is basically a EcoFlow DELTA power station but with like 10 times the capacity and a generator connected to it. Plus if you’re going camping somewhere you can put the car into charge mode before you arrive and have an almost full battery for your camping trip (According to the manual charge mode will only fill your battery up to 80%). I am going to use it for camping plus for work, I can have all my drill batteries in their charger and then I can charge them while driving if they get low. My only complaint is that as far as I can tell you can’t turn it on while plugged in but I might be wrong on that, still need more testing.

8) “My Room” Mode
For those who don’t know, “My room” is available on prius prime models to allow for accessories and AC to work while plugged. Basically allowing you to turn your car into a room while not having to worry about running out of battery or using the engine. Super cool and works super well. I used it while waiting for my wife in an underground parking garage, I was plugged in (Free EV charging is awesome) and could run the AC and listen to music in silence. Unlike a gas car which would not be able to as you can’t idle your car in an underground parking lot.

9) Fuel efficiency
Need I even elaborate, its crazy how efficient this car is, not to mention that I barely even need to turn the engine on moving to a 2L was a very good move in my books, does not seem to have negatively effected the efficiency. I can’t wait to see what everyone does with Hypermiling this baby.

10) Advanced park
This is sort of a gimmick but it’s a cool gimmick. It works super well. After watching a few reviewers on youtube stumble through getting it to park I wasn’t expecting much but it works really well and it fast! Initiating it takes like 5 seconds and it goes right away. I will probably only use it for parallel parking as I hate parallel parking but it’s a super cool party trick.

11) Motorized tailgate
Liking this more then I thought I would, its not as slow as I thought it would be and if you click the “close and lock” button rather then just the close button it will wait for you to walk away from the back of the car before closing.


Biggest Issues (In order):

1) Remote connect
It is frankly unacceptable how bad the remote connect app is. It has been reported a bunch of times on here so I won’t go into it again but to sum it up its SO SLOW and half the data is inaccurate. Also in a world where TELSA exists and the car can be remotely started, how is it not possible to set the climate remotely, like WHAT???? In winter I want to be able to turn on the heated steering wheel, mirrors, seats and wipers. I know you can technically set some of this up before you leave the car and then start it remotely (If it works lol) and it will turn on but not all of it and you have no control. Absolutely ridiculous. The only hope I have is that my Toyota rep said that they have had such negative reviews of it that they are re-releasing the whole app this fall, who knows if that’s true but that’s what was said to me.

2) Wireless charger
It just doesn’t work with my phone, at all. I have an iPhone 14 Pro with an apple magsafe case, does not charge. The light just blinks orange and then turns off. I can sort of get it to work with my friends phone but not at all reliably. I will need to do further testing, it might be an issue of the camera bump (Which is an issue for all new-ish iPhones) or maybe my magsafe case??? Unknown but I just don’t use it which is sad as I was excited for it

3) Visibility
Coming from a car with poor visibility I’m pretty used to it but my wife is not and does not like it. Honestly you can get used to it and the 360 camera and blind sport monitoring helps a lot. Not a big issue for me but might be for you

4) Crash Detection
Its warned me a few times on the screen with a massive red warning and an alert sound when driving past parked cars at speed thinking I’m going to crash into them. It’s not applying the breaks or anything. Looks like this can technically be updated over the air so maybe it will get better? Or potentially I can adjust it in settings, I will look into it.



Other things of note:

1) Tires
They’re meh, good for efficiency I guess, what I care about more is that I’ll need to find winter tires for this car and that’s looking challenging as the size is not that common

2) Range
Currently a full charge in the morning shows 55km of range when it should be more like 64. I’m assuming this is likely do to the computer still learning the capacity as the first few times I charged it it showed 44km of range and has been slowly going up

3) Moonroof
Wish it opened, coming from a car with an opening sunroof its sad saying goodbye to that, I used it almost every day

4) Passenger seat
I personally think that with the price of the vehicle the passenger seat should be motorized but that might be just me

5) Digital rearview mirror
I never use it, its not that clear and I don’t see why you would want to use that over the backup camera on the much larger display

6) Key fob
I only got one (Like everyone else) the other will be mailed to me. They fob is nice but its so big and bulky, also the clear plastic on the back is going to get scratched up so fast

7) USB C
LOVE that the car is all USB C (And there’s so many!) but they are limited to 5V 3A so that sort of sucks, would love to see some USB PD lol but I might be dreaming (Realistically you could just get a 12V PD charger or use a 120v one)


Things I thought might be a problem:

1) Heads up display
Zero issues with this. Not a problem at all. I’m 5’10 and my wife is 5’5, no problem for either of us to see the entire display and have a comfortable seating position/steering wheel location. The electronic seat is super adjustable so play with that a bit

2) Getting into the car
I’m younger so my opinion probably means nothing here but the car is super easy to get into, no problems here. Also the seat automatically moves back when you turn off the car so that makes it even easier! (And super cool)

3) Headroom
I’m 5’10 and I have no problems anywhere in the car but the back might be a bit tight if you’re taller

4) Cargo space
A bit on the small side but honestly with the seats folded down you can fit so much stuff in here. This easily fits all my tools for work in the back without spilling over into my back seats

5) Acceleration
Covered this pretty well above but it’s great! Honesty far better then I expected based on the reviews and the reviews were very positive.

6) Charging
A few people have posted about issues with charging, I have used many different chargers so far (Level 1 & 2) and the car charged every time without fail at full speed.

7) Eye tracker
Many of the reviews have said that this is super annoying, and they turned it off right away, I have not found it to be that annoying (And have left it on) but it is a bit sensitive. Things like longer shoulder checks will trigger it and messing with the touch screen for an extended time. Also if you like to hold the steering wheel from the top (Which you should not do anyways) it will get annoyed as your arm is blocking the camera.


Things I still need to test:
• Traffic Jam assist
• Auto wipers
-It hasn’t rained yet lol
• Auto headlights
• More weight
-I’m sure it will do well but I’m interested how it will handle with all our camping stuff in the back
• Heated steering wheel/mirrors/wipers
-It’s the middle of summer I’m not turning this on


I’m leaving for a 800km road trip in a few days so I’m super excited to take this. Please feel free to ask any questions you all have and I’ll try my best to respond as fast as I can. Overall I am in love with this car, its far better then I thought it would be. I test drove a model 3 before I bought this car and I am SO happy I went for the Prius Prime, it’s a better car in so many ways (Not all of them, looking at you remote connect). Thanks!
PS: Can't find a way to link a picture lol

 

Ya it's pretty sweet. Once you turn the car off it moves all the way back to let you get out and it moves forward once you either turn the car on or put your seatbelt on. Feels like I'm in some sort of futuristic spaceship

 

I would assume so

 

Ya you're going to hate this, I only waited about 3 weeks. No preorder, I started looking around 3 weeks ago, called basically every dealership in the province and said I was looking for a prius prime XSE Premium in red, they all laughed and said 2 years. I said that's fine, but just please write my name down just incase you get something because I would buy it right away. Within 2 weeks I had a dealership within an hour of me call me and say they have a yellow one do you want it. I drove down there, LOVED the color, test drove it and bought it the day it came into the dealership (Had to pick it up a few days later as my rebates had top go through)

 

I will definitely update here once I am done, probably taking the Fraser Canyon rather than the Coquihalla. Based on the driving I've done so far I don't think it will have a problem but we will see!! And yes I'll be using B mode breaking as much as possible, curious to see how little fuel I use as well as how the seats hold up for long drives.

Also the yellow is gorgeous!!! But also its pretty bold and out there, more of a mustard/gold yellow