2023 Prius Reviews

Lane warning - I turned mine (2023 LE) off when I received the car and it has remained off for 10,000 miles. Keep trying or get the dealer to deactivate it.

 

Another cute review. His reviews are usually good. Sometimes the hair gets in the way though (kidding)

case in point (just for laugh)

 

The Straight Pipes (canada) did a review on Prius Regular recently.

Last year they did a review on Red Prius Prime.

 

My thoughts exactly

https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2024-toyota-prius-prime-se-first-test-review/

 

My volt has some of this kind of nonsense built into it and it's very annoying some of the rental cars I've rented have this stuff and usually the general motors and some of the cars you can generally turn it off because it will drive you crazy going down the road It's just ridiculous I guess it's for people who spend their lives on their phones and tablets and not paying attention to anything going on around them of which there are many of those types I guess these things are somewhat helpful? To me it's just like something screaming at me I'm level to drive right into a bridge abutment listening to all that racket

 

I agree. But not "exactly"

The biggest advantage of the SE Prime is the 17 inch wheels. The 19 inch wheels cause all kinds of potential headaches (knock on wood, I have had none, so far). The biggest disadvantage is only cloth seats available. Interesting to see the other stuff in the article. If I was doing it again and had a choice, I might go with the SE Prime. I had no choice, buying a year ago got lucky to get it at all.

Reservoir Blue is the color! Car looks sharp.

 

In Canada we have auto headlights, FCTA, lane change assist, heated front seats and steering wheel as well, on the SE. the canadian SE is a pretty good value, to be honest. The US one has fewer features.

 

You need all the heated stuff I imagine . I live in California. The US version does have lane change assist, but not auto headlights, and when I google FCTA, all sorts of strange stuff pops up.

 

I was in the same "no choice" boat regarding the color..it's been growing on me. As for the seats, I got these from Amazon- perfect color match and really no fitting issues:

Hm..looks like the link can't be posted (?)

 

Front cross traffic alert

The feature sheet for the canadian SE model doesn't show a checkmark next to front cross traffic alert, nor lane change assist, but turns out they exist. So the car changes lanes when in the advanced cruise control mode so long as I'm above the speed threshold of 80km for the feature if i hold the turn signal stalk at the half position for a few seconds. Pretty cool really. And if I'm pulling out of a parking spot, or waiting at a stop sign/light, if someone is coming from the side way too fast the car will beep at me to pay careful attention, which has helped me once or twice. But more often than not just lets me know someone is stopping at their light and coming in a little hot even though I saw them slowing down already.

Also, I kinda like the cloth seats, to be honest. They don't get as hot or as cold as leather which ive had before. But for me, the main reason is I have kids. And while yes, leather is easier to wipe up, its also easier to damage, puncture, permanently deform with tightened down carseats.

With some scotchguard and a towel in between the two carseats to catch spills, the cloth is much more stress free for me. The fake leather seats default to having heating elements in the back too for us, and carseats can damage the elements. Plus, the kids are gonna be in full size carseats and backed boosters for many years yet, so I'd be paying 6k CAD + tax and financing for a feature they'd never use, that might break, and would be more stressful to keep in good condition.

For us, we'll just go with the better interior when we're older and have older kids who wont' be nearly as intentionally and unintentionally destructive.

 

Little fluff piece from MotorTrend about the design:

Does the Toyota Prius Really Look That Great? We Asked Tomorrow’s Car Designers

 

Only factual quibble with the article is that the gloss black fender trim does not denote it's a Prime; it denotes it's an upper trim. Base trims(LE & SE) get the matte charcoal fender trim; mid and upper trims(XLE/LTD/XSE/XSE+) get the gloss black trim. (at least in the US)

The only exterior Prime-specific features(other than badging) are the different 19" wheels on the XSE/XSE+, the clear rear light bar, the charging port door, and the solar roof(if equipped).

 

And the more shiny grill surround. "Metallic silver" rather than "metallic grey" according to the Japanese brochure.

Very subtle though.

 

No, I believe that's also a trim difference, not a HEV/PHEV difference(US at least). But I don't currently have an active parts subscription to double check.

 

Well, in Japan, according to the brochure, it's different between the Z HEV and the Z PHEV, same as the lights and wheels.

It's possible that it's assigned differently for US cars, but I'm assuming they're maintaining the same pattern.

Shows up better in their photoshopped images than real photos - but even then you kind of need to page flip:




Here's a post from someone on Reddit the other day confused about the "bronze" colour of his Limited's:

 

Oh, and here's the table in a translated copy:

 

Back on topic, an hour-long 5-way review of all Prius generations from France

Including the customary drag race.