Cabin Noise Level

Direct injection engines tend to be noisier.

I wouldn't pass judgement until I drove the car myself. Unless the reviewers are taking actual decibel measurements, their reports are subjective. Maybe their daily drive is below average in the noise department.

Noise insulation adds weight that can add up quickly. It's one of the first things those looking to lighten a car strip out. I'm surprised Toyota hasn't used noise canceling systems in the Prius yet. I think Ford was back with the C-max.

 

Wow, sort of stopped after reading some/few of the post lol. Though reason it matters to a buyer. My take, maybe wrong, is if one goes from the LE trim to higher level with bigger tires the reviewers heard the tire sound more. When, in a way, might be good if it is the tire sound they hear most and not other sounds.
Guess I am strange, else bad memory, I just sort of got used to my 2016 IV ecvt sounds. Granted the car, to me, did make one hear more sounds (maybe because it was lower to the ground). In a perfect world we won’t have to ‘heard’ the rubber band effect sound of an ecvt but that is part of package created from day one to give great mpg right

 

Here's a summary of what some YouTube reviewers have said about 2023 Prius Prime cabin noise levels, based on their test drives. None of them offered db readings.

-In EV mode you hear the motor more than in any other battery-electric vehicle I can think of. [Not sure that makes sense.] You get a bit of hybrid noise. The Camry and the Accord are quieter. --Alex on Autos

-Some hum from EV.--Raiti's Rides

-Nice, quiet ride.--Car Coach Reports

-"Around town it's very very quiet even at higher city speeds. On the highway there's a little bit more road and wind noise than I would have expected." --Brian Makse

-"You hear the ICE when it's on and the sound is refined and unobtrusive, like the standard Prius, but it's still unwelcome. You get used to the electric side [i.e., electric-only propulsion] very quickly." -- Driven Car Reviews With Tom Voelk.

 

Driving the hybrid is not noisey for me. Spend more time in electric than engine some how. Even with the engine, there is something going on.. almost convinced those two mics over head of passenger and driver are actually doing some noise cancelation through the speakers.

Surprisingly quiet ride imo.

 

Admitting in advance I'm a first time Prius owner, but I've driven tons of different vehicles so my thoughts on my 23 XLE are based on those and the other current vehicle I own. I think way too much is being made of noise issues. Accelerating up to speed in any sort of 'normal' fashion does not cause any undo noise issues. When you get your foot into it, sure, the noise level increases, but rarely is that for more than a couple seconds and I don't find it awful or unbearable and some are saying.

The biggest noise issue for me seems to be on course road surfaces. Cruising along at 70 or normal roads, even when the ICE kicks in is reasonably quiet, but when the texture of the road becomes courser, the cabin noise can increase substantially. Not enjoyable when that happens. Fortunately, most roads in the state I live in a pretty smooth and only occasionally does the cabin noise get annoying. I'm also pretty convinced the road noise is from the Toyo tread pattern and will probably switch to Michelin when its time.

As a general statement, I'm satisfied with the level of noise I hear on a routine/normal basis and most of the time it is quite low.

 

what was your last car?

 

All Prius versions have gears. Some early ones had a drive chain between two gears I think. No belt and cone system in any, that’s one reason they are so reliable. A type of cvt but not like the common ones being used more and more.
I had a gen 2 and a gen 4, I got used to the different way the transmission works. I like the way the transmission works now. I like seeing Prius in the number one or top reliability spots. But I am not a race car driver. I know it’s easy to get swayed by reviews, and often wrongly. I got wrongly swayed a lot.

 

%100 agree here, most of the road noise is from bad roads. The engine noise isn't remotely loud even under heavy acceleration.

 

Yours came with Toyo? My LE came with Ecopias, surpsied me.

 

Read recently that even if in ev mode button setting, if pushing the pedal too hard it will kick in the engine. Makes sense. Though.darn, sort of liked the ideal of the new Prime running mostly in battery only mode and now not certain when/how often that can happen. Hope it is not a feather type affect one must use on the pedal to keep her in ev only mode if enough of the say 44 miles battery pack still has juice in it to give to the driver. Time will tell when someone buys a Prime and reports back to us.

 

I believe the 2023 Prime will stay in EV mode, while set to EV mode, all the way up to 84 MPH regardless if pedal is to the floor or not.

 

I'm in research mode, haven't driven one yet. I do realize that the Prius is an economy car and it's not going to be super quiet and I know sound insulation = weight, etc., etc.. That said, I'm still seeing comments about cabin noise that are all over the map, not only in this forum but in YT reviews. Some say it's louder than expected for the price point, some say it's quiet most of the time unless under very heavy acceleration, some say it's quiet. There does seem to be more consensus that poor road conditions result in increased tire noise.

I'll be coming from a newer generation Jeep Wrangler, not exactly a Lexus, so the Prius might end up sounding "quiet" to me. Surprisingly the Wranglers have pretty decent engine noise isolation but tire and wind noise is always there to remind you that you're driving a shoebox that you can partially disassemble and still drive it on the road .

My wife had a 2016 Civic for a while. I remember that car being "quiet enough" under most of the typical driving situations. If the Prius is comparable to that I'd be fine. At the other end of the spectrum, in the late 90s I bought a first generation Honda CRV as a commuter. I test drove it near the dealership and bought it. On the drive home on a stretch of highway it was so ridiculously loud that I called the dealership when I got home and discussed whether I could return the vehicle. In the end I decided to keep it. I learned to live with the noise and put well over 100k on it, but yes, it was like driving a motorized cookie tin.

Any further commentary on the Prius noise levels?

 

You can definitely hear engine noise on heavy acceleration or when driving around town in HV mode. But it's not so bad when considering that it's a small car. I drove a 2005 Honda Civic Hybrid for many years and the sound level was about the same. The one thing you can change (if so equipped when new) is the Toyo tires. At freeway speeds, they are the noisiest tires on less than perfect roads I've ever driven on. The fact that I have the 19 inch wheels doesn't help either; the low profile 19 inch wheel/tire setup will always be louder than a 17 inch wheel setup (unless you have a hearing disability). In the next few weeks, I plan on permanently switching to a 17 inch wheel setup and will sell the 19 inch wheels.

 

Your profile shows you already have a 2023.

I've owned an LE for 4 months now. I find it overall to be a very quiet car. This isn't Lexus quiet, but on quality roads, you'll be hard pressed to know the difference.

Get a few thousand miles on the tires, keep the pressure at factory recommendations and you should be pleased. Listen to music and you'll never consider noise again.

 

Dup

 

It does, but I do not own one. When I signed up for the forum I was presented with a question asking which Prius I owned. I didn't see an option for a non-owner. If there was one, I missed it. If i erred, I hope you forgive my grave error and disruptive behavior

 

Duplicate post here too.