Taking delivery of my ‘23 Yellow Prime XSE Premium on Aug 19!

Hi all,

Well, it's been 10 days and almost 500km of driving, so I thought I would share some thoughts & observations on this marvelous piece of automotive technology. Sorry this is long... grab some snacks and settle in. Bold added to make it easier to read.

1. Prius with little focus on fuel efficiency? Despite being a *Prius*, there seems to be very little fuel efficiency data presented, aside from some menus buried deep in the Toyota / Car menu, and less detailed than my Gen 3. Trip summary when shutting off is primary info presented. Even the mobile app shows recent trips with time and distance, but not fuel economy? Weird.
   
   
2. Digital Key is cool, but doesn't seem reliable. Sometimes works as smart key, sometimes not (sometimes have to open the app). Need to play with thi1s more to learn the ins & outs a little better; not sure I would trust it enough yet to leave the fob at home.
   
   
3. Nice hidden fob feature I just learned - it has a remote start feature by pressing the Lock button 3x and holding it for the the third press. However, I am not thrilled that the lights and dash come on... would prefer it didn't and remained stealth rather than advertise the car is running.
   
   
4. Intelligent Parking is really cool, fully automated, do not need to shift or brake/park. Not sure I will use it much (since I got parking 'skillz), but a cool party trick.
   
   
5. Accessing the basic AM/FM radio is weirdly complex. Using the UI, you need to get out of CarPlay with the Toyota app, then go into music, radio, FM, which is a lot of buttons. Of course using a voice command or the MID with steering controls (with presets), is easier, but this is not obvious to someone not familiar with the car.
   
   
6. As reported, no sunglass holder, which is mildly annoying.
   
   
7. Ventilated seats are cool (pun intended ), but honestly I find it weaker than I expected. Will help avoid getting sticky in hot summer at least.
   
   
8. No headlight OFF switch on Canadian model. This is weird.... there is no way to have the car "on" without exterior lights. Choices are Auto, Parking lights, or ON. So at minimum the parking and tail lights will be on... so don't take this car to a drive-in movie. However I assume there may be a secret Konami code or something to turn them off...
   
   
9. Thinking of adding the Toyota Dash Cam, but wish it would integrate with the digital rearview mirror to capture that feed. (Toyota, are you listening? )
   
   
10. Wireless "toaster" charger is nice, but wish it was less of a..... *toaster*. Yikes, my phone (old iPhone Xr, for now), gets hot after a while! Also doesn't charge very much (if at all), which I am sure is related to the heat. I know this has been debated on other threads. Best to use a wire if a charge is needed on a long drive. There should be a cooling fan integrated here with the enclosed design.
    
    
11. My ChargePoint L2 pulls about 3.7KW when charging, and after 2-3 full charges, seems to push about 12KWh into the 13.6 KWh battery.
    
    
12. Metric meter options are either L/100km and KWh/100km, or KM/L and KM/KWh. You can't mix the gas and electric meters (i.e. L/100km and KM/Kwh, which is what I am used to with the Leaf...)
    
    
13. Electric range available can she shown as battery % or KM/miles remaining. Would be nice if there was a third option to show both, or alternate this every couple seconds. (future software update? )
    
    
14. I confirmed switching from imperial to metric also toggles the odometer and trip meters, which is interesting.
    
    
15. CarPlay has a nice split screen view with Nav / next turn / Audio, but the audio seems limited only to streaming. It does not appear to allow AM/FM/SXM source to show here? Probably more of an Apple issue.
    
    
16. The underfloor styrofoam storage is limited to tools and small things. Need a trunk organizer for common things I carry such as a spare jug of washer fluid and my 12v tire compressor. Not ideal, but whatever.
    
    
17. I love that the Toyota app reports tire pressures by tire location - I presume this means if I have a soft tire it will proactively notify me, and not let me find out when I need to go somewhere! Nice.
    
    
18. However, I do like to throw a compact spare in the hatch when travelling "just in case", if I can spare the room. Has anyone found a good compact spare for vehicles with the 19" rims?
    
    
19. Still adjusting to not having a rear wiper... my first car in 25 years that doesn't have one. The digital mirror and rear camera washer is a nice alternative though! The camera washer is activated by pushing the windshield wiper stalk toward the dash (opposite from pull for windshield spray).
    
    
20. After almost 500km of driving, I have still nearly full on the dealership fill of gas. Burned less than 1/8th of a tank, and that was mostly day 1 when I drove it home (~100km) without a charge.....

There are probably more things, but those are my ramblings for now.... thank you if you got this far!

 

Agreed, just scrolling the MID up or down to the audio screen is probably the easiest (or just voice command), but that really needs presets to be effective. But also not obvious to someone new to the vehicle.

 

You’re most welcome, Mendel. Some are not new, but a few others I haven’t seen mentioned, so thought it was as worth sharing (like the inability to actually have the car on without exterior lighting… at least in Canada. )

I do think a couple hard buttons to the left of the display would have been nice, like CarPlay/AA, Audio (shortcut to the Toyota App audio screen), and maybe Settings to get to vehicle settings. Otherwise they are buried 3 or 4 button presses deep.

Thanks for info about the compact spare… I figure the same one used with 17” should work, as I don’t think the diameter is not drastically different. I just haven’t confirmed for sure, but I am sure the Parts dept can confirm it will fit.

 

Yeah, I figured that out about the presets and the left-right buttons. Like I said, once you understand it, it’s fine… just not obvious at first.

And I can help you about ordering the presets! From the Car Audio screen hit the Edit button, then I think there is “hamburger” slider on the right side of the preset, you can press & hold and drag it up or down to resequence them… I did figure that one out.

 

Lol, well played.

 

Follow up to my thoughts a few days ago…

• Found the pause/mute button that I thought I commented on, but I guess I forgot to mention that... Just hold the Mode button.
• I have been playing with the Predictive Drive feature (PDA) - which appears be turned off by default when the car is delivered - and while it feels strange at first that the car automatically decelerates for you, I think it is really cool feature and I believe this is maximizing regen in the process. The Safety Sense 3.0 is light years ahead of my gen 3 safety technology, lol.
• Was out for a drive today, and it is a late hot spell here in Ontario, 33C (91F) and very humid. Had the AC on at 22C (71F) the whole time and mostly secondary roads, and finished at 61km with 2km of range left, so right on 63km/39 miles, but WITH A/C. Nice. When I was out driving yesterday in cooler temperatures with windows open, I was tracking closer to 70km.

This car impresses me more every time I drive it.

Cheers.