Live Thread: One week with an 2023 Toyota Prius Limited

Wanna ride shotgun with the GRM crew?

Welcome to this week’s test vehicle, a 2023 Toyota Prius Limited–the "normal" hybrid, as opposed to the Prius Prime plug-in hybrid.

Read the rest of the story

Watching with strong interest. I'm heavily eyeing awd with intent. 

I drove the Prius from Daytona Beach, FL down to Sebring International Raceway this morning, and averaged 45.3 mpg. This trip is about 150 miles split evenly between rural stop and go and highway driving, and I aimed for about 80 mph on the highway and 55-65 mph in the stop and go sections. So it gets perfectly decent mileage for a long commute.

However, I'm not sure I'd want to spend a long commute in this thing. The stereo is great, but it sort of has to be to drown out all of the road noise. Floor it, and the CVT/electric motor combo screams while propelling the car along at a pace I'd call "good enough." The car is also fairly nervous on the highway. And the interior, while full of nice materials and pleasant to be in, is also really tiny. There's a hatch, yes, but I tried to put a box in it last night and realized it's nowhere near as big as what you'd find on a second-gen Prius. Visibility is also terrible, as I can't really see out of the back at all, and those clean lines make a massive blind spot over each shoulder. Front visibility is severely compromised by the massive A-pillars that seem to go all the way to the headlights.

But this isn't a premium car--it starts under $30,000, which means it's a cheap car these days. Still, though, I'm not sure why you would pick this over a Civic unless the Civic's low-40s mpg is just too low for you. And if efficiency is all you care about, why not spend a few thousand more and buy a Model 3, or nearly ten thousand less and buy a Chevy Bolt?

TL;DR: Decent car. But I don't get it. 

Oh, but this thing does look AWESOME. Points for style. 

What kind of laps can it turn at Sebring?

In reply to Tom Suddard :

Tom,
You've spent time in both; New Prius or Ford Maverick Hybrid?  

Toyota puts really crappy tires on their cars. New tires make a difference. 100,000 miles in a gen. 2 & 145,000 in  the current gen 3. The faster you go the better the car is. The new model lake of space would be a problem, I have put dishwasher in the back of the 2012 Prius.

You have to factor in Toyota relibility, change the oil each 10,000 miles, engine coolant at 110,000, Hybrid coolant at 150,000, a friend with a 200,000 mile Prius says at some point you will need new struts.

In reply to John Welsh :

Maverick hands down. It's way more car for the money, and I can see out of it. 

Qaaaaa said:

What kind of laps can it turn at Sebring?

or the FIRM.  especially on a set of RT660's 

how many laps before the battery depletes?

can a BMX bike fit in the back with one of the rear seats up? (i.e. 3-up mode) {or, in lieu of that, can you put a tape on the width/depth of the rear cargo area?)

how strong is the regen?  How far does the TCS/StabControl turn off?

Tom Suddard said:

Still, though, I'm not sure why you would pick this over a Civic unless the Civic's low-40s mpg is just too low for you.

A Civic doesn't get anywhere near low 40s in the city.  
 

Disappointing that the utility is not as good as it once was.  The Maverick really does seem like a much better vehicle for the average person... If you can get one.

what's the OEM wheel+tire combo weigh?

how well could you sleep in the back if the rear seats are folded down?

pics of the suspension and/or underbody panels?

Whooopy de da on the mileage. Hell my Honda CRX HF back in the early 90's averaged just over 50mpg freeway. The styling on the picture almost looks like a Tesla 3 from the side. Maybe when the car companies start getting back to actually coming up with a original design. I might think about buying a new vehicle. Yeah who am I kidding they're all to expensive for what you get and have gone to crap. Until electric can go 400-500 miles on a charge and get that consistently from a ten minute charge and being affordable. Until then there blowing smoke up our collective butts. There's a reason electric vehicles didn't go past the 1920's the first time. 

Always wanted to know how well a TNGA Prius would autocross. Steady lateral handling numbers are impressive, but only tell part of the story. How's the transitional handling? Is it stiff enough and have enough grip to overcome the relatively poor power to weight?

I should reiterate that this is not an EV--I saw a comment on Facebook complaining about battery costs, and a few here that seem to be confused, too.

This is a very traditional hybrid. No plug, and no giant battery. It has enough capacity to basically store one downhill deceleration from highway speeds, which it then doles back out accelerating away from the stop. That's the traditional hybrid party trick. So drastically reduced brake pad wear, and drastically improved city mileage. On the highway at steady speed, it's basically just dead weight.

And if we're complaining about range and charge times...I started with a full tank, and drove 367 miles yesterday. The car is now showing 16 miles of range remaining. That puts the Prius a bit ahead of a Model 3.

But I parked it in my driveway, in front of a 10kw level 2 charger, when I got home last night. I just walked out and checked, and it's still only showing 16 miles of range. So I need to run a 20-minute errand this morning to go fill it up with gas. That's a completely pointless trip.

So, this is a really efficient commuter for those who can't charge at home (and there are lots of those people, and they need options in the market). But for those who can, I'm not sure why you wouldn't buy the Model 3.

sleepyhead the buffalo said:

how many laps before the battery depletes?

this comment is not about me being confused it's an EV or a Plug-In.  Maybe the better way to phrase it is: 'how quickly is the electric assist drained, and how quickly is it charged back... especially when hustling?'  or 'can one maintain charge through a hot lap by modifying their braking strategy?'

The prime plug in sounds like the best of both worlds. I have yet to see one of the new prius's in person, they do look good on the internet.  So not sure what the real availability of them is.  Have they improved the software on the ecvt transmission yet that somehow does not feel connected to the engine or wheels?

As a Gen2 Prius owner, I wanted to like this thing so much. But it's sooooooo disappointing. 

Smaller inside and in the cargo area than my car. Get the same mileage, and this is my view of the instrument cluster:

Sorry that's just not acceptable.

Shame to hear this about this car. As good as the early ones were, I was hoping this would continue the tradition, because it is a HANDSOME creature. 

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

Since when does a modern car occupant care about vehicle metrics? I'm sure that big screen to the right of the wheel tells you all about who is texting you and all that important stuff in the rolling phone booth...

Mndsm said:

Shame to hear this about this car. As good as the early ones were, I was hoping this would continue the tradition, because it is a HANDSOME creature. 

Dude it is GORGEOUS. It's been sitting outside my shop al day and I find myself just pausing to look at it from time to time and it's not getting old. Every line just works.

Then you drive it, and it just burns through that accrued goodwill. 

I mean, I guess it's not necessarily *bad.* But the experience is so ordinary and unremarkable that there's just not much to get excited about. My Gen2 has its quirks, and it feels seriously dated by modern standards, but it was also $5000. this thing is $40,000, and I'm really not seeing 8x goodness here.

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

That's just it. I'm fine with it being an appliance. What we're looking for is MPG's and comfort. It's got MPGs in spades. HOWEVER, if it's as small inside as it sounds like, the comfort thing is an issue. We're looking to go UP from the B segment, and it's sounding a lot like this isn't much bigger inside than the Versa note we're DD'ing now. 

I'd say the closest thing I've owned to this is a Ford Fiesta, but that at least had a usable hatch. 

Mndsm said:

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

That's just it. I'm fine with it being an appliance. What we're looking for is MPG's and comfort. It's got MPGs in spades. HOWEVER, if it's as small inside as it sounds like, the comfort thing is an issue. We're looking to go UP from the B segment, and it's sounding a lot like this isn't much bigger inside than the Versa note we're DD'ing now. 

Dude I LOVE appliance cars. I do not need the car I'm taking to the grocery store to be exciting, I need it to excite me with its competence and practicality and usefulness. Anything else is a bonus.

The new Prius seems to sacrifice some interior and cargo practicality—as well as decent visibility—for absolutely stunning looks, and the tradeoff simply isn't worth it in this case. Kudos to Toyota for buiilding something that would look at home on a car show floor, but the actual function of the car took a downgrade from previous versions.

:sad panda face:

Ok. Sounds like I am glad I didn't wait another year to go get one of these. It was on my list of things to consider for my next appliance car. 

It's also hard to justify when I filled up yesterday at $2.29 for the cheap swill. Getting 30 on the hwy is just fine for me.