First turn: Toyota Prius 2023 | Daily driving | Consumer Guide® The Daily Drive

newsofmax12/15/2022

12 4 minutes read

Toyota Prius 2023

Strange. As I rounded the corner, a guy on the street suddenly stopped, pulled out his phone and started acting like a paparazzi, taking pictures of my test car as if it were a super car. star. Add this incident to the number of approval marks my test car scored, and you’ll suspect that I’m driving something rare and exotic. But I did not. I’m driving a 2023 Toyota Prius…something that’s certainly not strange.

Yes, it’s brand new for the 2023 model year. And, yes, it has a brand new svelte shape. But it’s still a Prius. Just to show that eco-chic can be super cool. But there’s more than one new look going on here.

Toyota Prius 2023

Aside from the clearly reimagined new design, the most important changes to Toyota’s powerful fuel economy system are under the hood. Replacing the 1.8-liter four-cylinder is a new 2.0-liter engine paired with a pair of electric motors. The new setup brings combined output to 196 hp on all-wheel drive models and 194 hp on front-wheel drive models. That’s a whopping 60 percent power increase over the upcoming model, which delivers a total of 121 hp.

Test Drive: Ford Escape Titanium PHEV 2022

Toyota Prius 2023

Toyota has both new and old Prii available (by the way, Prii is the actual, official, brand-approved plural) for ongoing testing, and as you can imagine, the power upgrade is obvious. . While the 2022 model might feel slow and tedious, the 2023 Prius is smooth and light. The engine/hybrid engine interaction, which can be a bit tricky, is generally seamless. From a city girl’s point of view, this new Toyota hybrid will be powerful enough to enter and cross the highway, yet refined enough for smooth urban driving.

The beauty of the Prius hybrid system is that you enjoy both power and efficiency, in part because both engine-generators are used to charge the lithium-ion battery during braking and while the engine is running. light. Electronically Controlled Braking (ECB), as Toyota calls it, helps make the 2023 Prius the most efficient version of the model to date.

To that effect: Toyota is touting the car’s combined EPA estimate of 57 mpg, which is impressive, but that’s for the base front-wheel-drive LE model on standard 17-inch wheels. Pick up a mid-range XLE, or the top-of-the-line Limited with AWD, and your mileage drops to just 49 mpg—which is still pretty impressive. A few more numbers: the base LE with AWD is, according to the EPA, good for 54 mpg, and the front-wheel drive versions of the XLE and Limited are 52 mpg.

Best Distance: Fuel Economy Champion in the 2022 Consumer Guide (No Plug-in)

Toyota Prius 2023

My test drive doesn’t allow for any actual fuel economy ratings, but every car I sampled reported mileage in the 45-48 mpg range. Particularly impressed with the media test drive request.

Although the car’s new design, smooth power and fuel economy are impressive, not everyone likes this gauge cluster. Similar to the setup in Toyota’s new all-electric bZ4X compact crossover, the cluster in the Prius appears on a narrow triangular instrument panel that protrudes above the dashboard in front of the driver. The net effect is not like a regular instrument cluster view but more like a windshield display.

This is good enough for me, but taller drivers complain that the top of the steering wheel splits the instrument cluster in half, obscuring the instruments. This is definitely one of those “try before you buy” situations and a reminder of the value of a thorough test drive.

The rest of the interior is simply designed with minimalist horizontal lines. You get buttons for climate control and a volume knob (moat!), but radio tuning comes with a touchscreen.

The Prius’s new infotainment system is similar to the one we’ve seen in the Toyota tundra, Corolla GRand bZ4Xand it includes wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto integration, as well as a solid base of voice prompts for navigation and other hands-free controls.

Toyota Prius 2023

Test drive showroom: Toyota RAV4 Hybrid Limited 2022

While I like pretty much everything about the interior, there’s one major shortcoming and that’s the wireless charger that’s available. Toyota has done a great job with design and placement, but the problem is that it overheats your phone (to the point of sluggishness, but no shutdown) in less than 30 minutes.

Before you shrug and say, that’s just what wireless chargers do, I’ll point out that I’ve driven a number of General Motors test vehicles that put a cooling pad underneath the wireless charger and on By these means, my phone not only charges faster, but also cooler.

For 2023, the Prius ditches the base L Eco version and immediately switches to the LE. Pricing, including destination and key features for each version is as follows:

LE ($28,545): 17-inch wheels, 8-inch infotainment screen, black or gray 6-way adjustable fabric front seats, blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert.

XLE ($31,990): 19-inch alloy wheels, auto-dimming rearview mirror, heated driver’s and front passenger’s seats, heated steering wheel, 8-way power driver’s seat, leatherette seat surface, rain-sensing wipers, entryway Passive entry, wireless phone charging, front and rear doors -Rear parking assist with automatic braking. Options include: 12.3-inch infotainment screen, fixed glass roof, digital key.

Limit ($35,560): 12.3-inch infotainment screen, 8-speaker JBL premium audio, fixed glass roof, ventilated seats for driver and front passenger, 8-way power driver’s seat with memory, digital key , electric tailgate. Options include a 360-degree display, digital rearview mirror, heated rear seats, and advanced parking assist.

All-wheel drive is an extra $1,400 on top of these prices.

The base model compared to the base model, the Prius 2023 is $2375 more expensive than the ’22. But, LE to LE, the new car is only $1,165 up. For an all-new model with more power, lots of new tech, and good looks (yes, I’m saying that), the 2023 Prius is well worth it.

Although Toyota revealed the next-generation Prius 2023 at the LA Auto Show, it won’t be at dealerships until June.

Test drive: Ford Maverick Lariat 2022 (Hybrid)