There's a new Toyota Prius on the market - and the car still beats everyone else in one important way
It was starting to warm up as winter gave way to spring at our suburban New Jersey automotive HQ. The Prius was "gray metallic" and looked quite nice.
The 2016 Prius joined my 2011 model in the driveway.
Two Priuses are better than one! Note that on the '16, the styling is more aggressive and angular. This change has already polarized some of the Prius community: A lot of loyal owners don't want the car to get more interesting-looking.
Check out that zigzag on the rear taillight! Pretty bold!
The good old blue-highlighted Toyota badge hasn't really been changed.
And there's still a massive amount of cargo space in the back (a few cubic feet more than the outgoing Prius), with even more available if you fold down the rear seats. This makes the hatchback configuration very versatile.
The two-tone interior gives this trim level of the Prius a sci-fi vibe. I kept thinking this this is what the upholstery in a "Star Trek" shuttlecraft is like. It's called "Moonstone."
The back seats reminded me a bit of what we recently saw on a Tesla Model X SUV.
The steering wheel isn't much altered from the previous generation. And there's still overall a very plasticky feel to the interior.
Ooh — some sexy blue topstitching!
The steering wheel isn't much different from the Gen 3 version.
The famous, or infamous, shifter, sticking right of the dash like the stick on an Alfa Romeo from the '70s. Easy to use, though. B puts you in a regenerative-breaking mode that helps to recharge the battery faster for limited, low-speed, all-electric EV Mode operation.
And there's the legendary Hybrid Synergy Drive tucked under the hood. Not exactly the sort of thing that makes gearheads rejoice. But tech-savvy folks adore it as an efficient masterpiece of engineering.
You know it's a Prius as soon as you start it up. The information-display screens and the center infotainment screens are a big improvement over the previous generation.
Prius owners love to geek out over their MPGs, and the car is happy to feed that geekery with a variety of charts and graphs that can be accessed on demand.
More charts!
I was averaging an impressive 51 mpg in some not-holding-back combined city and highway driving (I'm the farthest thing there is from a hypermiler). That's a noticeable improvement on the 40 mpg I see in my older Prius.
You have four modes: Normal, Eco, which provides maximum everyday MPGs, EV, which gives you brief all-electric driving, and ...
POWER MODE! I was in this mode, which peps up performance, most of the time, because I wanted to see how this new Prius performed when compared with my 2011 — kind of fun in Power Mode — and some of the juicier cars we've tested recently.
The rest of the infotainment stuff is standard issue. There's mapping and navigation ...
... a suite of apps ...
... and of course satellite radio, Bluetooth connectivity, and USB ports to connect devices. It's all managed from the touchscreen and with the steering-wheel controls. It didn't blow me away, be it works fine. And I've always liked the JBL audio system.
And what's it like to drive?
The driving experience is similar to the previous generation, which is an easy, easy, easy car to drive. But the driving never calls attention to itself. This is what all the Prius haters complain about: It's a goldarn transportation appliance, goldarnit! It's not even a real goldarn auto-mo-beel!
Enthusiasts may recoil, but for a large number of people this incredibly fuel-efficient and exceptionally reliable transportation appliance is just right. I spend less than $300 annually on gas, and that's with the outgoing model. If I had the new model, I'd save more.
The engine is still, on paper, unimpressive: only 95 horsepower, from a 1.8-liter, 4-cylinder powerplant, yoked to a continuously variable transmission (CVT). The aerodynamics have been improved, and the hybrid system tweaked, so overall fuel economy is better, and that's what most Prius buyers really care about most.
The car feels beefed up, ever so slightly. It gives you the sense of being better planted in corners. It's also a little bit better at highway cruising, and the hybrid powertrain is quieter, so long trips are more relaxing.
But basically, it's the same old Prius — well, the same old previous generation, anyway — subjected to the Toyota Way and continually improved. And that's rather reassuring. Nobody wanted a radically different new Prius.
The Prius just RELAXES me. I go into a happy state of driving Zen when I'm behind the wheel. From my POV, this is a triumph: a relaxed driver is a GOOD driver. It's not like I'm nodding off to sleep. The 2016 Prius is a tiny bit better than the outgoing Prius, and the next generation will be a tiny bit better than this new generation. Is life too short to think about your car? If so, then this is the car for you.
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