Prius c - First Drive Impressions - Right Lane Reviews

by Right Lane Reviews
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This review was made possible by Libertyville Toyota​

1180 South Milwaukee Ave. Libertyville, IL​

224-993-9001​

Overview
The Prius c is the smallest of the Prius family, but don’t hold that against it. It’s not easy being the smaller sibling to the Prius Liftback, Plug-in, and v: the go-to hybrids for more than a million American families looking to improve mileage and reduce fuel cost. When the children of those families grow up, or maybe move out, the Prius c is right there for the first-time driver or empty nester. Let’s take a closer look.

Appearance
The Prius c probably appears to be the least ‘Prius’ of all the Prii. Don’t get me wrong; that’s not a bad thing. After all, the c is targeted to a younger crowd. It would be a hard sell to the kids if the car looked too much like Mom and Dad’s v. Trust me, I drove a station wagon in high school; there were a lot of lonely weekends.

The grill is most definitely not Prius-like in regards to its large presence and dramatic features. Even the headlights take an aggressive gaze as they point toward the center and slant up and out. The hatch is equally eye catching flanked with huge circular taillights. Look a little closer and to the trained eye, there are definitely signs that this little guy is built to cut through the air efficiently. Toyota has employed bumps (called ‘airfoils’) strategically placed on the headlights to cut the air around the side-view mirrors. The taillights have fins to straighten out the air and reduce trailing eddies. The back bumpers employ the “aero-corners” introduced on the 2010 Prius Liftback. Even the slant of the hood is designed to lift the air up and over the wipers. Make no mistake; it’s a Prius. A sportier, more nimble, fun to drive Prius.



The c was released in 2012 and I’ve seen what some other people have been saying. Let’s just get this out of the way right now: the c is a compact car. Compact. That means is smaller than any car that’s larger than a compact. If you want to compare the cabin size to the Liftback, the Liftback will win. If you want to compare the engine size to the Camry, the Camry will win. If you want to compare the appointments to an Avalon, the Avalon will win. I hope you’re seeing a trend here because I plan to avoid that whole “it’s not as good as…” thing. Let’s talk about the c for what it is: a sub-$20,000 compact hybrid. There’s nothing worse than constantly comparing someone to their siblings.

Interior Tech
The c has the same steering wheel as the other Prii. The buttons are well positioned for thumb-access and well organized. I wish all manufacturers would take the time to make sure the buttons on the steering wheel were placed in a logical manner. It would require less effort to find the button you’re looking for. Toyota has taken that hunt-n-peck one step further with “Touch Tracer.” When you place your thumb on a button, an overlay appears on the dashboard showing all the buttons and which one you are currently touching. In a real way, you move your eyes only a few inches to see a representation of the buttons instead of looking all the way down at the steering wheel. This little concept keeps you from taking your eyes off the road and is a huge safety bonus.



The Package 4 has two screens: a 6.1-inch infotainment console and a smaller screen on the dash. Both screens have good resolution and produce nice image quality. In my opinion, having an LCD screen on the right of the dash makes the segmented speedometer on the left look out-of-place. I don’t understand that speedometer and want to forget it. I’d rather talk about the screens. The navigation map was easy to read and the controls easy to use. I actually needed to get somewhere as soon as I picked up the car and with the navigation it was really simple. Unfortunately, while driving around, I occasionally had some sunshine glare on the screen and found it difficult and sometimes impossible to read.



The dash screen provided the most information. In one display, it’s easy to see the power distribution between the battery, electric motor, and internal combustion engine. In another, it’s easy to see the power curve, which allows you to moderate your pedal pressure accordingly. Other screens show fuel savings and even provide a review of your trip including the cost of the gasoline you just consumed. These displays are great.

What I didn’t like was the transitions. The interface designers decided to animate the changing of the displays. Icons for each display spin around in a circle and as you press the Display button, the next one rotates to the front. If you wait a second, that one displays. After a little while, I knew the order of the screens and wanted to just go from one to another. Instead, I had to press Display to get the animated wheel, watch it spin, and wait for the display I wanted to appear. What should have been instantaneous required several seconds. Am I being petty? Maybe.



As much as I’m not a fan of the infotainment center becoming more and more popular in cars these days, I found the c very capable with the old-school functionality. Pairing via Bluetooth took all of no time at all. Music played very well over the speakers and sounded very good. If Bluetooth isn’t your thing, use the built-in USB port built into the dash, which will also charge your phone or other device. Toyota totally nails some of the little things. For example, next to the USB plug is a cord keeper. Clever.

Another un-Prius element of the c is the shifter. Rather than employ the joystick found in other Prii, the c uses a floor-mounted stick with that weird labyrinthine shifting pattern that has you moving sideways as well as up and down. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying it’s a stick shift. Just that to shift from Park to Drive requires that you move the shifter right, then down, then left, then down some more, then left again, and finally down to Drive. Perhaps the joystick shifter mechanism is more expensive and Toyota wanted to maintain a certain price-point. I finally got used to the shifting. Purely out of necessity, not because I enjoyed it. One item of humor: I am accustomed to my Gen2 Prius electronically shifting into Park when I power down the car. With the mechanical shifting of the c, when I pressed the Power button, the car stayed on and the dashboard displayed the message “Shift into Park”. After shifting into Park, the dashboard displayed, “Power off the car.” This is a very nice reminder of the proper way to park and power off a car. Sadly, I saw those messages more than once. Okay, more than twice.



Driving Impressions
I spent time in the package #4. This is the highest trim level with all the bells and whistles available. Personally, I found the SofTex seats pleasant. It helps that they are heated which makes them worth the extra cost when it’s below freezing outside. The seats are a bit firm which might take their toll on very long drives but I didn’t find them uncomfortable after driving for about an hour. What I didn’t expect was that the driver’s seat not only moves forward and backward but also up and down for height. Shoot, I have driven more expensive cars that haven’t figured this out yet. Nice touch.

It was a very hot day when my wife and I ran some errands in the c. Mid-90s and humid. Inside, however, it was high-70s and very comfortable. Auto A/C is a very nice feature adjusting the air temperature and which vents are employed based on need. One nice thing about Toyota’s hybrids is that the A/C is not mechanically coupled to the transmission. This means there is no impact on the power of the engine when you are using the A/C. Because it draws from the hybrid battery, there is the risk of mileage impact but I didn’t see it.

It’s been a while since I’ve driven a small car like this. I had forgotten how much fun it can be. In my opinion, the c doesn’t disappoint. With a couple full-sized adults in tow, the engine seemed to be straining a bit to get going off the line. Once up to speed, cruising was a snap. If acceleration off the line is your thing, you’re better off getting a racecar; the c is not sports-tuned, so don’t expect to be racing Vettes for pink slips. Cornering was fun in a small, nimble way. There was some body roll, which had me a little unsettled at first.

Fuel Efficiency
Now for the part I enjoyed the most: driving for mileage. There are a couple different screens on the dash you can use to maximize your mileage. There’s the standard Engine/Motor/Wheels display introduced in the Gen1 Prius and now ubiquitous in almost all hybrids. There’s also the Eco Score screen, which is crammed with information: your current trip’s mpg, the battery’s state of charge, the power curve, and a ‘score’ based upon your acceleration, coasting, and braking skills.

In my opinion, it’s a good idea to display each trip’s mpg rating in addition to each tank’s and the vehicle’s lifetime mpg. The reason I feel each trip is important is because most of us drive the same route every day to and from work. Those of us who think about such things would be able to compare today’s driving to yesterday’s driving and tweak a little each day to get the best daily mpg possible. Tank averages show the entire duration of the tank of gasoline, which gives a longer-term perspective including short trips and other out-of-the norm driving. A lifetime average lets the driver know whether they are meeting or exceeding the EPA average. Most drivers of conventional cars don’t have a clue about their short-term and long-term mpg averages, which, quite frankly is a shame.

The Power Curve is a great way for the driver to understand exactly what kind of load the car is under and exactly how hard they can press the pedal without kicking out of EV mode. After only a short time of monitoring the power curve, an average driver can really get the hang of using their right foot to improve their car’s performance. One item that is often overlooked is the regenerative breaking indicator. We all know that when you lift your foot off the accelerator, the wheels spin the electric motor to regenerate some power back into the battery. What the power curve illustrates is that approaching a stop and lightly pressing the brake pedal invokes a more intense level of regenerative breaking and puts more energy back into the battery.



I do not fully understand the ECO Score. I seemed to score well on “Start” and “Cruise” but for the life of me, I could not figure out what I needed to do in order to get even a single mark for “Stop.” I eventually gave up trying different things and moved on to a different screen. When I had finished my drive and flipped back to ECO Score, I had five marks for “Stop” though I have no clue whatsoever how I ‘earned’ them.

If hypermiling is your game, the c is an extremely capable car. The EPA estimates 53 mpg in the city and 46 on the highway. The high city numbers come from the c’s strong use of the battery. I got the impression that the c was always anxious to use the hybrid battery whenever possible. Driving around on mostly residential streets, it was no problem at all to get up to speed, let up off the accelerator and see the c switch seamlessly into EV mode and maintain cruising speed. In fact, the transition from gasoline to battery and back again was so seamless that had I not been watching the screen I wouldn’t have noticed the transitions.

On Priuschat.com, there is no shortage of Prius c owners reporting 60+ mpg tanks. That is, entire tanks of gasoline being used with an average mpg exceeding 60 mpg. Just to make sure you know I’m not talking about individual trips. A quick browsing of the forums will show some 70+ tanks on record. So make no mistake, the c is a fun little roundabout but also an extremely capable hypermiler.

On the first and second generation Prius, Toyota did not allow the driver to manually engage EV mode in which the gasoline engine is software-controlled to stay off. This changed with the 2010 Prius Liftback and the introduction of the EV button; the EV button is now found in all members of the Prius family. In EV mode, the c operates entirely on battery power. EV mode is great for shuffling around cars in the driveway or very short trips in a parking lot. The Prius c is a hybrid and not meant for extended EV operation. It won’t hurt the car or the batteries but it can drop your overall mileage. I know that sounds counterintuitive and a full explanation is outside the bounds of this review so just take my word for it.



One aspect I didn’t have enough time to get a complete perspective on is the difference between ECO mode and normal mode. When you start the c, it defaults into Normal mode. Pressing the ECO Mode button uses software algorithms to adjust the overall performance of the car. For example, the pedal pressure to acceleration power curve is adjusted down such that if you have a heavy foot using ECO Mode can compensate. Owners have reported mpg improvements using ECO mode as their primary driving mode and switching into normal mode for high-acceleration situations.

Familability
If you have a few kids, don’t plan on fitting them all in the Prius c along with all their school and sports stuff. Seriously, that’s what the Prius v is for. Having said that, families with small kids or perhaps a single child would find the c very adequate for the bulk of day-to-day necessities. As a compact, the c finds its niche as a commuter car, a first car for a new driver, or a more efficient option for newly empty nesters. In fact, if you have a two-car family right now, the Prius c is probably a reasonable option.

True to Toyota’s complete use of space, there are cubbies just about everywhere. In the front, there are places to store a phone, a book, paper maps, whatever. Just when you think you’ve found them all, you find another. For a seemingly small car, there are a lot of places to store things.

There are a few things about the c that left me scratching my head though. For example, there are five cup holders. This seems perfectly fine for a car that can seat up to five people. However, four of them are in the front with a single cup holder in the center of the back. If there are three people in the back seat (and yes, three people can comfortably sit in the back) only the middle person gets a cup holder while the other two get to hold theirs. This is no problem for adults, I suppose, but good luck if you have two kids sitting in the back fighting over the lone cup holder. Just saying.

The rear seats fold in the 60/40 configuration that is common among all Prii. With the back seats up, there is a little more then two feet of floor space. With the seats folded, there is 4 ½ feet from the hatch to the back of the front seats. Unfortunately, the front passenger seat does not fold flat as in the Liftback.

Because the rear seats lean back, the two feet of cargo floor space translates to only around 17-inches of room for tall things between the seat and the hatch. This is wide enough for a paper bag of groceries. Speaking of groceries, I discovered that a paper bag was too tall to fit in the back with the tonneau cover in place. Removing the cover is a snap and it stores easily so I’m not complaining. If you find that you’re at the grocery store with a cart full of paper bags, it would certainly be easier if you have already removed the cover. You can fit five paper bags side-by-side, which is plenty of space for the average shopping venture.



Wrapping It All Up
I remember when Toyota launched the Prius c claiming to target the younger crowd and new driver. Their thought was that the younger generation has grown up over the last ten years hearing about hybrids, EVs, and high mileage vehicles. They learn more about environmental concerns in schools than we old folks did. Many of them grew up in Mom and Dad’s Prius. So it would stand to reason that when it’s their turn to start driving they would want a high-mileage vehicle, preferably a hybrid.
Most new, young drivers are thrilled to even have a car of their own. The cost-savings, hard plastic, and lack of luxury of the Prius c are perfectly fine with them. Heck, my first car didn’t have air conditioning or FM. Any young driver should be tickled to have the technology, stereo, and hybrid system of the c. I know I would. So if you’re looking for a safe, compact car for your new driver, the Prius c should be very high on your list.

As minivan parents become empty nesters, fueling that beast every week just to drive it around empty gets old very fast. I expect to see many older drivers purchasing a c as their everyday, running errands and bopping around the city car. Perhaps the c becomes the primary vehicle and the minivan gets out only when the grandkids come to visit.

In either case, I think the Prius c is a strong contender in the compact car, sub-$20,000 category. If you find a few extra coins in the sofa cushions, max out the appointments for just under $24,000. Make no mistake, you can buy a Yaris, Fit, or Focus for a lower up-front cost than a Prius c. Before you settle on the low-cost provider, take a test drive in all of them. I’m pretty confident you’ll agree that the Prius c is a fun car with nice tech that delivers the fuel economy for which its Prius nameplate is famous.

For more information about the Prius c, visit Toyota Prius C | Hybrid Hatchback

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This review was made possible by Libertyville Toyota​

1180 South Milwaukee Ave. Libertyville, IL (224) 993-9001​

Give them a call or stop by for your sales and service needs.​