Impressions of Le after about 4 months

Long windedness is quite appropriate when you have a lot to say.

Thanks for your comments, particularly regarding the safety features. I have two youngish drivers, so if they’re using the car, these features may matter. It’s good to know that it meets your needs…. And here’s hoping it’s NOT your last car. Cheers!

 

I'm 70 and it is great to hear I'm not the only "old guy buying a new toy". My first Prius was a 2009, which I considered the best Prius body style until I saw the 2023 model. I had gray leather upholstery in that Prius, and watched Toyota adding "style" to the interiors of subsequent Prius models that seemed aimed at teens - especially the black and white plastic dash in the Prius C seemed so to me.

When viewing the 2023 Prius "Black/Red" interior on the Toyota.com website, it appeared to me more of this "please the next gen", "hot car styling". When I finally picked up my 2023 Prius Prime last week, I discovered the "black" is more "charcoal gray" and the "red" on the dash is a more muted "maroon" that does not make me feel I am borrowing a teenager's car at all. This is my car, and it feels good to this 70 year old.

As to the outside, I simply cannot believe how much the styling hints of "hot car" feeling to me. The rear quarter view has a "low and wide" muscular feeling that is so pleasing to me, I keep going out to the garage just to admire, and cannot help myself from standing to admire it when I park somewhere.

Before the 2023 Prius was announced, it seemed like Toyota/Lexus was putting larger and larger front grills on the cars, so I was fearful the next Prius would be "grill heavy" in the front. Except for the non-removable front plate holder, I am very pleased with the front styling.

The lower side and rear window visibility is a loss compared with my 2009 Prius, but the better rear camera view with cross traffic alerts, and the blind spot monitor function are making the lower visibility less concerning.

Driving in the Florida heat, and especially after the car sits parked in the sun, always has me using the air conditioning heavily. In this age of "screens", having physical buttons to control it in the 2023 model was a welcome change from my "pre-screen age" 2009 Prius requirement to use the touch screen by first pressing the "Climate" physical button to access the "Climate Screen" and then using the virtual touch buttons. My wife claims the "real button climate control" is the best feature of our new car.

In prior "hurricane escapes from south Florida", the Prius hybrid concept provided comfort when the traffic came to a stand-still, and when so many pumps were displaying "out of gas". I am quite sure I will be praising my Prius as we head north or northwest amidst the next gas shortage inducing hurricane escape.

Congrats on your new Prius. May it only bring pleasure.

 

My impressions after less than two weeks!: agree with above, a very cool car. I never would have imagined myself enjoying a Prius as much as I do this car, on first impressions. I am still learning some of the icons on the dash, so many, so many safety features. I find the lane tracking where the car steers you back into the lane something to get used to as well - what if you are driving toward the line to avoid a pot hole? One thing I would emphasize from the OP is the slope and thickness of windshield pillars creating a blind spot - I can't tell if it is truly a blind spot or just seems like one but am very cautious pulling out into a street while I get a feel for this. This car is good for any age, btw, and I have not had any issues with entry, perhaps because I'm just 5'9', but unless you are really tall or out of shape I can't see why there is the amount of discussion on that issue - you just get in and out, like a car.

 

Thanks for sharing,Here’s my major complaints after about a week! No sunglasses holder, no coin box cubby,or place to put the cargo cover when not using! Otherwise, it’s a pleasure to drive find it quiet and handles quite well and has good get up and go! the JBL sound is quite good with Apple CarPlay, i’ll be adding tinted windows, 35% sides, and 15% in the rear, all IR ceramic

 

Congrats! I agree with no sunglass holder, am used to that in the roof. I've been keeping mine in the "hidden" spot in the up front of the center console. Could keep coins there too. There could be a few other places to keep "stuff" - my VW Golf Sportwagen had a cool hidden storage drawer under the driver seat. I have taken out the cargo cover and permanently stored it in my attic - using it would just make someone think I've left something of value under it, and it just gets in the way. This Gen of Prius has so much technology loaded into it that I'm not sure what to make of all that yet - I guess that's just how most new cars are these days, as it has been nearly 10 years since my last new car. It seems overly complicated, and I hope that doesn't lead to reliability issues in the first year cars of the re-design. The car is a pleasure to drive and though I am still breaking it in (driving conservatively) it does not seem under powered at all, quite the opposite.

 

I know EXACTLY what you're talking about lol.

I'm convinced this is the greatest styling achievement in the history of economy cars. That's right, this is an ECONOMY car. Just blows my mind.



Still taking photos of her.

 

That was supposed to be posted above...

 

sure a beauty

 

I've been taking a few more "fun trips" lately. This time I actually remembered to switch to "sport" mode. I cannot believe how this little car handles. It feels like a go-cart! So "settled", "planted", "neutral",... however they say it. Flip the auto high beams on, get a good grip of the wheel, and just whooosh! This thing drives WAYY above its pay grade. And don't forget, I'm on the high profile 17's. Still feels like I'm driving a legit GT.

Using the nifty Remote Connect service (free subscription for one year), I can look back on my past trips and see where I was a bad boy...



Harsh cornering?? Oopsies!

I blocked out all the streets around my "race track". Can't be too safe these days.





Still loving this car more every day!!!

Found a NEW way to post pics! Thx @Mendel Leisk !! **EDIT** My new way didn't work *sigh*. Found a "new new" way. Editing photo sizes way down. I guess the site stopped doing it automatically and just outright rejects the upload attempt (even though it shows as accepted in the preview ).

 

Went for a spirited drive after dinner again tonight. AC + music blasting. Will certainly have a few more 'harsh cornering' points in the Drive Pulse section of the Toyota app tomorrow.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; the performance technology in this car makes it almost a shame it was put into the Prius. I can't even imagine how this would handle had they gone full GT.

I'm flying through the turns on freaking 195/60 low rolling resistance tires built for fuel economy and it's absolutely thrilling! Not to mention confidence boosting. You almost can't get into trouble driving this car. I don't want to even think about the G5 on performance rubber. My goodness!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Pulled back into the garage with 68.4 MPGs on the display. This car is a technological miracle.



I don't know if you can see from the picture, but she was absolutely pearlescent under the streetlights tonight. And the answer is yes, I'm STILL often compelled to take photographs as I walk up to her.

 

[QUOTE="Preebee, post: 3370340, member: 185618"

Streetpearl by Preebee posted Jul 19, 2023 at 11:56 PM

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Link? “You don’t have permission to view..”

 

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Hopefully it works now. Site is so glitchy.

 

Here on Cape Schrod we have insanely narrow roads and loads of tourists, many of which ride their bicycles on these narrow roads along with their unpredictable kids despite riding on the sidewalk being perfectly legal and safe. So at least once a day I am swerving across the line to give them room since they're not really predictable, and the car tries its best to turn back into the lane and kill them.

 

Can the lane tracking be disabled?

 

It really takes a strong hold on the wheel to maintain your command of the direction when this happens and it always is a surprise, at least so far having only had the car for 2 weeks.

I am trying to always use the turn signal to let the car know to give me control in these situations, except I found one that totally confuses the car - a left lane ending merge. We have a 40 mph two-to-one lane merge on a left curve approaching a round-about. I typically am driving in the left lane approaching that merge, even though technically it is the right lane that continues around the curve. Entering the merge area the broken white center line ends putting me very much left of center in the merge area. The car will attempt to veer sharply right but I need to continue along the left arcing left lane double yellow line. I have come to expect this and am ready for it, but my wife would not know to expect this as she has not even driven the car yet.

I probably should turn off the Lane Departure Assist before letting her behind the wheel of "my new toy".

 

Earned a couple harsh cornering points indeed!



I'm taking a lot of corners on my drives, but the ones that register as harsh, must be triggering traction control or something. Maybe it's cornering + speed.

Oh, and I got that 68.4 WITH a passenger on board!

Imagine a new Prius owner driving the G5 like they stole it and then seeing 50 MPGs on the gauge after shutting down. It would absolutely be a Wth moment - in a good way.

 

Oh yeah, you can disable it. But joking about it's homicidal tendencies aside, now that I know it's likely to happen I've been able to compensate and it probably would only return to the center of the lane and not far enough to kill them. Probably. But the driver safety stuff has also reacted faster than I have to so many things that I think I'm better off with it on.

 

That’s annoying. I have to cross lines often for bicyclists. Should be interesting.