I drove a Prius for work for several years and it saved me hundreds of dollars a month on gas. Then my wife drove that same car for several years and actually made a few hundred dollars each month because her job reimbursed her by the mile. By the time that car finally died it had more than paid for itself. My wife replaced it with another used Prius. It might not be the sexiest car, but I have other cars for that. Great video
@@GeorgeWashingtonLaserMusket the preset mileage reimbursement rate was higher than the actual cost of driving the Prius per mile. She drove long distances to reach job sites thus she would actually make money off the reimbursement.
But what was the cost to your soul? I enjoy driving the cars and motorcycles that I build. In no way would I ever sacrifice the whole point of building my cars and motorcycles by parking them and driving some infuriating POS on my way to work or get the groceries. That's the point of having cars you enjoy - to enjoy them when you inevitably have to drive somewhere you don't want to go - like work - at least you get the enjoyment of the drive there and back. If it gets less fuel mileage, then that's the cost of my enjoyment. The cost of driving a Prius would be selling my soul - and not being able to enjoy the vehicles I have built for myself.
@@AMurph79 it’s like you didn’t even watch the video, you’re in the group of car enthusiasts that Matt talked about. Not everybody builds their own cars or needs something fancy, they want an appliance. Not to mention that I love driving my 04 corolla around, I simply love how well it’s built and I love doing the occasional maintenance because nothing ever breaks.
The only downside to this argument that I can think of is that batteries degrade over time and with such a small hybrid capacity by the time you hit 50000 miles, the battery would show at least 15% degradation assuming 1kwh in a hybrid. Larger batteries can eek out more before going through charge cycles thus lasting for longer mileage. Of course replacing the batteries at the end is a massive cost anyway. With BEVs, by the time you reach that stage you'd be well over 200k-300k miles
There's a similar point to be made with GMs since discontinued hybrid trucks and mild hybrid lineup. The mild hybrids were simple enough to be applied across the range for little cost, meaning you could see a few mpg difference on anything from a basic economy car to a luxury sedan and bring the whole fleets consumption down significantly. Similarly the hybrid trucks didn't return crazy MPG but given the popularity of trucks a 15-20% increase across the board offers significantly more savings compared to a hatchback getting similar results in a country where hatchbacks were never terribly popular.
Dude you nailed it with the dishwasher comparison lol I’ve always been the odd one in the group who doesn’t name their cars. Personal attachment to an appliance is weird to me.
@@Kaodusanya it’s usually a girls name for the car, even amongst some female drivers. It probably carries on from when people named the horses they used to get around. It goes back decades if not a century at this point. Cars were called horseless carriages in the beginning. Considering how much time we spend in vehicles and their ability to make some people emote it’s not surprising people would give their modern horse a name.
Gen 2 Chevy Volt. Best plug-in hybrid ever. 53 mile battery could easily go 70 miles in town. When my Lucid showed up I couldn't bear to part with it. Eventually I convinced my wife to dump her beloved Subaru for the Volt. Now she's a convert too. GM screwed up cancelling that car.
To be fair, EVs have a lot of new and different parts that make them hard to get right if you haven't built one before. Like wheels. Very hard to keep them from coming off an EV. Toyota's working very hard on it.
@@why6212 the cost factor has also led to some questionable cost saving measures, like for example tesla gigacast parts just having massive cracks that you cant see unless u take it apart
We bought a Prius V back in the day (6 years ago) because it was super reliable and it fit our requirement of being able to comfortably transport two couples and their luggage on a weekend trip. The fact that it was a hybrid was, if anything, a downside, because we were nervous about the tech. The only other car we were considering was the Outback station wagon, which matched the Prius V price exactly ($30K in 2014). However, the reliability reports for the Outback didn't even come close to the Prius, and thus the decision was made. Now, at 150,000 on the clock, we've been ecstatically happy with the V. It still drives like a new car, and the only issue has been a tiny bit of rust starting in the past year and an incessant hunger for wiper blades. We'll probably keep it for another 100K, especially considering what's happening in the car world these days.
That's...... an interesting way to buy a car. Most people would have bought a rav4/CRV and moved on. Why exactly the extra ugly Prius V and not the many many other reliable Japanese station wagon ish vehicles?
I got a 2006 hand me down prius as my first car, that thing drove me like 80k miles because I was a pet sitter/dog trainer. It was a workhorse and reliable as hell. That thing got me such a massive tax wright off, I was self employed so my tax return went up by about $4 for every gallon I drove. (up to how much I'd paid in tax that year of course) But then a fuse box went out in the middle of lunch traffic and that silly little $500 fuse box ALSO CONTROLED THE BRAKES, I stopped loving my precious silver tic tac pretty fast. Closest I ever came to an accident sans all the people aggressively driving around me, tailgating, and almost clipping my bumper when I was going just as fast as everyone else. Anyway I have a beater 87 dodge ram van project vehicle now I'm learning mechanics on (how I found this channel; I need to gut the wiring) Even though it dies on me at least twice a month and for SURE I know it's more dangerous because it's just a big steel box with no airbag. I feel safer because people don't drive aggressively around me, I can actually SEE what's going on, and even when everything dies on it the breaks and steering still work. The absolute worst part of owning a Prius was everyone else on the road. I was almost in SO many very dangerous crashes because people would get road rage at me even though they could see damn well I was going the speed I was because the cars ahead of us were. Part of defensive driving down there was matching the traffic and I did and yet I was still the target of their ire. One asshole even tried to play chicken with me on the on ramp and speed past me in spite of them having pretty much no room to accelerate and I was going 70 in a 60. I had to swerve into the other lane to not get side swiped even though I WAS THE ONLY CAR ON THE ROAD. It's not like they were lacking room to zipper into the lane. and i WOULD have slowed down to let them go ahead, if they didn't come out of nowhere. Heck when my dog was sick and i took him to the emergency vet i was going 25 over and some guy went 90 in a 60 just to pass me and then veer in front of me because I had the audacity to be in the left lane. I drive like a granny now because my van is still dying all the time and no one dares tailgate me, cut me off, go around me or act stupid because my van looks like it's begging to hit someone. Never going back to prius, not because I don't love it, i know mine was old as hell and the fuse box is an issue they fixed in later models. But because there's no such thing as driving defensively when people are actively trying to endanger your life just because they don't like the car.
Corolla XSE sedan is also a really good looking car, as are many camrys now. I work at a Toyota dealer and it's nice that I get to to stare at some quite pretty machines, especially compared to 10-15 years ago.
Absolutely. This new Prius, the Yaris and the Rav 4 all look great. Toyotas cars used to look boring at best and straight up ugly at worst (2nd gen Prius) but not anymore.
10:01 you just described the BMW i3 with range extender. 70mile EV range, with a moped engine to charge the battery. If only BWM wouldn’t have made it look so dorky (I have one. It’s a love/hate relationship).
@@mattberube7371 and it's a powertrain concept that GM should have continued to build on for years, as a 50-60 mile battery range would likely suit most driver use cases, allow dino-juice range extender use as required for longer distances, AND allow GM to build more volume of cars with small battery packs...
The i3 REx engine is small for a car, but way too big for a moped. Perhaps you meant "scooter"... it is a maxi-scooter engine, used in the BMW C650 GT.
I had an i3 as a loaner when I took my 5 series for a service. I hated it, didn't feel like a BMW, didn't drive like one, wouldn't even break traction on a gravel road with the traction control turned off and the interior was weird, not bad but nothing like a BMW. If it was a Renault it would have made sense.
Ive always said the same thing. The real solution is a drivetrain that's all electric with just a gas generator to recharge the battery while you drive. Something very much like the BMW i3 Rex. Via Motors also had a pretty neat idea as well. All cars need to drop drivetrains with wheels connected to ICE engines. Only electric motors should be connected to the wheels.
While I wish my i3 had a more than a 33 kWh battery, the scooter engine in the boot connected to a generator really saves the day for the for the longer, trips or in case of emergency. But on average I use it for less than 2% of the km i drive.
Exactly, it’s enough for most things. My eGolf has a bit more capacity than your bmw (36kwh), and it charges faster than yours…but it has no additional engine. Great for cost (no oil changes or so) but not to great for long, fast travels. It CAN do it if it has to, but i use my Mercedes for that. The Golf is great for everything under 200 miles (no charging stop), and decent for drives under 500-600 miles, and i love to drive it - any distance more than and i try to use another car, even if it’s the small SUV of my wife if nothing else is available…well it’s basically the same like you, but wit/ two cars instead of one who does both 😉👍
my mate had a Prius second hand (ex-hire car), drove it housepainting every day for 8 years, with waterblaster and spray equipment on back seat, cans of paint and equipment everywhere. All mechanics would do a double-take when they looked at the odometer: 500,000km. Finally died around 560,000km. absolute beast of burden.
I've always appreciated how Toyota completely nailed the Prius drivetrain. It's so different from any existing drivetrains at the time it came out, but very elegant and somehow, it worked quite reliable from the start.
They're soo reliable, that they are also ironically, worth nothing at a junk yard, because no one needs one! 😂 I'm thinking about adapting a prius drivetrain into a Polaris RAZOR for a hybrid UTV.... that could maybe also be a welding rig as long as I got all that juice, might as well do a 3rd magic trick right!?
Hybrid is the way to go IMO. With gas engines having 100 years of tech advancement we could use that to make really good small generators for the EV systems and like you said, there's no way we will be able to strip mine enough battery minerals to switch EVERYONE over in such a short amount of time like law makers are asking. Having an "EV" that can go 30-60 miles for around town use and then flip the gas engine on to charge itself back up is much more feasible. Toyota should put out a documentary on how companies strip mine battery minerals and maybe they will get more hybrid support lol
I bought a hybrid Corolla when they came out and I frigging love the car. It fits wonderfully into my life that semi-regularly consists of long road trips across Canada where EV chargers aren't super common to this day. It was either that or a Prius, but we had previously driven a rental Corolla in Australia for a bit and it was just a fun car. Doubly fun as a hybrid with extremely low fuel usage. Plus it's a Toyota and they have a proven track record of building reliable cars and hybrids, so what's not to like?
Our Gen 2 Prius fell apart (needed a new engine and battery in year 6) and the dealership charged insane prices for problems that should have been under warranty but magically weren’t (defective headlights that “weren’t defective” because there was a required upgrade for any replacements). After our local dealership lied to our face about a needed battery repair, we sold it and won’t buy a Toyota any time soon.
Matt - what a great video! You are the first performance auto enthusiast I have ever heard who gave a balanced report on the Prius, and I don't think it's because they primed you with food and drink!
You could call me hardcore car guy. I bought a Prius 2nd gen used about 10 years ago and loved it. Replaced the main battery with the good used one for about $1,200 installed. Never had issues with the car. You can camp in it with the rear seats folded down and the climate control on. The gasoline engine will only kick on once or twice briefly through the night. Sold it with 350,000 Mi still running well but some fool hacked out my catalytic converter. Looking to buy another Gen 2.
GM did their homework with the range of the Volt. For most of my work driving I never used gas with my ELR. TBH, when the 4th gen Prius came out in 2015 I was impressed. I liked the tail fin like rear styling, and it drive so much better than prior ones.
This video was absolutely fantastic and on point, especially your bit comparing the dishwasher to a car, absolutely brilliant and on point. Keep it up!
I must admit, though I adore cars, I don't think the future is EVs, or hybrids, or new fuels, but just improving public transport to where the majority of people would rather take it than drive. Trains and buses are much more efficient per person than cars will ever be after all.
That car looks cool. I’d buy one. You are definitely right about the notion of “ what we need is something inbeteeen a hybrid and a fully electric car. “
it's taken me so many long and incredibly confused years to understand that all hybrids weren't that to begin with - let alone formulate the then obvious question "WHY IN HELL NOT?"
I like this video. And this channel. I used to hate hybrids and electric cars but then I realized I don't like cars because of their powertrains, I love them because they are cars. I'm lucky enough to live in Sweden and own a Volvo V90 T8 recharge. 90% of our driving is electric and the other 10% is when I feel inspired and want to use the combined 450-ish horsepowers to smoke the neighbors BMW. All cars are awesome, even the boring ones
It just blows my mind that they put giant wheels on it. I am so happy with the 15” wheels on my 2016 Prius, and there is 0 reason beyond aesthetics to go bigger. There are so many sexy old muscle cars with tiny wheels, why are designers now all obsessed with giant wheels?
As a hoon. When I crashed my e36 I used my fathers Prius to get around town. A few times I got an itch to go drive up my usual mountain road, so I did. You’d think it’s super understeer-y but it wasn’t. The re-gen braking was amazing and it was very flick-able. The looks I got from the average subie-bro was hilarious.
As the owner of a Prius V wagon, I appreciate this video. Yes, the Prius is slow. No, it's not flashy. But it does exactly what it promises, every time. As you said "It's always done what it's supposed to do." It's not the car you dream about, but it's the car you can count on. When I bought it, I needed something that had a decent amount of space (kid + large dog), and that wouldn't break down or cost a ton to keep on the road. The Prius has done this, flawlessly. In 5 years it's never needed anything besides routine maintenance. Insurance is $70/month. Even parts (if I ever needed them) are dirt cheap. I'll probably buy something more fun, when it makes sense. But in the meantime, the Prius has been a loyal soldier, and I'll always appreciate that.
I wasn't aware there was such a stereotype around Prius owners, but your description perfectly nails my own relationship with my Prius and how I feel about cars in general. I'm not sure I would buy another one in current year given all the EVs around, but watching this has absolutely validated the one I've owned for the last decade.
@SuperfastMatt The interesting thing about this latest gen Prius is is that it is incredibly similar to the 2nd gen Chevy volt. Volt had 53 miles of range and the new Prius looks like it took a lot of it's aesthetics from the 2nd gen volt as well. As you say in your video there are a lot of desirable qualities of a 40+ range phev has which is what us volt owners have been saying for awhile. Sadly the volt ended production in 2019. I'd be interested in your thoughts on a video explaining the downfall of the volt and if this Prius improves upon it at all as to avoid the same fate? Love all your videos! Keep up the good work!
@@JCJW101 Damn right! I've got one and in 120k I've had to replace 3 sets of tires already, and a 12v battery too! And I do a lot of highway driving -over it's life I've only managed about 70mpg. S U C K S.
@@christalbert722 Hahaha, an exception doesn't make a rule. It's still ugly and Chevy has a bad reputation, 1 car that has now stopped production won't change that. If I was wrong GM would have sold loads and it would still be in production.
I love cars, I see the Prius as a good daily. I've got a 2016 with 225k miles. It has been a dead reliable dishwasher. Helps offset the sc300 that is 2jz swapped.
Since first sight of this new gen Prius i was impressed and for the first time thought "I wouldn't mind one as a daily". Especially the prime version, I really like the idea of a 50-80 mile electric range with an ICE as backup for roadtrips. The ideal vehicle for me would be a 4runner prime w/ fair ev only range while getting solid gas mileage for roadtrips but still having some whits about it on the technical terrain. Maybe it is a bit of a pipe dream but if that came out, I would all over that vehicle.
4runner prime with 300 miles electric range would be my minimum requirements to switch to electric. it would also need to get to full charge in 30 minutes.....that would match the meals and stops cycle of a long trip.....and probably finally meet most peoples needs...
@kazzxtrismus do you realize that the prime versions are just plug in hybrids? They don't want to get to 300 miles of electric range. They want to do like 50 to save money and resources on batteries and use existing engines.
@@TheBCninja i can do 500 miles in a day on any given day, randomly, with nearly no notice.....this happens at least once a week to almost everyone in construction. my job may require that a little more commonly than most...but its totally the normal way 1/3rd of the economy works. ...so about 1/3rd of the economy burns 5-10x the gas of the average white collar office staffer..........tell me again how youre "trying to make a real difference"
The new Prius reminds me of that scene from MIB 2. "Old and busted." *_gestures to all previous Prius models_* "New hotness." *_gestures to new Prius_*
Minicab and uber drivers love them over here in the UK, for a long time they were the only practical way to get into the low emissions zones in cities without paying and they got cheap/free road tax. Not unusual for the lower end minicab (uber have killed most of these off now) to be running an old prius with a dead battery pack, they don't care if the electric motor never works they still get the "low emissions" bonuses.
It's been a number of years now since my first and only experience driving a Prius, but it's still as close to the handling of a Go-Cart as I've ever experienced at highway speed. Way to keep life interesting, Toyota. All Hail the Algorithm!
@@EUC-lidPointing out that the Prius is not a go cart is not helpful. Do you know of a street legal car that handles more like go carts than the Prius?
@@creativecraving If you think a Prius handles like a go kart then a Miata would feel like an F1 car. The Prius does drive pretty well. But, it is far from a “proper” sports car. I’d say it drives like a small sedan designed to be a good all around car, which is what it is.
@@NBSV1 😂 It's my dream to afford a Miata as a second car. When I do, I'll call it my F-1 car! Thanks for that idea! 😂 I've never driven a Prius, nor seen the original version that the OP is talking about. I assume it felt like a go cart to him because of having a shorter wheel base than normal, or something like that.
I congratulate you sir, you convinced me to watch a 10 minute advertisement for a car I once despised. When they came out I used to say “At the front of every backup is a Prius”. I don’t believe that is true anymore. When I first bought my Subaru, the car had a reputation of being driven by polite people. I have worked diligently to try to tarnish Subaru’s record by driving mine like a douche. I think others have been enjoying your method of playing the Prius’s video game and not every Prius driver is a knob anymore.
I always liked your timing and dead pan delivery, but your writing on this one is above and beyond... informative research, creative and hilarious. And dare I say, compelling. I guess it is time for me test drive a Prius. Well done.
With the range of projects you've made, I'm a bit surprised you don't tend to work on your dishwasher. I'm definitely biased as I just spent a few weeks trying to fix our 20 years old one and ended up having to replace it with a newer version. Definitely stayed loyal to the brand, working on the old one let me see how good it truly was. And not just the user facing surfaces (like Apple's build "quality").
Ive always been a Mazda guy. They do a lot of stuff with the same spirit and reliability as Toyota except they're way more fun to drive and look and feel more high quality (and better car designs imo) for a very very good price based on those aspects. I love how they look, I love how they drive, I love theyre really good gas mileage, I love theyre good price compared to other vehicles at similar prices, and I love their reliability.
me while matt describes toyotas that enthusiasts are excited about: little does he know about my love for my previa me 5 seconds later: he does know...
I drive a GS450h & a Leaf this new Prius is compelling as charging infrastructure is not great on long trips which I do monthly. Also a lot of new multi dwelling housing in cities do not have parking with charging.
I am a Prius driver. I drive a Gen 2 Prius because there was one in the family when I got my licence. My grandparents live 6hrs drive away and it could get there and back on its 40L of petrol. That's pretty neat. Also it's surprisingly good at doing 100kph up a mountain, and surprising people by burning them off at lights. It works well. It has a personality (albeit perhaps because it's 18 years old and makes some Noises). I like it.
I definitely like the new design and added power. I'm currently driving an NA 2.0 6 speed gen X civic, if it ever dies I'd definitely consider one of these. Only at 98k so hopefully a lot of life left though, and I average 37mpg so no money to be saved by upgrading.
Unfortunately I'm nearly 100% certain if I were a car I would be a Prius. Practical, efficient, and loved reminding my teachers of homework. Much like the Prius now that I'm older, that early hard work has helped my life seem a bit cooler now. Thanks for saying what every rational engineer has been saying for years.... Hybrids are a much better solution than full EVs for now.
Yep, spot on it is way better looker than a Tesla. Not to be that guy but when I was a child/teen I usually draw cars that had that kind of sweeping and low roofline. I feel so nostalgic looking at such cars like the new Prius, but it is kinda funny that my drawings ended up being environmental street car and not a super car/ m5 killer :P
Prius cars aren't disliked. It's the drivers. It's the people that are "optimizing" their gas mileage by going so slow in fast lanes, coming off the line from a light at a snail's pace, forgetting they're not the only ones on the road and mostly, they're self rightous.
"The Prius Prime is a Praise-worthy Production and Probably Passes the Probing of Passionate People Pondering the Practicality of Pedestrian Passage" Pretty Prudent Preposition, Pretaining to the Prevelance of Piss-Poor Proton-Powered Portages with Preposterous Practicality.
Hybrids have always really made more sense than pure EV and will likely continue to for some time to come. It covers more use cases and also helps pad battery degradation. It's one thing to lose 50 miles of range permanently, as that drastically affects the useability of a vehicle. Hybrids easily make up for that by just running the engine more often, so instead of a car that wears out in 5 years for some people, it might never really wear out as you could always just use it without EV at all if you needed to.
It's also much cheaper to swap this battery that's small, as opposed to the one that's over half the floor area and structural to the car, once it croaks.
@@EgorKaskader EV batteries croak well after the rest of the car has worn out. Also electric drive trains are moving quickly toward being cheaper than an internal combustion one.
@@Clearphish The rest of the car, aside from suspension, has very limited wear; the battery cells, meanwhile, are normally rated to no more than 1000 power cycles (full charge followed by full discharge, cutoff to cutoff). Now, obviously enough, few people will take theirs cutoff to cutoff for 1000 days, so a lifespan of the battery isn't 3 years, but 5-10 depending on its use. The rest of the car can easily last 20, as there's no ICE to wear piston rings, clutch, or to run high force metal on metal contacts, only electric motors and fairly simple gearboxes. The suspension has to cope with more weight, but aside from silent blocks, it's not hard to design it to last just as much as that of an ICE car. So yes, all else being equal, it is always the battery that wears out first.
@@EgorKaskader Things keep changing. "On average, Tesla owners can expect at least 267 miles of range on a single charge of their car's battery. According to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, your Tesla batteries are supposed to last for 300,000 to 500,000 miles, or 1,500 battery cycles. That's around 22 to 37 years for an average person." 🙂
After I learned about how the ecvt system worked I started really to love the prius platform. Mechanically interesting and does what its meant to do well.
I have had a prius since 2014, gen 2,3,4, I was excited about gen 5, when I went to my dealer they tried to get me to pay 10k over msrp for the car my final Out the door price was going to be $44,500. i did some research and was able too get a tesla model 3 for $28k, after CA state tax and federal tax credit. my payment is $50 lower than the prius, but i'll be saving about $200/moo gas (i drive a ton)
imagine a modified one at a car meet(widebody kits, spoiler etc) heck they may make a TRD version now that it does look sporty(the prius before wasnt something to be messed around with either. you could rally a prius or drive it off road)
@superfastmatt did you ever look at the Chevy Volt or BMW i3 REX? You mentioned battery-powered with a gas backup generator as a solution for commuters and I always wondered why more car companies didn't got that route. They are both objectively gremlin-ugly, but we are comparing to the Prius. For context I have put +10k miles on my i3 rex and a total of $15 of gas in it. The generator kicks in once a month for a maint cycle and I only run on gas when I forget to charge for a few days.
The Volt is not just a series hybrid; it is much closer to the Prius in design (using the power-split hybrid pattern), but with additional transmission modes.
@Jordan Jones that is not correct. No Volt was ever just a series hybrid. The first generation Voltec transaxle (4ET50) had 4 modes, and the second generation (5ET40) has 5 modes. They are derived from GM's earlier "2-mode" power-split hybrids.
We had the 2008 Gen 2 as well as the 2012 Gen 3 and drove them hard. No hypermiling, but still got over 40 mpg on the Gen 2 and 50 mpg on the Gen 3. Both lasted over 10 years and well over 200k miles. The first 7 to 8 years were a breeze. Super low maintenance and hardly any issues. They were only burning through lightbulbs, till we replaced the halogenes with LEDs. Not a big deal, really. Though, after 7 years oil consumption increased and the brakes started having issues. After 9 to 10 years, they had issues with the electronics - ABS system on the 2008, entertainment system in both - and the engines. The battery died on the 2008, also. We still got some money for them as we let them go. For those, the low cost of ownership is hard to beat, especially for those who drive a lot. The were super practical, too. Lots of room for people and luggage. The only things really bothering me were low ground clearance (speed bumps, dips and steep driveways were challenging) and constantly worrying about that the catalytic converter is getting stolen, even though we had CatSecurity shield installed. I did not really experience them as dangerously slow cars, either. The power of both motors were sufficient to get going in normal traffic, and you can drive them fast enough in order to go with the flow in the inner lanes. The new Prius looks like a really good car, which is fun to drive. There is a bummer, though. Toyota does not protect the catalytic converter of the Gen 5 against theft from the factory, even though they know that this is a problem for years. Instead, dealerships are instructed to sell catalytic converter theft protection shields as add-ons. The company claims that the catalytic converters of the Gen 5 Prius are less attractive to thieves as they contain less valuable metals. Is this enough to keep thieves from targeting this car? Time will tell, I guess.
I understand the perspective of smaller batteries for the sake of only having the battery for your "most of the time" driving and especially from the perspective of a manufacturer.. But as a consumer, I see that as getting some of the upsides of both (ice and EV) while getting all of the downsides of both. I've been driving an EV for 5 years now. And having had next to zero maintenance in those five years has been a huge perk for me. A perk that you lose if you slide an ice engine in alongside your electric one. Not to mention, still having to go to a gas station, even if less often, and long charge times as one of the drawbacks of electric.
I just bought a 3rd gen for commuting as my 04 Ram 2500 diesel was murder on fuel costs. Its a great car. Always driving 80+ mph on the freeway and still getting 38+ mpg.
Another great video! Couldn’t agree more that the Prius is definitely the realistic and great solution that we need now vs full-electric. Really just a numbers game with what we can do with todays tech and resources. Cheers!
Hybrids (especially parallel hybrids) do make a fair amount of sense in a society like the US where everyone drives to work, or even to the shops to get milk so that 41 miles covers a large proportion of trips. They are kind of useless for people (like me) in less car-dependent countries that cycle or public transport to work/shops/pub and only use a car for long/outdoor trips. EVs aren't ideal for that either but we have to get off the fossils fast one way or another, which is either EVs or the train (or stay at home). As Matt mentioned, the series hybrid makes some sense for this, but no-one is doing those since BMW discontinued the i3 REX.
I have an ‘07 Prius that I LOVE… Because I live in a city. It’s the easiest car I’ve ever driven here - great sight lines, super easy to park and 55+ mpg in the city! I fill up about once every 2 months.
The thing I've always liked about cars like the pruis, is that you can mess around in them and when you're being questioned by the officer you can point at the "tastefully clapped" civic driving in the other direction.
I'm a car enthusiast and I love Prius and Toyotas in general. Great cars to get from A to B. Other manufacturers have to live up to Toyota's standards, not the other way around. And that's healthy for business. Also, a true car enthusiast always has at least 2 cars. A project car and a daily car. Toyota makes great daily cars.
I didn't know the "annoying Prius driver" meme still had adherents, like it's 2005. I think it's a figment that lives in the imaginations of online car and truck guys and literally nobody else. I think when most people see a Prius nowadays, especially an older one, they think it's a work car- either ferrying passengers or deliveries, kind of the way Crown Vics/etc occupied specific labor niches in years past.
It’s funny, I am a Prius enthusiast- to be fair my mom had one so I grew up in middle school and highschool driving one- but I have been dreaming of owning one for years- and now I do, and I love it
I think you almost exactly share my opinion on Prius. I have never owned one, but have ridden in them and have see the general appeal. Cost wise, I never felt the hybrids gave a significant ROI for the draw backs. My current auto is in good condition and I expect it will last another 5-10 years. I do believe it will be my last pure octane ICE, but will the next be full ev, a hybrid, or something else?
we had one on the farm for years it was the go get the part that is small enough to fit in the Prius so you don't have to drive the dam truck 200miles to pick up a hydraulic pump the size of a gallon of paint heck i think i put close to 400lb pistons in the back of it at one point that had to go out to be rebuilt i am 5'11 size 13 feet and weight 225 and it had plenty of leg shoulder and head space in it (a bit boring to drive but way more money left in the wallet i think we put around 130k miles on it)
Good summary of Prius' place in the marketplace; will be interesting if Toyota can tune the Prius for more enjoyable handling than numb understeer. #GRprime ?
100% agree. Good car finally made great.....I drive a Sienna AWD because i LOVE minivans, but if i didn't need to haul bikes, kayaks, a queen size mattress and my family to enjoy them all....I would be buying this new Prius in a heartbeat. Thanks for the review. Please more!
The Prius is so incredibly smooth. And it just feels like you're stepping into the future. I have the 2010 model. And you're totally right, I don't give a crap about what anyone thinks of my lack of horsepower.
Great video! I think the new Prius looks really quite good and it's fast with 7 seconds from 0-60 mph. Faster than many other cars. And it will be reliable and cheap to run. Clear winner in my book.
I drove a Prius for work for several years and it saved me hundreds of dollars a month on gas. Then my wife drove that same car for several years and actually made a few hundred dollars each month because her job reimbursed her by the mile. By the time that car finally died it had more than paid for itself. My wife replaced it with another used Prius. It might not be the sexiest car, but I have other cars for that. Great video
More or less same story here. They are awesome appliances.
@@GeorgeWashingtonLaserMusket the preset mileage reimbursement rate was higher than the actual cost of driving the Prius per mile. She drove long distances to reach job sites thus she would actually make money off the reimbursement.
But what was the cost to your soul? I enjoy driving the cars and motorcycles that I build. In no way would I ever sacrifice the whole point of building my cars and motorcycles by parking them and driving some infuriating POS on my way to work or get the groceries. That's the point of having cars you enjoy - to enjoy them when you inevitably have to drive somewhere you don't want to go - like work - at least you get the enjoyment of the drive there and back. If it gets less fuel mileage, then that's the cost of my enjoyment. The cost of driving a Prius would be selling my soul - and not being able to enjoy the vehicles I have built for myself.
@@AMurph79 it really ain't that deep bud. you ever driven a prius to work? it's pretty fucking comfortable and stress free.
@@AMurph79 it’s like you didn’t even watch the video, you’re in the group of car enthusiasts that Matt talked about. Not everybody builds their own cars or needs something fancy, they want an appliance. Not to mention that I love driving my 04 corolla around, I simply love how well it’s built and I love doing the occasional maintenance because nothing ever breaks.
The "6 hybrids vs 1 EV" angle is something I hadn't considered. SFM = entertaining and informative :)
Toyota has been saying this for years, and it's a valid point.
The only downside to this argument that I can think of is that batteries degrade over time and with such a small hybrid capacity by the time you hit 50000 miles, the battery would show at least 15% degradation assuming 1kwh in a hybrid. Larger batteries can eek out more before going through charge cycles thus lasting for longer mileage. Of course replacing the batteries at the end is a massive cost anyway. With BEVs, by the time you reach that stage you'd be well over 200k-300k miles
@@bharcooldude If that is a concern a smaller battery is easier and cheaper to replace than a large battery.
There's a similar point to be made with GMs since discontinued hybrid trucks and mild hybrid lineup. The mild hybrids were simple enough to be applied across the range for little cost, meaning you could see a few mpg difference on anything from a basic economy car to a luxury sedan and bring the whole fleets consumption down significantly.
Similarly the hybrid trucks didn't return crazy MPG but given the popularity of trucks a 15-20% increase across the board offers significantly more savings compared to a hatchback getting similar results in a country where hatchbacks were never terribly popular.
@@bharcooldude at our shop we usually change the EV battery pack on taxi racking up +300000km ( 180000 miles )
Engineering based humour, flat pack fabrication and now alliteration! This channel has it all.
SFM is the king of extraordinarily eccentric engineering educational entertainment 👌
Cunning Linguist !
Genuinely impressed by that alliteration at the end.
I bet he usd ChatGPT ;-)
That was some Letterkenny level wordplay
The proliferation of alliteration in this nation needs sanitation. It's creation is not motivation.
Delightfully descriptive denouement.
SFM is the king of extraordinarily eccentric engineering educational entertainment 👌
This isn't the offroad viper :(
Or a comically oversized scooter that we still know basically nothing about. What's your point? He made the sandwich.
:(
Or the hayabusa model T
Heeeeeyyyyy! You're right!
We’d rather the land speed car
Dude you nailed it with the dishwasher comparison lol I’ve always been the odd one in the group who doesn’t name their cars. Personal attachment to an appliance is weird to me.
People name their cars?
I never did that. It's a car
@@Kaodusanya it’s actually incredibly common!
@@Kaodusanya it’s usually a girls name for the car, even amongst some female drivers. It probably carries on from when people named the horses they used to get around. It goes back decades if not a century at this point. Cars were called horseless carriages in the beginning. Considering how much time we spend in vehicles and their ability to make some people emote it’s not surprising people would give their modern horse a name.
I mean I don't name cars but im pretty attached to mine. I know of like one other person who names their car tbh
Thank you for your succinct rundown on this head car's transition into a heart car. Your dry delivery and self aware humor never ceases to entertain
His dry delivery is everything, isn't it? I've loved this guy for a couple of years now. I need to start paying him something on Patreon, me thinks.
Gen 2 Chevy Volt. Best plug-in hybrid ever. 53 mile battery could easily go 70 miles in town. When my Lucid showed up I couldn't bear to part with it. Eventually I convinced my wife to dump her beloved Subaru for the Volt. Now she's a convert too. GM screwed up cancelling that car.
Fair comments, Matt. I'd always been in the "Toyota are dragging their feet on going full EV" camp, but youve made some compelling points.
They are incorporating hydrogen for range
hybrids have been the sensible option for years now and i hate they dont really make diesel hybrids anymore
To be fair, EVs have a lot of new and different parts that make them hard to get right if you haven't built one before.
Like wheels. Very hard to keep them from coming off an EV. Toyota's working very hard on it.
@@why6212 the cost factor has also led to some questionable cost saving measures, like for example tesla gigacast parts just having massive cracks that you cant see unless u take it apart
Toyota is on the road to bankruptcy. They are the poster children for the incumbents who can not recognize phase change/disruptive tech.
"The family minivan for people who are pretending they're not buying a family minivan" this is why I'm a fan, Matt
We bought a Prius V back in the day (6 years ago) because it was super reliable and it fit our requirement of being able to comfortably transport two couples and their luggage on a weekend trip. The fact that it was a hybrid was, if anything, a downside, because we were nervous about the tech. The only other car we were considering was the Outback station wagon, which matched the Prius V price exactly ($30K in 2014). However, the reliability reports for the Outback didn't even come close to the Prius, and thus the decision was made.
Now, at 150,000 on the clock, we've been ecstatically happy with the V. It still drives like a new car, and the only issue has been a tiny bit of rust starting in the past year and an incessant hunger for wiper blades. We'll probably keep it for another 100K, especially considering what's happening in the car world these days.
That's...... an interesting way to buy a car. Most people would have bought a rav4/CRV and moved on. Why exactly the extra ugly Prius V and not the many many other reliable Japanese station wagon ish vehicles?
@@jaredlancaster4137 Fuel economy, probably
@@jaredlancaster4137 most people in the States, maybe.
@@Validole In the States for sure, although the rav4 and CRV are strong sellers the world round.
Referring to six years ago as "back in the day" is laughable. Now you millenials need a new phrase for REALLY back in the day.
I got a 2006 hand me down prius as my first car, that thing drove me like 80k miles because I was a pet sitter/dog trainer. It was a workhorse and reliable as hell. That thing got me such a massive tax wright off, I was self employed so my tax return went up by about $4 for every gallon I drove. (up to how much I'd paid in tax that year of course)
But then a fuse box went out in the middle of lunch traffic and that silly little $500 fuse box ALSO CONTROLED THE BRAKES, I stopped loving my precious silver tic tac pretty fast.
Closest I ever came to an accident sans all the people aggressively driving around me, tailgating, and almost clipping my bumper when I was going just as fast as everyone else.
Anyway I have a beater 87 dodge ram van project vehicle now I'm learning mechanics on (how I found this channel; I need to gut the wiring)
Even though it dies on me at least twice a month and for SURE I know it's more dangerous because it's just a big steel box with no airbag. I feel safer because people don't drive aggressively around me, I can actually SEE what's going on, and even when everything dies on it the breaks and steering still work.
The absolute worst part of owning a Prius was everyone else on the road. I was almost in SO many very dangerous crashes because people would get road rage at me even though they could see damn well I was going the speed I was because the cars ahead of us were. Part of defensive driving down there was matching the traffic and I did and yet I was still the target of their ire.
One asshole even tried to play chicken with me on the on ramp and speed past me in spite of them having pretty much no room to accelerate and I was going 70 in a 60. I had to swerve into the other lane to not get side swiped even though I WAS THE ONLY CAR ON THE ROAD. It's not like they were lacking room to zipper into the lane. and i WOULD have slowed down to let them go ahead, if they didn't come out of nowhere.
Heck when my dog was sick and i took him to the emergency vet i was going 25 over and some guy went 90 in a 60 just to pass me and then veer in front of me because I had the audacity to be in the left lane.
I drive like a granny now because my van is still dying all the time and no one dares tailgate me, cut me off, go around me or act stupid because my van looks like it's begging to hit someone.
Never going back to prius, not because I don't love it, i know mine was old as hell and the fuse box is an issue they fixed in later models. But because there's no such thing as driving defensively when people are actively trying to endanger your life just because they don't like the car.
I'm glad they finally made it look good.
I agree! I never understood why they were making all the hybrid cars look like that. I’ll say it this looks pretty good
You can get a Camry or Corolla hybrid that doesn’t look like a spaceship.
@@aygwm The new Prius looks better than both of those.
@@aygwmwhat if I want a spaceship
And tbh, all 3 cars mentioned look good
"i need my car to look normal" is such a nerd thign to say lol@@aygwm
The limited dishwasher sticker was absolutely incredible lol
I couldn't afford the Limited model, I only have the SR5 dishwasher. 🤷♂😂
lmfao that one definitely caught me off guard. It was GREAT
Gotta say Toyota is nailing the new designs, I love how the red Yaris looks in particular
Unfortunately it's still called "Yaris"
Corolla XSE sedan is also a really good looking car, as are many camrys now. I work at a Toyota dealer and it's nice that I get to to stare at some quite pretty machines, especially compared to 10-15 years ago.
@@UnitSe7en doont care
I don't see it.
this looks like a chevy volt + a stepped on tesla
Absolutely. This new Prius, the Yaris and the Rav 4 all look great. Toyotas cars used to look boring at best and straight up ugly at worst (2nd gen Prius) but not anymore.
The fact that almost every taxi in the UK/europe is either a hybrid or EV prius/corolla tells me everything I need to know.
10:01 you just described the BMW i3 with range extender. 70mile EV range, with a moped engine to charge the battery. If only BWM wouldn’t have made it look so dorky (I have one. It’s a love/hate relationship).
Chevy had the answer in 2012
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Volt
With the latest BMW designs I think the i3 design looks better every day. It was just ahead of its time.
@@mattberube7371 and it's a powertrain concept that GM should have continued to build on for years, as a 50-60 mile battery range would likely suit most driver use cases, allow dino-juice range extender use as required for longer distances, AND allow GM to build more volume of cars with small battery packs...
The i3 REx engine is small for a car, but way too big for a moped. Perhaps you meant "scooter"... it is a maxi-scooter engine, used in the BMW C650 GT.
I had an i3 as a loaner when I took my 5 series for a service. I hated it, didn't feel like a BMW, didn't drive like one, wouldn't even break traction on a gravel road with the traction control turned off and the interior was weird, not bad but nothing like a BMW. If it was a Renault it would have made sense.
Ive always said the same thing. The real solution is a drivetrain that's all electric with just a gas generator to recharge the battery while you drive. Something very much like the BMW i3 Rex. Via Motors also had a pretty neat idea as well. All cars need to drop drivetrains with wheels connected to ICE engines. Only electric motors should be connected to the wheels.
While I wish my i3 had a more than a 33 kWh battery, the scooter engine in the boot connected to a generator really saves the day for the for the longer, trips or in case of emergency. But on average I use it for less than 2% of the km i drive.
Exactly, it’s enough for most things. My eGolf has a bit more capacity than your bmw (36kwh), and it charges faster than yours…but it has no additional engine. Great for cost (no oil changes or so) but not to great for long, fast travels. It CAN do it if it has to, but i use my Mercedes for that. The Golf is great for everything under 200 miles (no charging stop), and decent for drives under 500-600 miles, and i love to drive it - any distance more than and i try to use another car, even if it’s the small SUV of my wife if nothing else is available…well it’s basically the same like you, but wit/ two cars instead of one who does both 😉👍
my mate had a Prius second hand (ex-hire car), drove it housepainting every day for 8 years, with waterblaster and spray equipment on back seat, cans of paint and equipment everywhere. All mechanics would do a double-take when they looked at the odometer: 500,000km. Finally died around 560,000km. absolute beast of burden.
I've always appreciated how Toyota completely nailed the Prius drivetrain. It's so different from any existing drivetrains at the time it came out, but very elegant and somehow, it worked quite reliable from the start.
They're soo reliable, that they are also ironically, worth nothing at a junk yard, because no one needs one! 😂 I'm thinking about adapting a prius drivetrain into a Polaris RAZOR for a hybrid UTV.... that could maybe also be a welding rig as long as I got all that juice, might as well do a 3rd magic trick right!?
I always appreciate alliteration. Thanks for that, Matt.
Hybrid is the way to go IMO. With gas engines having 100 years of tech advancement we could use that to make really good small generators for the EV systems and like you said, there's no way we will be able to strip mine enough battery minerals to switch EVERYONE over in such a short amount of time like law makers are asking. Having an "EV" that can go 30-60 miles for around town use and then flip the gas engine on to charge itself back up is much more feasible. Toyota should put out a documentary on how companies strip mine battery minerals and maybe they will get more hybrid support lol
You had me rolling at fanny pack and transition lenses, then crushed it with a 40 word alliteration. "Cool Prius" -Matt?
I bought a hybrid Corolla when they came out and I frigging love the car. It fits wonderfully into my life that semi-regularly consists of long road trips across Canada where EV chargers aren't super common to this day. It was either that or a Prius, but we had previously driven a rental Corolla in Australia for a bit and it was just a fun car. Doubly fun as a hybrid with extremely low fuel usage. Plus it's a Toyota and they have a proven track record of building reliable cars and hybrids, so what's not to like?
Our Gen 2 Prius fell apart (needed a new engine and battery in year 6) and the dealership charged insane prices for problems that should have been under warranty but magically weren’t (defective headlights that “weren’t defective” because there was a required upgrade for any replacements). After our local dealership lied to our face about a needed battery repair, we sold it and won’t buy a Toyota any time soon.
Matt - what a great video! You are the first performance auto enthusiast I have ever heard who gave a balanced report on the Prius, and I don't think it's because they primed you with food and drink!
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to see you here, even if he does rather less bending and more laser cutting than your usual fare 🙂
Did NOT expect to see you here! 😅
Maybe the Prius needs some slick new aluminum seats? Or maybe the Jaguar does…
At the end of the video, that was some well proportioned practical pontification.
You could call me hardcore car guy. I bought a Prius 2nd gen used about 10 years ago and loved it. Replaced the main battery with the good used one for about $1,200 installed. Never had issues with the car. You can camp in it with the rear seats folded down and the climate control on. The gasoline engine will only kick on once or twice briefly through the night. Sold it with 350,000 Mi still running well but some fool hacked out my catalytic converter. Looking to buy another Gen 2.
GM did their homework with the range of the Volt. For most of my work driving I never used gas with my ELR.
TBH, when the 4th gen Prius came out in 2015 I was impressed. I liked the tail fin like rear styling, and it drive so much better than prior ones.
Cool rare car!
This video was absolutely fantastic and on point, especially your bit comparing the dishwasher to a car, absolutely brilliant and on point. Keep it up!
I must admit, though I adore cars, I don't think the future is EVs, or hybrids, or new fuels, but just improving public transport to where the majority of people would rather take it than drive. Trains and buses are much more efficient per person than cars will ever be after all.
That car looks cool. I’d buy one. You are definitely right about the notion of “ what we need is something inbeteeen a hybrid and a fully electric car. “
it's taken me so many long and incredibly confused years to understand that all hybrids weren't that to begin with - let alone formulate the then obvious question "WHY IN HELL NOT?"
The appliance comparison is a pretty good one, as that's pretty much what my car is as well. All it needs to do is get me to places, and that's it.
I like this video. And this channel.
I used to hate hybrids and electric cars but then I realized I don't like cars because of their powertrains, I love them because they are cars. I'm lucky enough to live in Sweden and own a Volvo V90 T8 recharge. 90% of our driving is electric and the other 10% is when I feel inspired and want to use the combined 450-ish horsepowers to smoke the neighbors BMW.
All cars are awesome, even the boring ones
It just blows my mind that they put giant wheels on it. I am so happy with the 15” wheels on my 2016 Prius, and there is 0 reason beyond aesthetics to go bigger. There are so many sexy old muscle cars with tiny wheels, why are designers now all obsessed with giant wheels?
As a hoon.
When I crashed my e36 I used my fathers Prius to get around town. A few times I got an itch to go drive up my usual mountain road, so I did.
You’d think it’s super understeer-y but it wasn’t. The re-gen braking was amazing and it was very flick-able. The looks I got from the average subie-bro was hilarious.
man, you need to drive a Tesla.
As the owner of a Prius V wagon, I appreciate this video.
Yes, the Prius is slow. No, it's not flashy. But it does exactly what it promises, every time. As you said "It's always done what it's supposed to do."
It's not the car you dream about, but it's the car you can count on.
When I bought it, I needed something that had a decent amount of space (kid + large dog), and that wouldn't break down or cost a ton to keep on the road. The Prius has done this, flawlessly.
In 5 years it's never needed anything besides routine maintenance. Insurance is $70/month. Even parts (if I ever needed them) are dirt cheap.
I'll probably buy something more fun, when it makes sense. But in the meantime, the Prius has been a loyal soldier, and I'll always appreciate that.
I wasn't aware there was such a stereotype around Prius owners, but your description perfectly nails my own relationship with my Prius and how I feel about cars in general. I'm not sure I would buy another one in current year given all the EVs around, but watching this has absolutely validated the one I've owned for the last decade.
That alliteration at the end was, how shuld I say, perfectly precise pontification 😂 great video!
@SuperfastMatt The interesting thing about this latest gen Prius is is that it is incredibly similar to the 2nd gen Chevy volt. Volt had 53 miles of range and the new Prius looks like it took a lot of it's aesthetics from the 2nd gen volt as well. As you say in your video there are a lot of desirable qualities of a 40+ range phev has which is what us volt owners have been saying for awhile. Sadly the volt ended production in 2019. I'd be interested in your thoughts on a video explaining the downfall of the volt and if this Prius improves upon it at all as to avoid the same fate? Love all your videos! Keep up the good work!
It was a Chevy, if you're looking for reliability you don't buy a Chevy. I think it's really that simple, oh and it was ugly.
@@JCJW101 Damn right! I've got one and in 120k I've had to replace 3 sets of tires already, and a 12v battery too! And I do a lot of highway driving -over it's life I've only managed about 70mpg. S U C K S.
@@christalbert722 Hahaha, an exception doesn't make a rule. It's still ugly and Chevy has a bad reputation, 1 car that has now stopped production won't change that. If I was wrong GM would have sold loads and it would still be in production.
The dishwasher analogy was on point.
I love cars, I see the Prius as a good daily. I've got a 2016 with 225k miles. It has been a dead reliable dishwasher. Helps offset the sc300 that is 2jz swapped.
your use of alliteration is awesome
Love the variety! Always a good day when one of your videos drop.
We like the Prius for its efficiency, reliability, and refinement.
Since first sight of this new gen Prius i was impressed and for the first time thought "I wouldn't mind one as a daily". Especially the prime version, I really like the idea of a 50-80 mile electric range with an ICE as backup for roadtrips. The ideal vehicle for me would be a 4runner prime w/ fair ev only range while getting solid gas mileage for roadtrips but still having some whits about it on the technical terrain. Maybe it is a bit of a pipe dream but if that came out, I would all over that vehicle.
I'd seriously consider a new Corolla/Camry hybrid sedan as a daily if I was looking at new cars
I second the idea of a 4Runner Prime.
4runner prime with 300 miles electric range would be my minimum requirements to switch to electric.
it would also need to get to full charge in 30 minutes.....that would match the meals and stops cycle of a long trip.....and probably finally meet most peoples needs...
@kazzxtrismus do you realize that the prime versions are just plug in hybrids? They don't want to get to 300 miles of electric range. They want to do like 50 to save money and resources on batteries and use existing engines.
@@TheBCninja i can do 500 miles in a day on any given day, randomly, with nearly no notice.....this happens at least once a week to almost everyone in construction.
my job may require that a little more commonly than most...but its totally the normal way 1/3rd of the economy works.
...so about 1/3rd of the economy burns 5-10x the gas of the average white collar office staffer..........tell me again how youre "trying to make a real difference"
The new Prius reminds me of that scene from MIB 2. "Old and busted." *_gestures to all previous Prius models_* "New hotness." *_gestures to new Prius_*
As an engineer, I absolutely love this channel.
As a racist and misogynist, me too.
3:20 didn't have to @ me so hard.
Edit: To be honest, I rarely had my homework done.
I was absolutely stunned when I saw the new 5th gen Prius. It looks sooo much better than previous generations
Great job on the video Matt! Thanks for making it.
Minicab and uber drivers love them over here in the UK, for a long time they were the only practical way to get into the low emissions zones in cities without paying and they got cheap/free road tax. Not unusual for the lower end minicab (uber have killed most of these off now) to be running an old prius with a dead battery pack, they don't care if the electric motor never works they still get the "low emissions" bonuses.
Thanks Matt, this is the Prius curiosity video i wanted, because it looks cool now. ish.
It's been a number of years now since my first and only experience driving a Prius, but it's still as close to the handling of a Go-Cart as I've ever experienced at highway speed. Way to keep life interesting, Toyota. All Hail the Algorithm!
You need to seek out better karts than the ones at your local putt-putt palace.
@@EUC-lidPointing out that the Prius is not a go cart is not helpful. Do you know of a street legal car that handles more like go carts than the Prius?
@@creativecraving If you think a Prius handles like a go kart then a Miata would feel like an F1 car.
The Prius does drive pretty well. But, it is far from a “proper” sports car. I’d say it drives like a small sedan designed to be a good all around car, which is what it is.
@@NBSV1 😂 It's my dream to afford a Miata as a second car. When I do, I'll call it my F-1 car! Thanks for that idea! 😂
I've never driven a Prius, nor seen the original version that the OP is talking about. I assume it felt like a go cart to him because of having a shorter wheel base than normal, or something like that.
@@creativecraving my main point was that real karts (not the putt-putt ones) go highway speeds and don't handle anything like a Prius.
I congratulate you sir, you convinced me to watch a 10 minute advertisement for a car I once despised. When they came out I used to say “At the front of every backup is a Prius”. I don’t believe that is true anymore. When I first bought my Subaru, the car had a reputation of being driven by polite people. I have worked diligently to try to tarnish Subaru’s record by driving mine like a douche. I think others have been enjoying your method of playing the Prius’s video game and not every Prius driver is a knob anymore.
That charger sounds really exciting. Personally I'm a huge fan of jet driven cars, like the howmet tx and/or the chrysler turbine. Good luck.
i'm sad the offroad viper won the "voting" instead of the turbine
@@kaiserruhsam The sandwich won, but the viper is clearly next in line
I always liked your timing and dead pan delivery, but your writing on this one is above and beyond... informative research, creative and hilarious. And dare I say, compelling. I guess it is time for me test drive a Prius. Well done.
This essay is spot on! Thanks for your work and I hope this format continues for every other significant car out there!
Hybrid makes a lot more sense than full electric for most people. Good for Toyota.
With the range of projects you've made, I'm a bit surprised you don't tend to work on your dishwasher.
I'm definitely biased as I just spent a few weeks trying to fix our 20 years old one and ended up having to replace it with a newer version.
Definitely stayed loyal to the brand, working on the old one let me see how good it truly was. And not just the user facing surfaces (like Apple's build "quality").
Ive always been a Mazda guy. They do a lot of stuff with the same spirit and reliability as Toyota except they're way more fun to drive and look and feel more high quality (and better car designs imo) for a very very good price based on those aspects.
I love how they look, I love how they drive, I love theyre really good gas mileage, I love theyre good price compared to other vehicles at similar prices, and I love their reliability.
me while matt describes toyotas that enthusiasts are excited about: little does he know about my love for my previa
me 5 seconds later: he does know...
I drive a GS450h & a Leaf this new Prius is compelling as charging infrastructure is not great on long trips which I do monthly. Also a lot of new multi dwelling housing in cities do not have parking with charging.
Spot on assessment I’d say. It does look a lot better now.
I am a Prius driver. I drive a Gen 2 Prius because there was one in the family when I got my licence. My grandparents live 6hrs drive away and it could get there and back on its 40L of petrol. That's pretty neat. Also it's surprisingly good at doing 100kph up a mountain, and surprising people by burning them off at lights. It works well. It has a personality (albeit perhaps because it's 18 years old and makes some Noises). I like it.
I definitely like the new design and added power. I'm currently driving an NA 2.0 6 speed gen X civic, if it ever dies I'd definitely consider one of these.
Only at 98k so hopefully a lot of life left though, and I average 37mpg so no money to be saved by upgrading.
And the insight was badass! 5 speed manual, digital dash and a/c was an option, it was a full fledged sports car!
full aluminum unibody too! iirc curb weight on ac manual cars is somewhere in the neighborhood of 1850lbs
They did a great job on the styling of this new model.
Unfortunately I'm nearly 100% certain if I were a car I would be a Prius. Practical, efficient, and loved reminding my teachers of homework. Much like the Prius now that I'm older, that early hard work has helped my life seem a bit cooler now. Thanks for saying what every rational engineer has been saying for years.... Hybrids are a much better solution than full EVs for now.
One of the most incredibly impressive, comprehensive and fun videos I have ever watched on RUclips. Overwhelmed even.
Yep, spot on it is way better looker than a Tesla. Not to be that guy but when I was a child/teen I usually draw cars that had that kind of sweeping and low roofline. I feel so nostalgic looking at such cars like the new Prius, but it is kinda funny that my drawings ended up being environmental street car and not a super car/ m5 killer :P
Prius cars aren't disliked. It's the drivers. It's the people that are "optimizing" their gas mileage by going so slow in fast lanes, coming off the line from a light at a snail's pace, forgetting they're not the only ones on the road and mostly, they're self rightous.
"The Prius Prime is a Praise-worthy Production and Probably Passes the Probing of Passionate People Pondering the Practicality of Pedestrian Passage"
Pretty Prudent Preposition, Pretaining to the Prevelance of Piss-Poor Proton-Powered Portages with Preposterous Practicality.
Hybrids have always really made more sense than pure EV and will likely continue to for some time to come. It covers more use cases and also helps pad battery degradation. It's one thing to lose 50 miles of range permanently, as that drastically affects the useability of a vehicle. Hybrids easily make up for that by just running the engine more often, so instead of a car that wears out in 5 years for some people, it might never really wear out as you could always just use it without EV at all if you needed to.
It's also much cheaper to swap this battery that's small, as opposed to the one that's over half the floor area and structural to the car, once it croaks.
@@EgorKaskader EV batteries croak well after the rest of the car has worn out. Also electric drive trains are moving quickly toward being cheaper than an internal combustion one.
@@Clearphish The rest of the car, aside from suspension, has very limited wear; the battery cells, meanwhile, are normally rated to no more than 1000 power cycles (full charge followed by full discharge, cutoff to cutoff). Now, obviously enough, few people will take theirs cutoff to cutoff for 1000 days, so a lifespan of the battery isn't 3 years, but 5-10 depending on its use. The rest of the car can easily last 20, as there's no ICE to wear piston rings, clutch, or to run high force metal on metal contacts, only electric motors and fairly simple gearboxes. The suspension has to cope with more weight, but aside from silent blocks, it's not hard to design it to last just as much as that of an ICE car. So yes, all else being equal, it is always the battery that wears out first.
@@EgorKaskader Things keep changing. "On average, Tesla owners can expect at least 267 miles of range on a single charge of their car's battery. According to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, your Tesla batteries are supposed to last for 300,000 to 500,000 miles, or 1,500 battery cycles. That's around 22 to 37 years for an average person." 🙂
I bought a Chevy Volt a couple years ago and I think it's still the best hybrid ever made with it's 60 mile range.
After I learned about how the ecvt system worked I started really to love the prius platform. Mechanically interesting and does what its meant to do well.
I have had a prius since 2014, gen 2,3,4, I was excited about gen 5, when I went to my dealer they tried to get me to pay 10k over msrp for the car my final Out the door price was going to be $44,500.
i did some research and was able too get a tesla model 3 for $28k, after CA state tax and federal tax credit. my payment is $50 lower than the prius, but i'll be saving about $200/moo gas (i drive a ton)
imagine a modified one at a car meet(widebody kits, spoiler etc) heck they may make a TRD version now that it does look sporty(the prius before wasnt something to be messed around with either. you could rally a prius or drive it off road)
Japan has already started modifying them, there's a few tuning houses playing around with it.
Owner of a 2003 XV10 Prius here. By the end of the first gen XV10 they were getting well over 50 MPG. Mine gets an easy 720Ks out my 40L tank.
@superfastmatt did you ever look at the Chevy Volt or BMW i3 REX? You mentioned battery-powered with a gas backup generator as a solution for commuters and I always wondered why more car companies didn't got that route. They are both objectively gremlin-ugly, but we are comparing to the Prius.
For context I have put +10k miles on my i3 rex and a total of $15 of gas in it. The generator kicks in once a month for a maint cycle and I only run on gas when I forget to charge for a few days.
The Volt is not just a series hybrid; it is much closer to the Prius in design (using the power-split hybrid pattern), but with additional transmission modes.
@@brianb-p6586 It’s my understanding that the gen 1 volt was a pure series hybrid but the gen 2 is a power split hybrid.
@Jordan Jones that is not correct. No Volt was ever just a series hybrid. The first generation Voltec transaxle (4ET50) had 4 modes, and the second generation (5ET40) has 5 modes. They are derived from GM's earlier "2-mode" power-split hybrids.
We had the 2008 Gen 2 as well as the 2012 Gen 3 and drove them hard. No hypermiling, but still got over 40 mpg on the Gen 2 and 50 mpg on the Gen 3. Both lasted over 10 years and well over 200k miles. The first 7 to 8 years were a breeze. Super low maintenance and hardly any issues. They were only burning through lightbulbs, till we replaced the halogenes with LEDs. Not a big deal, really. Though, after 7 years oil consumption increased and the brakes started having issues. After 9 to 10 years, they had issues with the electronics - ABS system on the 2008, entertainment system in both - and the engines. The battery died on the 2008, also. We still got some money for them as we let them go. For those, the low cost of ownership is hard to beat, especially for those who drive a lot. The were super practical, too. Lots of room for people and luggage. The only things really bothering me were low ground clearance (speed bumps, dips and steep driveways were challenging) and constantly worrying about that the catalytic converter is getting stolen, even though we had CatSecurity shield installed.
I did not really experience them as dangerously slow cars, either. The power of both motors were sufficient to get going in normal traffic, and you can drive them fast enough in order to go with the flow in the inner lanes.
The new Prius looks like a really good car, which is fun to drive. There is a bummer, though. Toyota does not protect the catalytic converter of the Gen 5 against theft from the factory, even though they know that this is a problem for years. Instead, dealerships are instructed to sell catalytic converter theft protection shields as add-ons. The company claims that the catalytic converters of the Gen 5 Prius are less attractive to thieves as they contain less valuable metals. Is this enough to keep thieves from targeting this car? Time will tell, I guess.
I understand the perspective of smaller batteries for the sake of only having the battery for your "most of the time" driving and especially from the perspective of a manufacturer.. But as a consumer, I see that as getting some of the upsides of both (ice and EV) while getting all of the downsides of both. I've been driving an EV for 5 years now. And having had next to zero maintenance in those five years has been a huge perk for me. A perk that you lose if you slide an ice engine in alongside your electric one. Not to mention, still having to go to a gas station, even if less often, and long charge times as one of the drawbacks of electric.
I just bought a 3rd gen for commuting as my 04 Ram 2500 diesel was murder on fuel costs. Its a great car. Always driving 80+ mph on the freeway and still getting 38+ mpg.
Another great video! Couldn’t agree more that the Prius is definitely the realistic and great solution that we need now vs full-electric. Really just a numbers game with what we can do with todays tech and resources. Cheers!
Hybrids (especially parallel hybrids) do make a fair amount of sense in a society like the US where everyone drives to work, or even to the shops to get milk so that 41 miles covers a large proportion of trips. They are kind of useless for people (like me) in less car-dependent countries that cycle or public transport to work/shops/pub and only use a car for long/outdoor trips. EVs aren't ideal for that either but we have to get off the fossils fast one way or another, which is either EVs or the train (or stay at home).
As Matt mentioned, the series hybrid makes some sense for this, but no-one is doing those since BMW discontinued the i3 REX.
Seems like a great car! Can't wait to see the even greater mark ups dealers have on these rn lol
I have an ‘07 Prius that I LOVE… Because I live in a city. It’s the easiest car I’ve ever driven here - great sight lines, super easy to park and 55+ mpg in the city! I fill up about once every 2 months.
The thing I've always liked about cars like the pruis, is that you can mess around in them and when you're being questioned by the officer you can point at the "tastefully clapped" civic driving in the other direction.
I'm a car enthusiast and I love Prius and Toyotas in general. Great cars to get from A to B. Other manufacturers have to live up to Toyota's standards, not the other way around. And that's healthy for business. Also, a true car enthusiast always has at least 2 cars. A project car and a daily car. Toyota makes great daily cars.
Hey Matt. I wish you had mentioned that the Chevy volt owned this space and GM totally f#$% it up when they discontinued the Volt.
All hail the algorithm. Spent the last few days binging your channel after being recommended this video. Love the content.
I didn't know the "annoying Prius driver" meme still had adherents, like it's 2005. I think it's a figment that lives in the imaginations of online car and truck guys and literally nobody else. I think when most people see a Prius nowadays, especially an older one, they think it's a work car- either ferrying passengers or deliveries, kind of the way Crown Vics/etc occupied specific labor niches in years past.
It’s funny, I am a Prius enthusiast- to be fair my mom had one so I grew up in middle school and highschool driving one- but I have been dreaming of owning one for years- and now I do, and I love it
I think you almost exactly share my opinion on Prius. I have never owned one, but have ridden in them and have see the general appeal. Cost wise, I never felt the hybrids gave a significant ROI for the draw backs. My current auto is in good condition and I expect it will last another 5-10 years. I do believe it will be my last pure octane ICE, but will the next be full ev, a hybrid, or something else?
we had one on the farm for years it was the go get the part that is small enough to fit in the Prius so you don't have to drive the dam truck 200miles to pick up a hydraulic pump the size of a gallon of paint heck i think i put close to 400lb pistons in the back of it at one point that had to go out to be rebuilt i am 5'11 size 13 feet and weight 225 and it had plenty of leg shoulder and head space in it (a bit boring to drive but way more money left in the wallet i think we put around 130k miles on it)
Good summary of Prius' place in the marketplace; will be interesting if Toyota can tune the Prius for more enjoyable handling than numb understeer. #GRprime ?
100% agree.
Good car finally made great.....I drive a Sienna AWD because i LOVE minivans, but if i didn't need to haul bikes, kayaks, a queen size mattress and my family to enjoy them all....I would be buying this new Prius in a heartbeat.
Thanks for the review. Please more!
The Prius is so incredibly smooth. And it just feels like you're stepping into the future. I have the 2010 model. And you're totally right, I don't give a crap about what anyone thinks of my lack of horsepower.
Great video!
I think the new Prius looks really quite good and it's fast with 7 seconds from 0-60 mph. Faster than many other cars. And it will be reliable and cheap to run. Clear winner in my book.