CAR REVIEW: 2024 TOYOTA PRIUS

Awards season has come and gone, and there were very few surprises, except maybe Ryan Gosling’s performance at the Oscars. However, if you peeled yourself away from the star-studded awards ceremonies on TV, you may have heard that the 2024 Toyota Prius was named the North American Car of the Year . It was also named the Canadian Car of the Year, the MotorTrend Car of the Year, The Drive ’s Best Car of 2024 and was on Car and Driver ’s 10Best list.

Something about that feels off. Seeing a newer and better Prius named COTY feels like an HD version of Titanic being named the best picture of 2024. We should be familiar with the Prius by now, after being on the market for over 20 years, but once we take a closer look at the changes introduced in the 2024 model we begin to understand why it’s such a big star.

Whats new with the Toyota Prius for 2024?

Imagine a Toyota Prius , and you used to picture a dorky-looking car with tiny wheels. Sure, it was smart, getting excellent grades at the gas pumps for its sublime efficiency, but it didn’t make many heads turn. However, after nearly two decades of being typecast as the dorky-but-smart-car, the Prius has hit the gym, hired a stylist and come out looking sleek and fit. Despite its similar footprint to the old car, it now looks like something that sci-fi movies would have invented to depict futuristic forms of transportation.

The wedge-shaped profile gets subtle tweaks that help the new Prius look more agile and sporty. The roofline is lower, the car is wider, and there are thin, sharp-shaped headlights. It all helps to say: “This may be an efficient car, but it isn’t a dork.”

All models in Canada arrive with 19-inch wheels, a size that seemed unfathomable before. Additionally, every non-plug-in Prius comes with all-wheel-drive, furthering its appeal to Canadians who often see poor road and weather conditions.

How is the cabin of the Toyota Prius?

The revamp continues beyond the exterior. The interior has been rethought, too. Nothing proves this more than the new gauge cluster layout. For nearly 20 years, the Prius featured a centrally mounted gauge cluster, but now a driver information display lurks behind the steering wheel, in addition to a traditionally mounted infotainment screen, which measures 8 inches on our XLE model, and 12.3 inches on the Limited trim. All models include wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay support, while the higher trim has a wireless phone charger.

The materials in the cabin are nice, but nothing here is noteworthy or even award-winning. Even the equipment feels standard, with XLE models receiving a heated steering wheel, heated front seats and dual-zone climate control. The Limited model adds ventilated front seats and heated rear seats to complete the package.

How practical is the 2024 Toyota Prius?

The 2024 Toyota Prius has 575 litres of storage, which is the same as the outgoing AWD models, but since there are no FWD hybrid models anymore, this can feel like a downgrade. The rear seats of the Prius are a bit pinched, with limited head and legroom. Shoppers who need both efficiency and interior space are encouraged to look at Toyota’s other non-award-winning hybrids.

With all those improvements in mind, the Prius as an award winner begins to make more sense, but when you drive the compact car it all comes together.

How is the 2024 Toyota Prius to drive?

For starters, its gas-electric hybrid powerplant puts out 196 horsepower, which might not sound like much, but the old model had just around 120 hp, which makes this a pretty significant upgrade. It’s now on par with many other gas-powered compact cars out there, and the AWD setup allows the Prius to feel surprisingly responsive, allowing it to get to highway speeds in a much more reasonable timespan.

It doesn’t pin you in your seat, but it feels far more accommodating to your needs on the go. It can keep up with traffic, and can even spend time in the left-most lane for quick passes.

The only lowlight with this powertrain is that it can get loud. The gas motor revs loudly to get the car up to speed. That’s a necessary evil for giving the Prius such a responsive ride, but it occasionally feels grating.

The ride is also pretty solid. It’s stiff and sturdy without letting you feel every pebble on the road surface. It’s nothing rowdy or raw, but the refined TNGA platform and bigger wheels help provide a more enjoyable experience on the road, whether it’s on the boring commute or through a few corners on the longer route home.

Is the 2024 Toyota Prius safe?

The 2024 Prius also packs all the Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 goodies, including lane-keeping assistance, adaptive cruise control, automatic headlights and a detection system that can spot cyclists and pedestrians. While all these features worked well in my testing (except the pedestrian and cyclist detection, which I fortunately couldn’t test), they are feeling standard fare these days. Should we reward Toyota for including features many automakers have included as standard equipment on lesser cars? At least the Prius has a Top Safety Pick Plus rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an accolade that only a few compacts can boast about.

How efficient is the 2024 Toyota Prius?

However, very few vehicles on the road can top the fuel efficiency offered by the 2024 Prius. Natural Resources Canada lists it as capable of getting 4.8 L/100 km in combined driving conditions, and our tester was slightly more wasteful during testing at around 5.2 L/100 km. That increase could be blamed on the cold weather and winter rubber. That’s still pretty incredible, given the upgraded performance offered by the Prius.

Now, with the total package in mind, we can begin to justify the recent awards. In the past, the Prius was compromised in the name of efficiency, but this latest model wipes out all those previous deficiencies and upgrades them to average (or even better).

What used to be a boring but efficient car to drive is now sleek-looking, decently equipped, safe, quick and even fairly engaging. Put that way, that’s not bad at all.

Final thoughts

The Prius even represents some solid value, starting at around $40,600 for the entry-level XLE model. The Limited trim is an extra $6,100, with an asking price of $46,700.

Thanks to several significant upgrades, the 2024 Toyota Prius has been recognized as a really well-rounded car. Its recent awards may be an indication of how low the bar was set by the previous models, but the reality is that the new Prius does quite a lot in addition to delivering excellent value and efficiency. As a result, it sets a whole new bar for other vehicles to clear.

2024-03-30T10:18:27Z dg43tfdfdgfd