2024 Toyota Prius XLE Plugin Hybrid from North America
Summary:
Consumer takes second place to tech
Faults:
This car gets wonderful reviews from auto sites. None of these are actual consumer reviews.
I bought this car because my 2019 Prius Plugin Hybrid (with just 20k miles) was totaled by some other idiot driver. Since I really liked the 2019, I naively bought a new Prius plugin hybrid. After you pay $40k + for this car, you must subscribe to a navigation service at $15 / month. Else, the navigation screen (greatly downsized) is useless. Besides this very significant shortcoming, the driver cannot see the instrument gauge because the steering wheel totally blocks it. Also, visibility from within the car is poor.
All in all, Toyota is playing around with useless technology and foregoing the basics: navigation, visibility. Really bummed by this car.
General Comments:
Too techy for its own good. Don’t buy it.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know
Review Date: 7th May, 2024
14th May 2024, 01:18
Interesting that the poster didn't find all of this information out before the purchase. Did they not test drive the vehicle beforehand? Genuinely curious.
Maybe they're trying to go the Tesla route and install cameras everywhere, I don't know anything about these, to negate the visibility issue?
I drove a Tesla once and they've certainly put tech and wowness factor into just about every aspect of the vehicle while forgetting the things that make it actually livable, like lack of road noise, general build quality and practicality. Tesla is a complicated mess of nonsense and it's sad to see Toyota going the same direction.
15th May 2024, 09:24
A lot of people find themselves overwhelmed with technology in modern cars and don't know what they are getting, and just assume it's a good thing if it's there, but may be no real use to them. And dealers will try to upsell every option, which is nothing new.
17th May 2024, 15:33
Never been in a Tesla, but had to Uber the other day in a Polestar, and not only was there road noise, but every time it went over a speed bump it felt like running over a telephone pole.
8th May 2024, 10:50
The subscription business model is horrific. Companies want us to pay more for less, as it always works out (cars, computers, tv movie streaming channels, etc.) The quicker we go back to actually owning things the better!
I could be wrong, but I think it was BMW as one of the first manufacturers who introduced heated seats by subscription only a few years ago! What next, they turn the car's main climate control heater off in winter just because you don't subscribe?