Living with the new Toyota Prius: is it now uber desirable, or still just a taxi?

The Toyota Prius has been around for nearly 25 years, and following a rather scathing review of the second-generation model back 2004 by a certain J Clarkson, it earned a bit of a joke reputation among petrolheads.

The thing is though, the Prius has always been quite a good car – it’s just not one which will set a petrolhead’s heart ablaze. It was economical, spacious inside and offered bulletproof reliability, with plenty of examples crossing over half a million miles.

This combination of fuel-sipping hybrid tech and bulletproof reliability made it very popular with taxi drivers, but it still wasn’t exactly desirable. Well the latest one aims to change that with super-funky styling and a much improved interior.

But have the changes worked? Well to find out, one member of the Carwow video team is going to be living with a new Toyota Prius for six months. They’ll use it for slogging up and down the motorway for shoots, commuting through the congested streets of London and ferrying the crew around.

Our car is a top-spec Excel model, meaning it comes loaded with kit as standard. We have adaptive cruise control, heated and ventilated leather seats and a 12.3-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

The Prius may be famous for its self-charging hybrid system, which can shunt along in slow-moving traffic without the need to plug in, but the new car is only available as a plug-in hybrid.

This means we have a 2.0-litre petrol engine paired with an electric motor, and combined they produce 223hp. It can also do around 40 miles on electric power alone according to Toyota if you charge the battery up, but we’ll see how close it gets to this figure in reality.

We’ve also gone for the Mustard yellow paint job, which is a £655 option. We think it looks great, especially when paired with the 19-inch alloy wheels.

All-in, this Toyota Prius will cost you just over £41,000, but make sure to check out the latest offers on Carwow, because at the time of writing you can save an average of nearly £4,000.

We’ll report back once we’ve spent some more time with our Prius on what it’s like to live with, but first impressions are good. The interior layout is intuitive and easy to use, with physical buttons for the climate control and a responsive touchscreen. It’s also pretty comfortable for cruising up the motorway, and the adaptive cruise control works well.

Car change? Carwow!

Looking for a new set of wheels? With Carwow you can sell your car quickly and for a fair price – as well as find great offers on your next one. Whether you’re looking to buy a car brand new, are after something used or you want to explore car leasing options, Carwow is your one stop shop for new car deals.

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