Toyota Prius (2025) Review

For twenty five years the deal was that you tolerated the car to get the numbers. That deal is over. The current Prius is a properly styled thing, low and wide on big wheels, it makes almost two hundred horsepower, and the base trim will still show fifty seven combined. The hybrid system underneath is the most thoroughly proven drivetrain in the industry, the running costs are the lowest of any new car that is not a plug in, and resale has been consistently strong for two decades, which is why those grades sit at the top of the card.

Reviewers describe it as the most practical car money can buy and mean it literally. The bill comes due inside. The dashboard is hard plastic almost everywhere, the instrument binnacle sits so high and far forward that shorter drivers cannot see it over the wheel, the roofline steals rear headroom, and over the shoulder visibility is poor. Road noise is still there at highway speed. Everything you sit in is ordinary, which is why that grade drops two tiers. Everything the car actually does is close to unbeatable.