If you haven’t owned or driven a Toyota Prius, you are missing a fine driving experience. They’ve been around for many years, but they keep getting better, and better, and of course, more costly. But they are worth every dollar; the test car of the week runs $41,304. It is a beautiful machine, sleek in design with two-tone paint. This “Nightshade” model is something to behold and is a hybrid crossover with a 2.0L/ 4-cylinder engine with a combined 220 horsepower. If it had wings it would fly.
The interior has an ultimate blue lighting system and a very modern dashboard. Every year Toyota makes impressive improvements with the Prius models with great success. The economy with the electric and gasoline hybrid system is a whopping 114 MPGs with only EV and running with the gasoline engine a very respectable 48 MPG. This is economy, power, design, and performance from the assembly line in Toyota, Aichi, Japan.
Along with appearance, comes the Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 program that includes pre-collision, a safe exit alert, warning driver of the silence from EV power, cross traffic alert, 3-door smart key system, no more fumbling for keys, along with 4G network.
The Nightshade rides on 19” black finished alloy wheels , a black roof mounted shark -fin antenna, black door handles, rain windshield sensing wipers, and LED headlights.
The interior has a 7” instrument cluster, 6-speaker sound system, Softex heated seats and steering wheel, 8-way power driver’s seat with lumbar feature, and a split 50/40 split rear folding seating. Makes for a larger trunk area for recreation or work equipment. And for family members, six UBS charging ports. A fixed glass roof option is available for an extra $1000. The test model had the glass roof, along with the two-tone paint and black trim, making this a sedan to be seen and admired.
Treat yourself to a test drive at your local Toyota dealer, you will be impressed. I was!