Toyota Prius i-Tech 2016 Long-term review - 3

Toyota Prius i-Tech

This hybrid hero is a good car. It’s got innovative technology, is better handling than ever before and sips less than 4.0 L/100km. Slap a swoopy sports saloon body and a trendy badge on it and the technorati would be putting down deposits faster than you can say Model 3, but this one’s called a Toyota Prius and some people just can’t get past that name.

The Toyota Prius is the poster child for sustainable motoring but it still has an image problem which pervades all generations. I know this because I experienced all of the clichéd remarks from all ages during my week-long test drive with the motoring.com.au long termer.

One baby boomer I met had pledged years ago to never set foot inside a Prius after hearing Jeremy Clarkson decry it as the worst car ever.

I was sorry that I had to burst his bubble by driving him to a meeting in it, but I was fascinated that one vehicle would hold such a negative place in this car lover’s heart.

Pulling up to pick up my children in the Prius or seeing acquaintances elicited similar remarks. A kind of incredulous exclamation: “a Priiiii-us?”

Other drivers treat you differently too, racing up behind then overtaking aggressively while carpark pedestrians just push their trolleys right up in your grille – a situation which occurred each time I visited the supermarket.

No, the Prius does not get much love at all. From anybody.

It must be getting really boring for Toyota who has just introduced this fourth generation to market here in Australia. How can the company transition its hybrid hero to a car for everyone and put those image issues behind them?

The answer it would appear is to reduce the opportunity for criticism by giving it a fresh edgy design, making it better to drive and stuffing it full of technology that will appeal to a younger buyer group.

The exterior styling of the long termer, a Toyota Prius i-Tech, is very angular and in keeping with Toyota’s new design language. It’s not a good-looking car but at least it looks different enough so that it won’t be confused with the older-generation models.

A new platform has given Toyota the opportunity to focus on the Prius’s ride and handling and has delivered a chassis which is pleasant to pilot and handles most roads with ease. A more rigid body structure helps to deliver greater stability and the car feels more solid and composed on the road. It’s quiet too with sound deadening throughout delivering an excellent cabin ambience.

Even though the car rides on low-rolling-resistance tyres which tend to pick up noise on uneven roads, the Prius absorbs impacts with aplomb, making it a very comfortable ride.

Suspension changes for this model include a new front suspension and double-wishbone for the rear. The setup improves the ride quality and delivers improved dynamic performance. If you push the Prius into corners, you can even be fooled into thinking you’re in a premium sports sedan, at least until you get an attack of the guilts for planting your right foot too heavily.

As you’d expect with a more conservative driver behind the wheel, the new fourth-generation model offers the best fuel economy of any Prius sold to date with a stated combined consumption figure of just 3.4L/100km. While I didn’t see figures in the 3s, I spent many days running in the high 4s without any real effort at frugal fuel usage which is low-cost motoring in anyone’s language.

Filling the car’s 34-litre petrol tank showed an impressive potential range of 919km and while I didn’t test it to empty, I reckon with some sensible driving it might be possible to get somewhere close to that range.

One of the electronic gadgets on board will tell you exactly how much each of those kilometres is costing you as you can plug in your purchase price into the trip computer. If you like to monitor travel costs this is a really handy feature that takes out all of the calculations for you.

And you’d want to be seeing that you're making some savings on your fuel bill as this Prius i-Tech range-topper retails for $42,900, so while it’s kind to the environment, it’s not that benevolent towards the hip pocket.

For the money, you do get a really well specified car, but with i-Tech costing $8000 more than the standard Prius, you have to ask whether the price premium is worth it.

The standard Prius is equipped with driver assist technologies including pre-collision, active cruise control, lane departure warning and auto high beam. Other features include a large wrap-around information display, colour head-up display, LED daytime running lamps, 10-speaker JBL audio system and an inductive phone charger.

For the additional money, the i-Tech adds larger 17inch alloy wheels with weight-reducing resin inserts, satellite navigation and leather-trimmed seats with front seat heaters and power adjustment for the driver. That’s not a lot of difference for $8000.

While the Prius is relatively expensive to purchase, it is at least affordable to run. Capped price servicing for the first three years of ownership or 60,000kms means you’ll pay no more than $140 per service for your first six services.

Outside of warranty, I’d be curious about the cost of getting some of the technology features replaced should they fail. The modern interior is chock full of amazing gadgets such as the wrap-around display which can be customised to show drive modes and fuel consumption data.

One of the tools that my family liked was the data log which saves distance travelled in a day with fuel economy. It lets you track your own driving performance and in some way, challenges you to drive better each time you get behind the wheel.

In fact, the displays and hi-tech feel may just help Toyota get the next generation of drivers on board with the Prius. If my children are anything to go by, their perception that the Prius was un-cool when they saw it faded pretty fast once they got into the car and were able to interact with the information displays and understand how it drives.

It moved from un-cool to cool in a matter of seconds and once moving, the boys were not in the least bit phased that they were sitting in a Priiii-us, in fact I think it was almost speaking their language.

Related reading:
Toyota Prius i-Tech - Long-Term Test (Introduction)
Toyota Prius i-Tech - Long-Term Test (Update 1)

2016 Toyota Prius i-Tech pricing and specifications:
Price: $42,990 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol Output: 72kW/ 142Nm
Motor: Water-cooled DC, permanent magnet Output: 53kW/ 63Nm
Transmission: Continuously variable automatic (CVT)
Fuel: 3.4L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 80g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: TBC

Also consider:
>> Nissan Leaf (from $39,990 plus ORCs)
>> Toyota Camry Hybrid (from $30,490 plus ORCs)
>> Audi A3 e-tron (from $62,490 plus ORCs)