2020 Toyota Prius vs 2019

What's the difference?

The Toyota Prius has been around for a long time and led the way with a hybrid engine back when we should have all started caring about that. The design does feel quite dated now, both inside and out and with other competitors offering completely electric cars now for near the same price, and even hybrid Corolla and RAV4 from Toyota both having excellent technology, it can’t be long that Prius will get another update. Still, it’s reputation is solid and for a second runaround car for a family, it works well enough.

I gave it a family rating of 7.1 and my kids gave it an 8.0. They love anything that helps the planet.

In 2019, the Prius is a head scratcher. Toyota has the hybrid Corolla on the same TNGA platform but it's a better overall proposition, cheaper and vastly better looking. If you can find one, you can have a hybrid Camry for a similar money. 

Committed EV buyers can now buy a fully electric Hyundai Ioniq for a few bucks more. It almost feels like the Prius is hanging on for the fans so it rather has the feeling of an Eagles concert... without the hits.

It's difficult to see why you wouldn't save a significant amount of money and go for a Corolla Hybrid. The ZR I drove last year was $13,000 cheaper than the Prius, and a far more satisfying drive.

The exterior of the car is modern, something to do with the aerodynamics to maximise the hybrid power unit. It curves down at the front and tapers up at the back.

It looks fine but it’s not the most attractive of cars. Still, that’s not why you’re looking at a Prius, so it factors less in your decision making.

Inside is just a bit odd. The digital dash is in the centre of the car, high up, just under the windscreen. So there’s nothing in front of the steering wheel, it’s dead space.

It’s not super functional compared with other cars that have everything you need to see directly in your eye-line. It does have a head-up display with your speed in the windscreen, but for all that hybrid information you have to keep looking left.

The seats are leather-appointed and they look and feel good, the steering wheel is nice under the hands, but the design overall feels dated.

My goodness this is an awkward-looking car. The Prius set the template almost two decades ago and it seemed like any hybrid, no matter where it was from, looked like Toyota's pioneer for a while.

Part of the awkwardness is a result of wind-tunnel styling to maximise the benefit of the hybrid power unit - that high, boxed-off tail makes the Prius slippery, but weird looking. The adventurous shapes of the lights front and rear really don't work (for me, anyway). The tiddly wheels amplify the slabbiness of the sides.

I say tiddly because, as you know, they're just 17-inchers. The base model Prius has a laughable set of 15s bolted on.

You know, just by looking, that this is a Prius and, by extension, a hybrid.

The interior is a bit more contemporary, but littered with cheap Toyota staples like that dodgy LCD clock that used to be in my Mum's Echo. Speaking of the Echo, Toyota has recycled and expanded on the idea of a centrally placed dashboard, all of which is digital but without the inventiveness of a German, or even a Korean car. It works really well, to be fair, but there's not much in it to amuse or delight.

The central touchscreen is nice and close and shows additional information about the hybrid-drive system. The profusion of piano black is a bit passe, though, and picks up dust and fingerprints.

The Prius isn’t huge, however it’s not a super small car either, and is perfect to drive around suburbia or the inner city thanks to its size.

The front is quite spacious with enough leg and headroom for the taller members of my family, and also a good amount of room width wise to be comfortable in the front.

There was plenty of space in the back seat for my two children and I could easily fit back there at 161cm (5'3"). There’s enough room between my knees and the seat in front to fit taller adults and the whole car feels roomy.

The boot is an odd shape because of the sloping roof line and I was concerned it wouldn’t fit a whole load of boxes I needed to get in.

As it stands, the boot has 343L of space and I could fit a pram in there. Dropping the back seats really opened the whole boot up to 1633L and I was able to fit all the boxes I needed inside.

Passenger space in the Prius is excellent for its footprint. Slightly roomier than the Corolla, front and rear passengers have generous head and legroom, although the narrowing hips pinch the shoulders a bit with five aboard. The roofline also abbreviates headroom for anyone over about six feet. The seats are comfortable, though.

Front and rear rows are each treated to two cupholders and bottle holders, for a total of four of each. The front centre console also has a Qi wireless charging pad, as well as a deep bin under the armrest.

Boot space starts at a modest 343 litres to the parcel shelf but if you drop the rear seats, you've got a very generous 1633 litres. The lower-spec Prius has a much smaller boot (297 litres) but does have a spare tyre.

Toyota hasn't certified the Prius with a towing figure.

The 2019 Prius update is available in two specs - entry level for $36,590 and this i-Tech for a stout $44,050. For that outlay you score 17-inch alloys, a 10-speaker JBL-branded stereo, keyless entry and start, Qi wireless charging pad, auto LED headlights, auto wipers, reversing camera, electric everything (except the tailgate), fake leather trim, climate control, head-up display, sat nav and a tyre-repair kit.

Toyota's worse-than-the-final-season-of-Game-of-Thrones multimedia system soliders on. It's hard to use, terrible to look at and, even with the Kluger-style shortcut buttons, leaves me screaming, alternately, for a hug and for Apple CarPlay/Android Auto.

There's just no excuse for a system this bad in the modern world. Toyota Australia's stubborness is admirable, in a way. The sound is really good, though, and it comes with DAB, which is fine if you can work out how to find the station you want in the confusing user interface.

It drives well for a hybrid. There is a silent start as is usual with an electric motor, and then the petrol engine kicks in for more power.

There are three driving modes that work with the engine.  'Power' mode is for the highway. 'Eco' mode switches to battery power for slow driving on quiet streets. 'Normal' mode is for both electric and petrol for everyday driving conditions.

It’s got a 1.8L, four-cylinder petrol engine when it’s not using the electric motor and both work seamlessly together to provide a smooth driving experience.

It’s not an exciting drive but it certainly did the job and because it’s hybrid you’re not concerned about plugging in for electric top ups every night. I drove it in the city and along highways and felt confident in both environments.

The one thing that did bother me was the visibility out of the rear window. There’s a thick seam through the centre of the back window which is weirdly angled anyway.

It was okay during the day, but at night on a particularly torrential rainy evening, it divided my eyeline into two sections and it wasn’t great for driving in those conditions, especially when parking/reversing.

It does have a reverse parking camera which is a decent high-res but in the heavy rain that gets all blurry.

Despite rolling on Toyota's TNGA platform, it's not a particularly interesting car to drive. As with the old Prius, there's a fair bit of body roll and not a small amount of dive under heavier braking.

Neither of these are likely to trouble you, as the underpowered nature of the Prius enforces a relaxed pace, much like the hybrid Corolla I drove last year.

The uninspiring combination of modest power outputs and a CVT transmission is a Toyota staple and never fails to set my teeth on edge.

Having said that, the Prius is very quiet and an easy place to spend the commute. Again, the target buyer isn't looking for an excitement machine - fast hybrids are vastly more expensive - this car smashes its KPIs.

Toyota's early progress has been engulfed by its competitors, however. The Prius has all the clicks and whirrs but it's still essentially the same car it always has been - press the accelerator a bit, you get a few metres of near-silent progress, then the engine kicks into life and off you go.

The whacky joystick gear selector features D position and B. Other hybrids and BEVs have what I thought was a similar feature, a separate mode to increase the aggression of the energy harvesting from braking. Not the Prius - B means braking, which you can use on a long downhill run to reduce the strain on the tiny brakes. Switching to B mode induces engine braking by lowering the gear ratio in the CVT.

And, on that point, the Prius pretty much drives like a normal car. Some hybrids use the drag of the generator to assist with braking and therefore charge the battery, but the Toyota is almost entirely conventional-feeling.

The Prius i-Tech ships with seven airbags (including driver's knee bag), ABS, stability and traction controls, reversing camera, blind-spot monitor, rear cross traffic alert, lane-departure warning, forward-collision warning and forward AEB.

For the kiddies, there are three top-tether anchor points and two ISOFIX points.

The current Prius scored five ANCAP stars in October 2016.