2019 Prius Xle Reviews Awd Does It Need Snow Tiers
Chris Doane Automotive Motorcar and Commuter
This review has been updated with test results.
The popularity of the Toyota Prius is shrinking faster than the polar icecaps. In 2016, sales dipped below 100,000 units for the beginning fourth dimension since 2004. And even with the Jan inflow of the new 2019 AWD-e model—which Toyota says should be good for a quarter of sales—the company's flagship hybrid is expected to sell simply 50,000 units this twelvemonth.
Depression gasoline prices are partially to blame, but Toyota is besides culpable. Redesigned fascias for the 2019 model are its admission that when the fourth-generation Prius debuted for 2016, it was an ugly babe. With less-angry headlights and a smoother, more conservative look, the new face and derriere tin can only be seen every bit an improvement, one applied to front-drive and all-bike-bulldoze cars alike. Some resurfacing inside replaces the blinding-white plastic trim that seemed dated from new with piano-blackness pieces, polishing the thought that subsequently xx years the Prius is still an aspirational product.
Only information technology's the shift in consumer tastes toward compact crossovers that has about impacted the Prius. Toyota's own RAV4 hybrid rivals its sales footstep, even with a base price that's almost $4000 higher and federal fuel-economy estimates that starting time with 3s rather than 5s. If you're looking for an respond to the "Why all-wheel drive? Why at present?" questions, this is information technology. It doesn't hurt that Toyota is already selling a nearly identical all-wheel-drive Prius in Nihon, simplifying this marketing move.
The AWD-e organization adds a stand-alone electric motor, packaged within the rear multilink suspension such that it does non intrude on the auto's cabin or baggage compartment. The only connectedness between this meaty, vii-hp motor and the standard 121-hp front-drive powertrain is electronic; there is no physical driveshaft. With our XLE examination machine weighing in at 3233 pounds, the system adds almost 120 pounds. The actress mass and driveline mass besides ding EPA fuel-economy estimates a bit, to 50 mpg combined versus the forepart-drive variant'southward 52 to 56 mpg (depending on trim level). In our (rather ambitious) normal driving bicycle, still, the new motorcar averaged 44 mpg, and it posted 47-mpg on our 75-mph highway fuel-economy test loop. Both of those figures are slight improvements over those of the last non-Prime number Prius nosotros tested, a 2017 model driving only two wheels.
The just other significant change to the Prius that comes with adding all-wheel drive is in battery chemistry: All-cycle-drive cars use nickel-metal-hydride bombardment packs rather than lithium-ion.
Do not imagine that the AWD-due east organization volition be expert for taking a Prius rock crawling or desert racing. All-cycle-bulldoze cars come with only a 0.2-inch increase in ground clearance over the standard Prius, to just v.iii inches, and the all-wheel-drive system is active simply under 43 mph. Its purpose is merely to better traction and permit the Prius to pull abroad from a end during slippery conditions. Slowly, of course. Afterwards the motorcar reaches half dozen mph, drive to the rear wheels switches from full-time to function-time mode and the Prius experience becomes mostly duplicate from the forepart-drive car. The all-wheel-drive model's 10.8-2nd null-to-60-mph run at the test rails is 0.3 2nd off the step of the front-driver'south already painfully slow dawdle.
During a cursory test drive on dry pavement, we were able to shake loose some rear-drive aid during aggressive cornering, although this served more to ostend the existence of the rear motor than to improve handling. AWD-e does not bring with it any sort of performance-enhancing torque vectoring; the Prius is still happy to understeer. A few circles in a roundabout showed a narrow window of all-wheel-drive operation until stability control aggressively steps in. Lateral grip around the skidpad remains meager at 0.eighty g. Given the sedate stride that most Prius drivers maintain, the rear wheels volition rarely be powered, which is the way Toyota wants it, a necessity to maintain the Prius's fuel-sipping EPA numbers. On a brusk snow-covered course, even so, the rear motor helped to go the car moving from a finish equally promised and kept it plowing through an inch or two of the white stuff.
What all-wheel drive won't do is help in the stopping department. At 194 feet, our exam auto's 70-mph-to-nix braking operation is worse than some full-size pickup trucks' and 14 feet longer than we've recorded previously. Prius AWD-e models come up shod with the same 15-inch, depression-rolling-resistance Dunlop Enasave 01 A/Due south tires as front-bulldoze Prius models. A skilful ready of winter tires, fifty-fifty fitted to a front-drive Prius, would bring greater traction benefits to stopping as well as going. Mounted and balanced on a spare gear up of wheels, complete with TPMS sensors and wheel covers and shipped to your firm from Tire Rack, these would run about $900. By comparing, the upcharge for all-wheel bulldoze in a $25,910 Prius LE is $1400, and in the $28,750 XLE, it's $grand. Those are the two center levels in Toyota'southward new Prius trim naming strategy; all-bike bulldoze is not available on the top-of-the-line Limited or the entry L Eco. Our XLE example also tacked on the $800 Advanced Technology packet (head-upward brandish and adaptive headlights), $433 in all-flavour floor mats, and several smaller items for a final tally of $32,113.
As an add-on to the Prius lineup the AWD-due east certainly ticks another box. Its improvement in winter capability should be well received in the Snow Belt, even if this new Prius won't convince anyone to surrender their Subaru. More important, the refreshed styling means anyone looking at a Prius will no longer have to shield their eyes.
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Source: https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a25475797/2019-toyota-prius-awd-e-drive/
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