Traded in my Prius XSE Premium PHEV
I was hyped about the new Prius, decided to go for the top trim with all the bells and whistles. I fell out of love with it within two weeks. I regretted not getting the Camry SE and here is why:
The safety sensor overload gave me anxiety. There are sensors everywhere on the vehicle. Yes you can turn them off, but have to turn them off every time you start the car back up. It always made me feel like I was about to hit something with its excessive beeping, when I wasn’t close to hitting anything.
The eye monitoring is annoying and unnecessary in my opinion.
The digital rear view mirror made everything seem much closer than what it was, and I was always thinking somebody was about to hit me. Yes it can be turned off, but the visibility with the regular rear view mirror isn’t the greatest.
There is not a lot of headspace and the window is pretty small, however this did not affect me as much. But, you do notice the difference when sitting in a regular sedan with much more headspace and bigger windows.
The hatchback is small, and the backseats are cramped. Not too bad, but definitely can only sit 2 people comfortably.
The gauge cluster went from something I thought was cool and different, to something that looked cheap and thrown together.
You feel every little bump with the 19 inch wheels.
Coming from a Corolla, when I first drove the Prius, it seemed like a massive upgrade from the Corolla and I actually enjoyed it. But when I drove my Corolla again, I felt more connected with the Corolla than the Prius as far as the driving experience.
When it rains, the backup camera gets blurry and I literally had to get out my car in the rain, and wipe it off to finish backing up. I think it’s how they got the camera positioned on the Prius. I never had that problem in my Corolla.
Most of all, I rarely used those “bells and whistles”. The ventilated seats are pretty weak, and so was the JBL sound system. The only feature I loved on it was the 360 camera.
I now have a Camry SE and am much more happier with it. Top trims aren’t what they’re cracked up to be and it was an expensive lesson I had to learn. If you want the new Prius, get the lower trim.