With the new Prius set to go on sale shortly, Toyota has opened up the build and price tool so consumers can take a detailed look at what might be their next car. Of course, this is also a fabulous way to burn a few minutes, so you best believe that I’ve been fiddling around with the configurator. Without further ado, here’s how I’d spec a 2023 Toyota Prius.
While it’s easy to go crazy and spec out a loaded Limited model with all the trimmings, the XLE is likely the pick of the range. Sure, it loses out on the JBL premium audio system and ventilated seats, but it’s $3,570 cheaper to start. That’s a good chunk of change, one you could buy a really cool project car with. Plus, it’s actually a good thing to be missing some of the features you’d find as standard on the Limited trim. While models with the 12.3-inch touchscreen feature volume knobs mounted to the right of the touchscreen, the standard eight-inch screen in the XLE gets a volume knob to the left of the screen, which should be within easy reach of the driver. Oh, and I think I’ll pass on the power liftgate too, as it’s hard to beat the speed and reliability of a manual one.
Alright, so that’s trim level sorted, what about drivetrain? Well, Canadians like me will only be able to buy all-wheel-drive models, but since we’re playing with the American configurator, I reckon that front-wheel-drive is more suited to the Prius’ mission. Sure, the front-wheel-drive Prius isn’t as quick as the all-wheel-drive model and it won’t have quite the same snow traction, but it gets an extra few MPG and is $1,400 cheaper. Now that’s money in your pocket.
Mind you, I’m about to take that money right back out again with a few extra charges, the first of which is the lovely Supersonic Red paint. While it can’t match Mazda’s Soul Red Crystal for depth and dynamic character [Editor’s Note: I’m gonna get Thomas drunk and make him explain to me what “dynamic character” means in the context of red paint – JT], it’s worth the $495 upcharge simply to get a cheery color. Thankfully, the light gray interior is free, which should brighten up the cabin a bit.
Speaking of brightening the cabin up, I’d most certainly pop for the fixed glass roof. Center of gravity be damned, there’s nothing quite like an extra bit of light on a dull day to make you feel better as you sip a cappuccino in the parking lot of a coffee shop. This $1,000 option may be a bit pricey, but I feel like it’s worth the money.
Right, factory options done, let’s move on to accessories. The all-weather floor liner package which includes lipped rubber floor mats and a rubber cargo liner seems absolutely worth it for $299. That’s cheaper than what Weathertech charges for a similar setup for the old Prius, so it seems like the dealer parts counter is your best bet here. While Toyota offers dealer-installed paint protection film, I think I’ll go to a trusted local installer for that, just for the peace of mind in having it done right with the film I want.
All this fiddling about with the options list results a Prius that comes to $33,784 including a $1,095 freight charge. While $1,450 in factory options and $299 in accessories may sound a bit frivolous, it’s still quite reasonable compared to what a comparably-equipped all-wheel-drive model would cost, never mind a Prius Limited. I’m curious to see how you’d spec a new Prius, so hop on this link and let me know in the comments what trim level, colors, and options you’d go for.
(Photo credits: Toyota)
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Am i the only one noticing that there is no front plate shape in the front bumper, on those renders ?
A Prius would be a penalty box for me so I will get the cheap red one to at least get the best mpg.
Any word on availability or first drives or anything for the prime?
Blue LE AWD. I don’t want 19″ wheels.
I would get the base model in blue. I like the red, but not enough to spend the extra $500.
What an absolutely lame choice of colors.
How much does a wrap job cost?
What? There’s only a CV transmission? I hate those things.
Hybrid CVT’s aren’t like the belt or chain-driven CVT’s most people hate on. Quite a bit more robust, planetary gear based, and keeps the engine in it’s most efficient RPM for charging batteries or driving the vehicle. The feel is typically much better with them as well
I’d like to know if there’s a zero-creep mode though. Not necessarily full one-pedal driving but something where I can take my foot off the brake at a stoplight without the car moving.
LE awd in blue. Apparently that has no options so, I’m done with my homework, can I go read books now?
If I could I would get heated seat and steering wheel. I have lived with much worse though.
I eagerly await Drunken Thomas’ explanation of ‘dynamic character’ in regards to red paint-especially the parts where he tells us why it isn’t Marketing Wankspeak adjacent or pretentious like a wine-taster’s “…and an after-note of oak”.
I’m not yet drunk, but I certainly concede that it’s a bit pretentious. Basically, it’s how a colour appears to constantly change depending on light and shadow, a make-or-break for many metallics, pearlescents, and multi-stage paint colors. Supersonic Red substantially darkens in shadow yet shows its richness when the sun hits it directly, so it does a great job of showing off a car’s surfacing.
Having read the article on orange peel in the EA86 post, this actually makes sense to me now. Mazda has a red that catches my eye almost daily-it’s like the saturation is turned up to 11&1/2. And it does look substantially different on vertical vs horizontal surfaces.
Thanks
$3400 just to get heated seats (and auto wipers, bigger wheels, ‘smart’ key’, and a wireless charger; none of which I really want)…. off putting.
Something about Toyota’s brighter red paint colors, I rarely like, and Supersonic red seems that way too. Blue is usually my go to and the real-world pics of it do look good, but I like the Guardian Gray a lot from the review the other day – so one of those.
Gray interior (fortunately looks like you can get that with every exterior).
XLE is probably indeed the smartest buy, but I’d go Limited – I want the glass roof anyway (wish it at least tilted), and after adding that I might as well spend a bit more to get the premium audio.
LE has no heated seats and the lack of the proper smart key which is a knock against it to me as a value buy. Surprisingly they don’t seem to be selling the base LE trim in Canada. Opposite of Honda, which still has a base LX trim for CR-V and Civic in Canada after dropping those in the U.S. But maybe that is to protect/push the Corolla Hybrid more there.
Also meant to add the ventilated seats are a big pro in favor of the Limited. Especially for the leatherette and working around Toyota’s historically mixed remote start options (do they still require you to subscribe to their services to use it? they have an optional accessory one, but does it shut down when you open the door?)
Wait, Canadian models are AWD only?
*Quietly scratches Prius off of the “maybe I’d buy one list.*
I checked Toyota.ca and the 2023 model isn’t listed yet. And I hope they keep the FWD version of the Prius. It would be very disappointing to me if they CUV-ified the Prius for the Canadian market.
Prius Limited AWD in Supersonic Red with heated rear seats and all weather floor liner package for $38,104. Although I could probably get by without the rear heated seats but it’s such a low cost option in comparison to the overall cost so why not just go for it.
For the extra $2200, I would step up from the XLE to the Limited. It seems like there’s a lot of nice content for that $2200. You get the $1000 glass roof option included, auto wipers, 12.3″ screen, the unneeded power liftback, Driver memory seats, ventilated seats, and the upgraded audio system. The only other thing I would like is the 360 camera system, but it’s packaged with so much I don’t need (rear heated seats, digital rear view mirror, and auto park.) for another $1600. I would go with the Blue, although it’s a little more muted than I would like.
I’m another one of the “snow tires are better than AWD” people, but since being able to work from home came along, I just don’t go into work when it snows and I work from the house. I did buy my truck in 4wd, but mostly for resale purposes, and it’s pretty good in the snow with all-seasons. But my Chevy Volt with Blizzaks was the best snow car I ever had, as long as I had the ground clearance. I have a big garage and have no concerns storing a set of wheels and tires, and Discount Tire always changed them for me for free twice a year if I bought one of the sets from them.
For some reason Toyota’s website is completely broken for me, no matter what URL I go to, it redirects me to the main toyota.com website every few seconds. If that’s already where I am, it still reloads, bringing me up to the top of the page. They must REALLY want to make sure I know “Toyotathon is on”.
In my zip it wouldn’t let me build either – just went to an “out of stock” page. I put in a NY zip and it worked however. Probably a regional thing with the different distributors, Southeast and Gulf states have different destination fees even.
I get this error when trying the configurator:
Right now this vehicle isn’t available in your region. Contact your dealer for more information.
Anyone know a way around this?
Every trim comes with more stuff than I want (nagging safety garbage) and I don’t see the point of a glass roof that doesn’t open. I also prefer FWD to even good AWD (and I live in New England), never mind this half-measure system and the FWD also has a larger fuel tank and weighs less. Not that I think the reduced weight will result in a fun experience in this case, but that’s all the more reason to spend the minimum—absolute base in blue with light gray interior.
Same here. New England. I will take a base FWD LE in grey with a cat guard. It was too easy and boring to spec this bad boy out.
I came up with the same configuration, for pretty much the same reasons. Of course I live in Maryland and the bigger threat here is freezing rain and I won’t drive anything anywhere when that happens. (I’m talking regular vehicles not tanks or vehicles built specifically for driving on ice)
We get the ice on occasion, but thankfully not that often. Though I’m a winter tire guy, I often take big snow days off because of all the other idiots crashing into everything and definitely any time the state tells people to stay home so the plows can work. It’s just not worth it to (hopefully) get to work frustrated and over an hour late to find nobody else is there, anyway.
The instrument cluster on this thing is a disaster. Sounds like the wheel blocks it for most people, and the look of it is so bad.
It feels like they really want to offer a yoke on it like they do the bZ4x.
I went with an AWD XLE because I want the fast one. For colors, I went with blue and the black interior. Options wise, I did the glass roof because I also like the extra light sunroofs bring in and the audio pack because I really like CarPlay and don’t want to have a daily without it. The grand total came out to $34,030 which really doesn’t seem like a bad deal to me.
Even if you don’t live in an area with snow I think getting the AWD one is worth it, it’s sure to depreciate less than the FWD only one and it has a much greater pool of used buyers in the future. It’s not like the Ford Maverick where you’re trading a durable powertrain with great fuel efficiency and a dirt simple beam axle for a complicated overstressed fuel hog (relatively) with a new IRS setup in the rear.
The Prius already comes with IRS, by getting the AWD Hybrid one you’re just adding an air cooled motor drive unit and 2 CV axles and getting a few MPG penalty. I bet the new AWD Pruis will be a monster in light snow with either snow tires or at least a set of Michelin Cross Climate 2s/
I pretty much broke the option computer on the 2023 Limited AWD and it was 38k.
– It sucks the premium sound costs so much, I had a 2nd gen Prius for a while and the JBL system was pretty friggin badass for a stock audio setup. And speaking of, my Prius was Larry David’s old prius, from Curb Your Enthusiasm. He gave it away in a climate change fund raiser, to a med student who abused/neglected it for years. I bought it from him when it was giving him errors for a song; turns out the 12v battery clamps weren’t tight. lol. I had the whole car repainted and used it for 2 years, then sold it for a small profit. They are nice cars, fit 2 mountain bikes, and got 45-50mpg effortlessly. If they had a stickshift one I’d be really interested in owning one long term.
– The red color, while nice, is going to cost you more money in speeding tickets. Red is the most frequently pulled over color because it sticks out so much. I’d rather have white, which should help keep it cool on hot days, which bring me to:
– Glass roof is neat but also going to turn it into a greenhouse when you park outside. AC system will have to work harder too, costing you more MPG.
I’d probably just get a base model, find some decent coilovers, nice wheels, and upgrade the stereo.
I REALLY like ventilated seats. The other bonuses of the Limited make it worth it, though probably not really. Blue is enough color for me. And I don’t want the digital rearview and don’t need heated rear seats, so I end up with the AWD Limited and floor liners for $37,259 after destination. I could probably just do FWD, but I figure why not add AWD.
I’d probably be much better off with your configuration and Katzkin seats, but I’m not actually buying this anyway. I also probably wouldn’t spring for the glass roof, so even more savings there.
Came to $34,424 for the XLE AWD with upgraded infotainment and floor/cargo liners. It’d be worth it to bump to Limited, I think. Replacing the seats with ventilated ones will cost as much as just getting factory ones, if not more.
Heated/Ventilated seats & a heated steering wheel are basically mandatory for me now.
I don’t think I could go without heated seats ever again. When I was more athletic sweating my ass off in the summer, I so badly wanted cooling seats. Still do, but heated seats are essential, I will seek out a heated steering wheel for my next car too, 100.%
Also I am now “that guy” who uses remote start all winter.
Cooled seats are essential for me with leather. It gets hot here and leather makes it worse. And I remote start in the summer at least as often as winter.
But, yeah, I use the heated seats and steering wheel plenty, too. I like comfort a lot these days.
You’ve gone soft…
I mean, I’d get the Limited AWD, but I’m an absolute idiot (and live in the Chicago area).
FWD + Snow tires > AWD + All Seasons
My 60hp Honda Insight is a total beast in snow! AWD really isn’t necessary imho.
The most predictable of all responses on a automotive site. Snow tire guy.
Is AWD perfect? No, but it gets the job done in the vast vast majority of realistic road conditions.
Are all-season tires a compromise? Yes, although much less so than in the past.
Does the average person want to bother with changing tires twice a year and storing an extra set somewhere all year? Not a chance in hell.
Average people are idiots. I don’t want to leave performance on the table when it doubles as an excuse to buy really cool wheels for summer use.
Reformed ex-Snow Tire Guy here. Nowadays I’m “eh, get the 3PMSF-rated all-season tires and go live your life” guy. I think it’s made me less insufferable at parties.
So I used to say, as well as everyone else I know until they got winter tires. Of course, I’m in New England, so if someone lives where it might snow once or twice a year, there’s definitely no need for winter tires—worst case, stay home.
I live in a lake effect snow belt that I venture to say sees more snow than most folks. I’ve driven thousands of miles on both snowflake all-seasons and dedicated snow tires, and if the weather is bad enough that it makes a difference, I’m staying home.
Which great lake are you contending with?
damn straight. We’ve got various tires on various cars (FWD Fit, AWD Forester, RWD Chevy, etc.), and we know how to drive in the snow (Maine), but some days it’s better to just hunker down and wait. We know what our taxes go to: plows! Wait a few hours and we’re fine. Tires are not the issue, patience and trust in society are far more where we place our attention.
I mean, a lazy half hour with the crappy spare tire jack and a stack of steelies in the corner of the garage is not a big deal. I live in an apartment and don’t work on cars regularly, but am perfectly fine switching out my tires. Maybe I’m still a weirdo, but it’s such a small amount of effort for how much better the snow tires are.
But think about it from the perspective of someone who isn’t interested in cars at all and only sees them as a tool to get from A to B. Even thinking about having to jack the car up is probably more effort than they’d be willing to deal with, especially when the all seasons it came with are realistically good enough.
Point mostly taken but the “realistically good enough” is questionable (depending on conditions, of course). We’re talking about a Prius here, which likely has some pretty low-resistance tires that will not be great in slick conditions. Even moderate all-seasons are pretty crappy compared to some basic snow tires- I can’t imagine the difference between what Toyota puts on these and a set of Blizzaks.
I’m in that weird realm of “cheap enough to not want to pay someone to swap tires” and “will pay a few hundred dollars for dedicated snow tires,” which is admittedly probably a narrow slice of people. But I’ve yet to encounter all-seasons that are as good as snow tires where I live (MN, for reference).
I’m with you, it doesn’t actually snow much where I am and it’s frequently warmer than winter tires are happy with year-round. After two years of summer/winter tires, I gave up and went with good all seasons and AWD.
Sounds lazy imho. You’re leaving performance and safety on the table on both ends; winters will out perform all seasons in cold conditions, and high performance will out perform all seasons in hot conditions. I thought this was a car enthusiast website?
When it regularly hits, 70 farenheit during the “winter,” those winter tires are decreasing your performance.
I put Altimax 365AWs on my car and they are absolute beasts in the snow. Consumer Reports rates their snow performance as good as many dedicated snow tires. They’re also quiet and have reasonable rolling resistance.
My point being that there are very good all-seasons out there.
A lot of new all seasons work okay in the snow when they are brand new, but once they are worn, they’re awful. Just my experience. Snow tires have a different compound that works better in colder temps, that really makes a huge difference in traction and stopping distances.
Having experienced driving two different older gym Priuses in the snow, I can tell you it’s no tires won’t help. The second one tire slips the car hits all four brakes like it actively trying to prevent you from moving or building momentum.
I live in SoCal where it rarely rains and never snows but I would never be without the extra security of AWD.
Really I just like it when I am hooning around town in my WRX, if I was specing a Prius to replace the hairshirt of a car that is my wife’s Civic Hybrid, I would probably get a FWD version. She would probably be shocked by all the power that a new Prius has.
What extra security? 2WD is just as secure as AWD as long as those two tires can get enough traction, and you’ve just said that you’re rarely if ever in situations where traction would be a problem. You can certainly feel it in the driving dynamics if you’re driving hard, but that’s not a security thing—if one is concerned about one’s safety, refraining from aggressive driving is Step One. Anyway, who gets a Prius for canyon carving?
You won’t feel it in the dynamics of a prius, because it’s FWD above 20mph or whatever. The RWD of a prius is only there at low speeds to assist getting the car moving. In ‘harder driving’ they’d be identical
As someone getting my 2012 Prius v lifted 1.5″ with a lift kit from Prius Offroad as we speak….(not that I intend to use it for that purpose but still….the Prius Offroad website has the example “who” that you’re looking for)
I hate the Toyota configurator cause only takes from what’s in stock locally and doesn’t let me play with it.
I get this error with the new prius: Right now this vehicle isn’t available in your region. Contact your dealer for more information.
Anyone know a way around this?
Turn off location tracker on the site and try entering other zip codes?
Thanks! I’ll look into this
I just replied this on another comment, but it’s the same case for me in NC. Likely because of the different Toyota regional distributors. I put in a NY zip code and that got it to work.
Thanks I’ll try this out!
Enter your zip code as 90210.
Works for me anyway.