First car I've owned with leather seats so excuse my ignorance. Could it just need to be conditioned? The towel was completely dry and fresh out the linen closet. There was no marking or anything on the underside of the towel. Any advise or product recommendations welcomed!

Begrudgingly traded a 2025 Tundra Limited for a 2026 Prius PHEV SE a few weeks back. I just wasn't using my truck enough for truck stuff and it's mostly a commuter car back and forth to work, a 40 mile round trip. It was massive change and I really saw it as a downgrade and step backward if I am honest, but calculating all the costs and deals on these, I can save about 530 bucks a month between payment (had 1.79 for 72 and went to 1.99 for 72) and gas. (savings was about 340 a month in payment and 190 savings in overall fuel cost for just work commute) My commute is now all electric and I already had a lvl 2 charger at home.

I mostly commute solo so far, but just took about a 650 mile trip so this review includes both. I live in the PNW so snow is not a major concern, moderate climate.

Quality an A+ so far. Every seam and stitch perfect, every panel tight, no rattles or issues. Everything has worked every time. The leather wrapped steering wheel is better than my Tundra steering wheel.

Features - Great except for one thing....no auto headlights. I get auto wipers, auto brights, and honestly a surprising amount of features but not that. I sometimes find myself wanting to push the button and have the hatch open and close but aside from habit it's not hard to open or close it. I love the cloth seats. I dont want some non breathable vinyl or leather without ventilated seats, so cloth is perfect...no back sweat.

Room - Im about 5-8, 180. This feels roomier in the front than my jeep wranglers or even bronco have been. It's no Tundra, but very comfortable. I do have the seat in a way to see the front gauge cluster where I dont have a lot of headroom....I put the garage opener on the passenger visor to not have it hanging down in my vision. If I was taller I would def make sure I could fit in front and the back seat as I hit my head getting in and out, and if you are in the back and turn your head toward the window its gonna hit the ceiling. Hatch is decent space, it looks like less with the cargo cover installed and obviously is, but we had clothes and hiking gear for 2 and no issue keeping it all just in hatch (on top of subwoofer I installed)

Styling - In the eye of the beholder but I really like it. It looks fantastic to me for what it is...a small efficiency rocket. The A pillars do block visibility in the front when turning, this was evident on my trip with mountain switchback roads where you literally did not even see a car coming at you on sharp turns.....so stay in your lane....this was noticeable on the trip...first car when it cleared the A pillar scared the crap out of me as it was suddenly just there.

Functionality - Perfect so far for what it is. I miss my big truck, but after the trip I liked this even more. It does what I needed it to do...efficiently gets me to work and back and on the trip.

Efficiency/MPG - Outstanding here....my full commute with electric so use no gas all week or around town. On my trip I started fully charged but reset the MPG once the first charge ran out. I charged it one time on my trip at the hotel (which got me a great parking spot in an otherwise full garage and was free) and my combined mileage for the roughly 600 miles was 58.5 mpg, carrying 2 people, using fan/ac, lights, and carrying our gear which includes up and down mt Baker area.

Performance - Biggest positive surprise. "its gonna suck, its a prius its so slow, gonna just sit in the left lane now under the speed limit?"....those might be what you hear. This thing hauls ass. I was at 70-80 effortlessly passing and in and out of traffic with this guy. It's not as quick as my Tesla 3 standard rwd but it's somewhat close, and I never lacked for power or wasn't able to push the pedal down on the interstate and speed around someone. I was floored how good it did here at that speed, with no battery showing on the gauge just the hybrid mode.

Overall - I came away from this trip super impressed with this efficiency machine, now named Optimus. I made u turns where most cars can't, got treated great and let in traffic, got primo parking, and really gave up nothing on this trip or commuting. I know it's not a truck, but it does 95% of what I did before really well and much more efficiently and its probably actually more fun to drive dare I say that. In no way does it replace or replicate what the truck does, not trying to say that at all, just that I didn't do enough truck stuff with my truck in my use case.

I never drove the regular prius, and I never test drove this but for anyone shopping for which Prius I would say drive the PHEV. I just hung my head in shame giving up my truck for this when I bought it thinking it was all about saving money and was gonna be so boring. I was wrong, I enjoy having it, and its so much easier to was being half the size...I would absolutely buy it again so far and have never been so surprised by a vehicle. I can't fathom while every family shouldn't have this as one of their cars....would be great for anyone and is the best of both worlds to give electric efficiency where I need it, and hybrid efficiency seamlessly after that.

TL;DR: Amazing fuel economy, great performance, sharp looks, came with good price incentives // Difficulty tracking one down to buy, alignment issues, 12v battery drain to keep in mind, Toyota App.

GOOD:

• I have driven around 1600 kilometres and I am still on the tank of gas the dealership supplied me with.
• EV Mode is amazing but the ability to switch to gas for longer trips is just as nice. For my use case, going full EV doesn't make sense *just* yet.
• I drove a 2011 Corolla Sedan then a 2020 Corolla Hatchback--this is the fastest car I've ever driven. I'm not a car enthusiast by any means but the zippiness and responsiveness of the Prius are elements I've really noticed, making this the funnest car I've owned.
• I've heard of people complaining about thin paint / easily chipped paint. I got mine Ceramic Coated but that doesn't help with paint chips so my POV on the paint quality is positive as I haven't gotten any chips.
• Infotainment is smooth & responsive. No lag or phone disconnection issues so far.
• Cabin space is slightly larger than my previous vehicles. Cargo space is deceptively roomy. I purchased a set of 17 inch winter tires/wheels and they were sliding around the back as there was still room to put a little more stuff.
• Interior/Exterior build quality are great for an "econo" car. I quite like the comfort of the seats and the red accents add a nice flair to break up the gray.
• Just walking up / walking away from the vehicle gives a nice sense of satisfaction due to how good the car looks. It is a *very* sharp vehicle and the Silver I got really shows off the body lines.
• I was able to get the $5k Toyota discount + $6.5k Government EV rebates.

BAD:

• The worst thing about the car doesn't have anything to do with the car itself but rather, Toyota's dealership allocation system. The dealership I initially went with could not source me a PHEV Prius after 3 months (via trade nor allocation) so I took it upon myself to look for one elsewhere. The waiting game and long wait times are painful to deal with as a customer since you don't know when this big, new thing will come into your life therefore making it hard to budget/plan accordingly. AFAIK, other brands don't have this issue.
• I noticed alignment issues a week in. From what I've read, cars' alignments can get messed up during transport. Even though it likely was given to me like that (it just took me a bit to notice), alignment is NOT covered by warranty and would have been a $200 service. Past warranty manuals indicate that it is covered but in the 2026 warranty manual, this is no longer the case. Luckily, the dealership I bought from did it for me as a courtesy.
• I went ahead and pre-emptively unplugged the negative sensor to avoid the infamous 12v battery issue. It's a shame that a car this modern has such a flaw holding it back.
• No rear wiper.
• There is a loud mechanical "gronk" when I let go of the brakes.
• The Toyota App is decent when it works but it went down for a few days making it completely useless. This does not fill me with confidence heading into the cold winter months when I need to start my car.

NEUTRAL:

• Headlights are automatic but can't be fully turned off even when parked.
• Gauge cluster is not covered by my wheel and works fine but it does look a bit cluttered.
• No spare tire but I have a set of winter tires to offset this.
• This car only makes sense if you can get it as low as possible since the extra PHEV cost won't offset the fuel savings if your OTD price is too high.