It’s tough to gauge the mind of the American car buyer. The 2018 Toyota Prius c should be a much more popular vehicle than its sales indicate. It’s a hybrid gasoline-electric sub-compact four-door hatchback that is rated to achieve a very respectable 48 mpg city/43 mpg highway/46 mpg combined fuel economy rating by the EPA. It comes in four trim levels with prices starting at $20,630: Prius c One ($20,630); Prius c Two ($21,430); Prius c Three ($22,855); and Prius c Four ($24,965). It is cute, small, and efficient, and should be a popular choice for city dwellers.
So why did only 704 buyers add a 2018 Prius c to their garages during July 2018?
I spent a week driving a top-of-the-line Prius c Four (as-tested price $26,479) to find out.
Prius c doesn’t advertise its hybrid status with futuristic design like its big brother Prius does – it’s a cute little conventional hatchback. My test vehicle wore a bold Tangerine Orange paint job (one of ten available colors) that suited the hatch well, and made it easier to find in a crowded parking lot full of boring gray, silver and black SUVs.
I’m six-foot two-inches tall and bigger than average, but I had no trouble getting into the driver’s seat and finding a comfortable driving position. The seat is supportive and well-cushioned, and the driver’s footbox and knee space is not restrictive like some sub-compacts. Looking around the cabin, I approved of the layout, design and choice of materials. Like all Toyota products, there’s a quality feel, and a sense that things are put together to last.
The asymmetrical dash unifies the instrument panel and center stack for a driver-centric feel. My Four trim level test vehicle came with Entune Premium Audio with Integrated Navigation and App Suite, accessible via a 6.1-inch high resolution touchscreen display in the center stack. I was able to instantly connect my iPhone 6s via Bluetooth for hands-free operation and audio streaming. Selecting reverse gear via the center console-mounted gear lever brought the standard (on all trim levels) rear camera into action, an always-welcome safety feature. I was ready to drive.
Prius c uses a 1.5-liter inline four-cylinder gasoline engine (73 hp/82 lb-ft of torque) running on the Atkinson cycle, along with an electric motor generator (60 hp/125 lb-ft of torque) to drive the front wheels via an electronically controlled continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT). A 19.3 kWh sealed Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMh) battery pack powers the electric part of Prius c’s operation – a formulation that has been largely supplanted by Lithium-Ion batteries in many hybrid, plug-in and battery-electric vehicles. Enthusiasts will bemoan the fact that acceleration is just okay, but Prius c is by no means a slug, and has no trouble keeping up with other cars, merging onto freeways, and squirting through gaps in traffic.
I was pleasantly surprised by Prius c’s steering and handling, which was much more balanced and direct than I expected. The setup is pretty basic: independent MacPherson strut front/torsion bar rear, with electric power-assisted rack-and-pinion steering. With the standard 15-inch wheels and tires, the little hatchback has a curb-to-curb turning circle diameter of 31.4 feet, which translates into sharp steering and very easy parking (Side note: skip the 16-inch wheel/tire option, which increases the turning circle to 37.4 inches, even though it improves the appearance of Prius c somewhat). Front disc/rear drum brakes do a fine job of slowing and stopping the Prius c, though the feel of the regenerative front braking system takes a little getting used to – you have to press a bit harder than expected to actuate a rapid deceleration.
The four-door hatchback Prius c has a 17.1 cubic foot luggage space. The fuel tank and battery pack are mounted beneath the rear seat, but you can still fold down the second row to take advantage of a big load space (Toyota doesn’t provide a measurement), but not a flat load floor. The second row is roomy enough for two adults, or three kids.
It all sounds good, doesn’t it? So why aren’t more buyers flocking to the Prius c?
Let’s leave aside the “bigger is better” mentality that leads so many buyers to purchase full-size SUVs and pickup trucks. Prius c’s biggest challenge may that it sits alongside the regular Prius on Toyota’s lots. A Prius One starts at $23,475, and comes with a bigger 1.8-liter gasoline engine with a more powerful electric motor-generator and higher capacity NiMh battery, and is rated to achieve significantly better fuel economy (54 mpg city/50 mpg highway/52 mpg combined). The top-of-the-line Prius Prime starts at $27,300, and that’s a plug-in hybrid gasoline-electric vehicle that can operate on electricity only for a rating of 133 MPGe. On the other side of the Prius c, buyers must walk past the Toyota Yaris, a gasoline-only sub-compact that starts at just $15,635 and gets 30 mpg city/36 mpg highway/33 mpg combined, and has a slightly smaller footprint than Prius c. Those two bracketing vehicles within the same lineup make Prius c a less-than obvious choice – not to mention competitive vehicles from other manufacturers, like the Kia Rio, Honda Fit, Chevrolet Sonic and Nissan Versa, to name a few.
Despite the competition, I can still make a case for adding a 2018 Toyota Prius c to your garage, especially if you live in a crowded urban environment. It’s a very useful runabout and city car, with a fair price, solid build quality, good design and features, decent performance and fuel economy.
Disclaimer: The manufacturer provided the vehicle used to conduct this test drive and review.
