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    Talking Cars 397: Driving the 2023 Toyota Prius

    Plus, can you trust a vehicle’s onboard fuel-economy calculator?

    Main theme: When it comes to hybrids, there’s the Toyota Prius, and then there’s everything else. This fuel-efficient model has dominated sales and the consumer knowledge landscape for most of the last 20 years. So it’s a big deal when a new Prius comes out, and especially with a bold redesign. 

    The latest Prius has much curvier, sexier body work, making it dramatically stand out from past generations. And yes, we just used “sexy” and “Prius” in the same sentence. (Read our 2023 Toyota Prius first drive review.)

    We share our first impressions of the latest compact hatchback, discussing what’s new and improved, as well as in which areas the car may have regressed. We polish off the segment by giving our pick as to whether we’d rather drive the new Prius, or the previous generation. 

    Audience questions: 

    • The electronic all-wheel-drive system in the Toyota Prius isn’t like most traditional setups. So how does Toyota’s system perform on the road and in the snow compared with mechanical all-wheel drive? 
    • How accurate are distance-to-empty and overall fuel-economy calculators in today’s modern automobile?
    Talking Cars 397 panel
    "Talking Cars" panelists Ryan Pszczolkowski, Mike Monticello, and Jen Stockburger.

    Photo: Consumer Reports Photo: Consumer Reports

    As with other “Talking Cars” episodes, this one is available free through Apple Podcasts. (Subscribe to the audio or video.) You’ll also find the audio on Spotify (log-in required) and video on YouTube.

    Have a Question?

    We’d love to include it in a future show. Upload your video questions to our Dropbox folder. Please send high-definition (1920x1080) MP4 video files with high-quality audio. Or send an iMessage question to our TalkingCars@icloud.com account.

    Talking Cars Archive

    Browse the complete podcast archive for past shows.


    Mike Monticello

    Mike Monticello is the manager of road tests and reviews for the autos team at Consumer Reports. He has been with CR since 2016. Mike has been evaluating and writing about cars for nearly 25 years, having previously worked at Road & Track magazine and Edmunds.com. On the weekends, he usually switches from four wheels to two, riding one of his mountain bikes or motorcycles. Follow him on Twitter @MikeMonticello.