{"id":1808150,"date":"2026-03-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1808150"},"modified":"2026-03-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T21:00:00","slug":"toyota-prius-long-term-review-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1808150","title":{"rendered":"Toyota Prius – long-term review"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Word-association game anyone? Twenty years ago, say \u2018Prius\u2019 and the responses would\u2019ve been \u2018eco-warrior’. \u2018DiCaprio.\u2019 \u2018Womble.\u2019 In 2026, the answer is much more likely to be \u2018Uber’.<\/p>\n

Toyota won\u2019t like this, but the official gov.uk stats back me up. In 2024, the most recent official figures counted 381,000 taxis on UK roads. Of these, 256,000 were PHVs, or private-hire vehicles. The difference (as any cabbie will tell you through gritted teeth) is taxis are allowed to roam the streets and be hailed for an impromptu job. PHVs must be pre-booked (mostly by apps) and can\u2019t use taxi ranks to lurk outside stadiums and train stations with the meter glowing hot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Anyway, guess how many of those quarter-million PHVs are Toyota Priuses. Five per cent? Maybe one in ten? Nope. The answer, according to the UK government, is a staggering 20 per cent. One in five private-hire cabs in Britain is a Prius.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not even close. The next three most popular models: the Toyota Corolla, Skoda Octavia and Mercedes E-Class are all tied on a miserable six per cent share. The Prius owns<\/em> this market.<\/p>\n

Obviously this causes Toyota some discomfort. Because while it means second-hand values of Priuseses are strong, it doesn\u2019t make them loved on the road. Let\u2019s face it, private-hire cabs are rarely the most considerate beings to share the road with, suddenly jamming their brakes on with a cheery flash of the hazards when a patron decides they\u2019d like to jump out because \u2018anywhere here is fine thanks mate\u2019.<\/p>\n

I lived in south London for six years. Every time I was late to work because someone had driven the wrong way up a one-way street, got wedged in a width-restrictor or impaled their car atop a hydraulic bollard\u2026 it was a Prius. Every<\/em> time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

So I wonder if \u2013 now the Corolla Touring Sports wagon exists to offer a practically shaped, economical solution to today\u2019s minicabber, Toyota deliberately designed the new Prius to be a terrible Uber? In gov.uk style, let\u2019s compile a dossier of evidence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Firstly, it\u2019s not spacious enough. The latest Prius is 50mm lower in the roofline than the old car, but it retains that classic teardrop profile in the name of aerodynamic slipperiness. Though weirdly, with a drag factor of 0.27 it\u2019s not actually especially slippery.<\/p>\n

Either way, the slopey roof means there is not enough headroom in the back. Anyone even approaching six foot tall is going to be rubbing their hair on the headlining. And because said headlining is light grey, it\u2019s going to leave a stain.<\/p>\n

According to gov.uk (which I am now addicted to checking for cast-iron data), the average UK male stands five feet ten inches tall. Course, we would say that. But even allowing for exaggeration, the Prius is cramped in the back.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also small in the boot, which is no good if you\u2019re requesting a PHV to go Christmas shopping, or to the airport, or perhaps even the council tip. Toyota quotes a 284-litre cargo capacity: almost 100 litres less than the old Prius plug-in hybrid.<\/p>\n

Opt for the standard old hybrid Prius and you got a cavernous 457-litre boot even with the back seats in place. So the sleek newcomer is too small everywhere to be a cab.<\/p>\n

I suppose it\u2019s fast enough to get you to the airport on time now it\u2019s got 220bhp on tap, but will any PHV-er buy one in the first place? Only 7.5 per cent of licensed taxis are hybrids, as cabbies cling onto their diesels. A much healthier 44 per cent of PHVs are hybrids, but full EVs are rapidly chomping into that share \u2013 it\u2019s up ten times in the last four years.<\/p>\n

Besides, the old Prius had a UK starting price of \u00a323k. The new one, even with government grant, starts at \u00a336k, because it\u2019s now a plug-in with style. It\u2019s going to take a very long time indeed for this Prius generation to become cost-effective taxi fodder.<\/p>\n

But the big reason the Prius has truly handed the Uber-baton to the Corolla isn\u2019t the powertrain or its price or the lack of headroom. It\u2019s staring you right in the face.<\/p>\n

How long would you last as a taxi driver if you had to shout hoarsely at every tipsy rider who\u2019d booked you that the rear door handles are \u201cup at the edge of the window! No, the top of the back window! No, on the side of the car, the rear window! Yes, it does have door handles! They\u2019re just hidden little electric rubberised buttons! In the black triangle! Argh!\u201d<\/p>\n

If people can\u2019t open the back door, they can\u2019t ride in a taxi. Clever, Toyota. Very clever indeed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Word-association game anyone? Twenty years ago, say \u2018Prius\u2019 and the responses would\u2019ve been \u2018eco-warrior’. \u2018DiCaprio.\u2019 \u2018Womble.\u2019 In 2026, the answer is much more likely to be \u2018Uber’. Toyota won\u2019t like this, but the official gov.uk stats back me up. In 2024, the most recent official figures counted 381,000 taxis on UK roads. Of these, 256,000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-1808150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1808150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1808150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1808150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1808150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}