A Day in the Life with Toyota Prius

This might be one of my favorite partnerships we’ve written about on The Beard and The Baker. Our friends over at Toyota let us borrow a Prius Prime for a week to test drive it. I didn’t want to give it back. It was a smooth ride, super spacious, and looks like a fancy spaceship with amenities to match.

We love our little city of Columbus so we wanted to show you a glimpse into a typical Saturday for us over at The Beard and The Baker. During the week, I work full time in Marketing for Chipotle while The Beard works as a part-time stay at home dad and part-time Whole Foods Market Butcher. We really love to spend our weekends together out in the community so we were pretty excited to use a more eco-friendly car during our drive.

First up was obviously our favorite local coffee shop, Stauf’s in Grandview. Before our coffee warmed us up, we used our amazingly quick seat warmers in our Prius Prime. I’ve never had seat warmers and they are a total game changer, especially when you don’t have time to warm up your car before getting in. Just one of my favorite amenities we got to try out this week! 

Are you a car eater? I really wish I wasn’t because it makes my car a little messier than I’d prefer. But, I will say that having leather seats in our Prius Prime was a game changer for cleaning up crumbs. Baby O really agrees too. If you are like me, you might think that there is no way a Prius would comfortably fit a car seat. How wrong you’d be! Not only did O have plenty of room, the passenger seat (me) wasn’t smooshed all the way to the front to make room. I will say that the back seat only has two seats because the middle is a dedicated armrest and cup holder area. At first, that annoyed me and then The Beard said, “when was the last time you had five people in your car?” The answer is “probably college,” meaning a four-seater is plenty of room for our family. 

After we grabbed some coffee and snacks, we headed to downtown Columbus for a quick little walk along the Olentangy Trail. So far we’ve driven from Worthington to Grandview to Downtown Columbus, all in EV Mode which helps “deliver an exhilarating experience” while boosting “acceleration feed and improved efficiency.” Bonus points because we don’t have to put gas in it either! How is that for savings?! 

I normally drive an SUV and The Beard drives a sedan. I was concerned I would feel super “low” to the ground but I didn’t at all! Well, except in the Starbucks drive-thru. Toyota built the Prius Prime to have a lower center of gravity that is well-balanced throughout the entire car. 

We had such great weather for driving around Columbus! It was a bit chilly but so much nice sunshine. Earlier in the week, we had a ton of rain which was super annoying but it meant we got to test out the Prius Prime during inclement weather. Another feature I don’t have but is super handy is notifying you when there is a car next to you/in your blind spot and alerting you when you go out of your lane. In this world of increased distracting driving, I wish all cars had these types of safety notifiers. 

We had to run a quick errand for my day job which gave us a perfect opportunity to test the storage capabilities of the Prius Prime. Lucky for us, the trunk fit 125 burritos! Plus, we still had room in the back seat to put Baby O’s Baby Jogger stroller. While I made the burrito drop, this gave The Beard plenty of time to play around with the fun intelligence portion of the Prius Prime. They have a whole slew of apps you can download to their dashboard to access things like scheduling a charge, adjusting climate control, or even locating your vehicle! But, the best one of all is that there is a built in wireless smartphone charging station. Amazing. 

After heading around most of the city, we needed to recharge a little bit. You can easily search for a charging station here but I knew Whole Foods Market at Easton had a charging station and we wanted to do some shopping, so we just went right over there. I will say, I felt a little nervous just leaving our car there charging because if you did that at a gas station, you’d definitely get towed or fined or the police called on you. Luckily, the charge port has been equipped with a lock mechanism to help keep your charging cable securely locked so that your charge won’t be interrupted. When you’re ready, it will only unlock when your Smart Key is present giving you peace of mind and a newly charged car. 

It takes about 2 1/2 hours to completely recharge your Prius Prime which gives you tons of time to do grocery shopping or head to a few other stores nearby. It’s also super easy to charge and kind of blows my mind, honestly. This really encouraged me to look into getting a hybrid car next time we need to make a purchase, which is definitely coming up soon. Fun fact, you can actually charge at home because a charging cable is included! It takes about 5 1/2 hours to get a full charge using a standard electrical outlet at home. 

There you have it folks, our day bopping around Columbus with the Prius Prime. I will say there isn’t anything I didn’t like about this car. I loved the space, the design, how it drives including all of its’ safety features and the fact that it’s eco-friendly. If you’re on the lookout for a new car, I can’t recommend this one enough! Head to your local Toyota dealership and test drive one for yourself. Bonus points if you tell us what you name yours because this type of car definitely deserves a cool name.