Here’s What the Experts Say About Driving the 2019 Toyota Prius With All-Wheel Drive

The Toyota’s Prius will be available with all-wheel drive, called AWD-e in Toyota-speak, on its two middle trims for 2019. The AWD-e system is not new, but rather has already been proven in other markets. Still, there are many who have not owned an all-wheel drive car and may not understand the benefits. Here is a sample of some of the driving impressions from the U.S. automotive media testers that had a chance to try out the Prius with AWD-e this past week. Toyota offered up a snow-covered track in Wisconsin for these veteran test drivers to sample the Prius. Torque News was unable to attend the event, but we expect that we will have an AWD-e Prius for a full week of winter testing soon.

- Read our detailed look at how the Prius AWD-e system works and see a video of it in action here.

Motor Trend – Kim Reynolds
“…the Prius AWD-e magically accelerated, stopped on a little incline, then resumed uphill again without a whiff of the front-wheel hole-digging you'd expect. It works.”

CNET – Andrew Krok
“…the AWD Prius feels pretty darn lively. I'll even go so far as to say it feels fun in the snow.”

Green Car Reports – Dan Carney
“Driving on a snowy road at approximately 25 mph, the AWD-e feels more stable than the FWD car.” “On a 6-percent uphill slope, starting from a stop, the AWD-e chugged up with no drama."

The Truth About Cars – Matt Posky
“…AWD-e did not fail to impress.” “AWD-e makes a legitimate difference when traction becomes a serious problem.”

So there you have it. Opinions after driving the new 2019 Toyota Prius equipped with AWD-e in the snow. We will provide our own opinion once we have the chance to test the 2019 Toyota Prius in real-world New England wintah weathah.

Here is a comparison of the Prius with AWD to the Subaru Impreza. You may be surprised at the prices and ground clearance specs.

Note: We selected the most positive comments from each story, but none gave an overall impression different from the selcted comments. You can read the full stories by clicking the green highlighted links.