3 Quality Accessories Every Toyota Prius Should Have

If you have not yet read my other story on how to modernize your Toyota Prius, make sure you check it out. It has two cool options in there to help make your aging Prius not feel so outdated. In the meantime, enjoy this article.

The debate for how cool the Toyota Prius does or does not look is one that will never end. The car design is functional due to having an incredibly low coefficient of drag. So the big hump hatch, and pointy nose on most generations of Prius has not really helped it become an award winner for best in show.

Even though it is not an initially great looking car, there are ways owners can modify and update the look. I have gathered 3 great options that will allow the car to maintain a low coefficient of drag while putting a bit of makeup on that face.

Toyota Prius Headlight Assemblies

I chose to pick on the headlights first. I recently went on a 2000 mile road trip and drove a fair amount of that at night.
My headlights are not new, but for sure could use a refresh. Typically, plastic housings start to fade and oxidize leaving them yellowed and hazy. There are ways to clean them up, but usually this is a temporary fix.

The factory headlight assemblies come with a standard chrome style backdrop. This helps them to reflect as much light as possible in order for the driver to be able to see well at night. What if you could change out just a portion of the light, maintaining the performance of the housing but giving the look of the light a change. That is now possible.

These headlamp assemblies (here are some off amazon) do just that. The black accents that are incorporated into the housings really make the whole setup much more sleek and attractive. The great part about it is that black goes with any color, so it does not matter what shade of red, blue, gold, or silver your Prius is, they will blend in perfectly.

This will not only give you new and crystal clear viewing pleasure, but your Prius will not be moderately more attractive as well. For $129 bucks, that is money well spent.

Toyota Prius Tail Lights

When updating the front, the rear, and that big hump need a bit of love too. Rear tail lights can come in a wide variety of different styles. The "altezza" design that became standard on 2nd generation Prius already is a great looking light. So really to improve on it, options are limited for 2nd generation but for 2010 and up there are some really cool options.

If you are hard pressed to get a pair that matches the front, you can still get some "blacked out" assemblies that have swapped some of the harder chrome out for smooth black trim.

Coming in at $115 bucks, not a bad deal, but personally I do not think it is super necessary either.

Putting The Carbon, Back In Carbon Fiber

If you get on amazon, like I do, and just type in, Toyota Prius carbon fiber, you will get a flood of results. I had to wade through pages of results to see what I liked, but I did find a few.

Carbon fiber door handles can really add some cool accents to your Prius. Coming in at about $25 bucks for a set, is not super awful but could be a little tacky if that is the only thing you add.

My next favorite one, and also one I know may owners need is the rear exterior tailgate lift handle garnish. These can break off and to fix them can be pretty spendy. This carbon fiber accent comes in at a solid $70 dollars but is a great upgrade for the stock one.

Pair this with the handles and my next favorite, and your Prius is about to get fast and furious. Just hit that pedal and your boost converter will do the rest.

The TRD carbon fiber short antenna is my favorite (and it is the cheapest too) this one is an easy stand alone accessory that looks really cool and is functional as well. It is a inexpensive upgrade that for around $8 bucks, keeps you looking fresh while not breaking the bank.

Conclusion

There are loads of quality accessories out there for the Toyota Prius. There are some really cool wheels made by Konig that are super light and add some quality accents to your car as well. The list for carbon fiber parts is pretty extensive, but at the end of the day, we are driving a Prius here the car was not meant to be flashy.

Whatever you decide to do, just remember that while it may look good in the picture, it is not always going to look super great on the car. Happy accessorizing.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading about accessorizing your Toyota Prius. Check out my other story Why the first generation Prius is better than either generation Nissan Leaf.

See you in the next story where I am discussing why the Toyota Prius AWD-e is the best one yet and why car enthusiasts and average car guys loathe the Toyota Prius.

Also Watch New tech means more MPG from your Toyota Prius and Click to Subscribe to Torque News Youtube Channel for Daily Toyota Prius and Automotive News.

Peter Neilson is an automotive consultant specializing in electric cars and hybrid battery technologies. He is an automotive technology instructor at Columbia Basin College. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Automotive Service Technology from Weber State University. Peter can be reached on Linkedin and you can tweet him at The_hybrid_guy on Twitter.