At times, having a blog can be overwhelming. Other bloggers know the guilt that overcomes us when we don’t post, we wonder if readers will like our posts, and sometimes its just hard to open up and put yourself out there! However, there are some definite perks to having a blog too; this post will be about one of those perks!

Toyota contacted me a few weeks ago, asking if I would be interested in test driving a loaner 2015 Prius or Camry for week. What?! Now, I do get contacted periodically from other companies to do posts or reviews or partnerships. Typically I pass on most of them because I am pretty specific about what I want to blog about and who I want to be associated with. After reading the email 5 times and passing it along to Mr. Zucchini Runner, we both agreed it seemed legit. I responded “Yes of course! Tell me more!” and 3 days later I had a new Toyota Prius C delivered to my home. I signed some paperwork and boom, the car was mine for a week.

The timing of this couldn’t have been more perfect. Starting that following Monday I would be driving about 40 miles round trip, every day, to Elaina Love’s Pure Joy Academy. (I typically work from home and don’t drive too much during the week.) This allowed me the opportunity to really get to know the car.

 

We checked out the trunk space, and boy did it seem small! No trips to Home Depot for large items in this car. 🙂

Then Mr. Zucchini Runner sat in the backseat, to see if his 6’2″, 200 lb. frame could fit. Not gonna lie, he did not fit well. However, he had plenty of room as a front seat passenger!

As we took it out for the first spin, I immediately LOVED the car! It rode so well!! It was so compact and easy to maneuver.

We even gave it a spot in the garage next to my car. 🙂 There was about 3 feet of additional space between the rear bumper and the garage door too! So tiny!

We drove the Prius C everywhere over the next 3 days! This is our local coffee shop which serves amazing Intelligentsia coffee!

I really enjoyed the display setting which shows how much each trip costs, as well as when you are in Eco mode or Pwr mode.

And just for fun, we wanted to see if the trunk held a body. It does. 🙂 I’m 5’6″ for those who are curious!

We took it to the mall to do some shopping… and boy, this gives you an idea of how small the Prius C is!

Oh yes, I should be sure to mention, this is not the standard Prius; it’s the Pruis C which is more compact!

But we were able to fit all our groceries in the trunk just fine!

Ok, so we’ve gone over driveability, size, trunk and seat space and some of the engine displays… but what about the really important stuff, like the stereo and bluetooth?! I fell in LOVE with the stereo. Now, my current car is a 2007 so I don’t have a fancy stereo set up with bluetooth. For me, this was my favorite aspect of the car. I could start my iTunes app on my phone, it would connect to bluetooth and bam it would play out of the stereo. If I got out of the car, I didn’t need to do anything. The music on my phone would stop on it’s own. When I’d get back in, it would take about 30 seconds to connect and pick up right where it left off. The only downside to using the blue tooth was it drained my battery. So I would plug it on the long drive to class or on my way home.

I could also search my iTunes library from the display screen in the car, which I thought was awesome!

The power button. Now, this took some getting used to. No key? Where’s the key? Oh, I don’t NEED the key? But I need the key ON my person? In my purse? But not in my hand? What?! Yeah, that was a fun adjustment. But once I got used to it, it was pretty incredible. Just walk up to the car, it senses you and unlocks the driver door. Aaaaaand if for some reason you forget to power the car off when you reach your destination, it will beep at you 3 times, alerting you that the super quiet car that appears off, is still actually on. 🙂

Speaking of a super quiet car that doesn’t sound like it’s running. It let’s you know when it’s ready to drive… which was very helpful to me each morning.

One night we managed to squeeze in a double date with our good friends. I took the Prius C, of course, and they both fit in the backseat comfortably. I should state they are both about my height. 😉

Overall, I really enjoyed my week with the Prius C. When I was driving home from class, stuck in traffic or just tired from the day, I could easily call my mom or Mr. Zucchini Runner and be completely hands free. I could hear them great, and they could hear me loud and clear. I was definitely bummed when I had to give the car back, but now I know that I do enjoy the Prius and could totally get by with a car that doesn’t have a ton of horsepower. (It was quite a shock getting back in my Jetta GLI and having ooomph again!) The only thing I would do differently if I were to purchase the Prius C, is get the windows tinted!! It was so weird driving in a car without tinted windows. It also got noticeably warm, very quickly, with no tinting. Down here in AZ just about every car has tinted windows. It’s almost a necessity in the summer when temps reach 115ºF or hotter.

Thank you Toyota for such a wonderful opportunity. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride! #LetsGoPlaces