Linus Tech Tips Does "Unboxing" of Prius Prime, Mentions Carbon Trunk

We think of the Prime as the automotive equivalent of the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, right down to the increased curb appeal and battery capacity. And the Big T has also had to think outside the box for the reviews of the car, going to one of the biggest names in the YouTube tech business for a sponsored post.

LinusTechTips has over three million views, and he's like the geeky version of Roman Atwood. The bad news is that this review isn't credible, since Linus isn't a car guy, owning a rusty old Honda sedan that his friends painted pink. But it just goes to prove that if you can make SSD upgrades seem interesting, doing so with cars is easy.

Apparently, there's "like a robot man face styling to the back." The area around the number plate is a mustache, and the rear glass is a pair of sunglasses. What kind of cartoons has he been watching?

One component that gets the Prime both attention and criticism is the 11.6-inch screen in the dash. But because it's a sponsored "unboxing" and not a real review, you never hear any complaints from Linus, a man who's seen TVs that cost as much as this car.

So why didn't Toyota pame a perfect PHEV with Tesla-beating range? Because that would put it out of rich of many customers. The MSRP for the plug-in hybrid Prius is $27,100 before the $4,500 federal tax credit. That's seriously good value and means you pay less for one than you do a for full-spec Honda Civic or a Mazda3. It’s also $3k cheaper than the former generation of the Prius PHEV.

Some people have said you can easily get 70+ mpg out of the car in the real world. And that has to do with the drag coefficient and the engine tuning, not how big your battery is or if you can do a drag race with a Ferrari.