Prius Named Top California Car for Second Year

California has always been a fascinating section of the U.S., perhaps even as a microcosm of the nation, if something so large can ever really be thought of as micro. Its coastline is longer, its problems larger, its cities denser, and in many ways it shares the challenges that North Carolina has been gradually wading into, though in our southern time.

The quest for a comfortable, practical commuter car should ring true for those of us who spend time on 440 and 540, on 1-40 back and forth between Durham, up Glenwood and down Capital, and out to Knightdale, Wake Forest, Smithfield, Garner and all the other attendant towns where our families, soccer matches and barbecue pits lie.

For that reason, we might be interested to see that the Prius is the best-selling car line in California for two years running, according to newly released data today by the California Auto Outlook Report. Now, as we alluded to a moment ago, California is not a small state. Nor is it a dainty one. There are the massive redwood trees of the Mendocino forest, the iconic cliffs of Big Sur, the scorching wasteland of Desert Valley, the saccharinity of Disney Land, and the crime of Sacramento. It’s a state of frontiers, competing cultures, varied climates, and constant—some would say indefatigable—change.

In that state among any other, you would expect that people would want a car that is reliable, durable, practical and capable, and that’s exactly what today’s data shows. With several versions of the Prius available—the Prius Liftback, Prius C subcompact, Prius V wagon, and Prius Plug-In Hybrid—the vehicle has a right to say that it’s earned the trust of tens if not hundreds of thousands of people in the Golden State. Indeed, because of all that California has going on, the Prius’s values of outstanding fuel economy, mechanical reliability, comfort, features and storage make a lot of sense.

Do these sound like values that resonate with you? Stop by Leith Toyota to test drive a Prius for yourself, or more than one—you would be surprised at how different they are.