Speaking of the Prius... Real world expierence.

[aczlan]

Spoke to a friend last night. They live in the middle of nowhere, drive 35-40k miles per year and bought a Prius new in 2004.
It now has 350k miles on it and aside from normal fluid changes (synthetic oil every 20k miles, transmission fluid per Toyota specs), it has had 3 sets of front brakes, 2 sets of rear brakes, 4 front wheelbearings, 2 12v batteries and one set of spark plugs.
No leaks, still looks great, gets 42-45MPG in their mostly rural driving and they have no problem taking it on a crosscountry trip.
He said that if it died tomorrow, he would get another one and if he had the cash, he would get a second to replace their other car.
He said that when they were looking at it, the salesman (20 something guy) told them "this car is good for 400k miles" he said that he isn't sure how the guy came to that conclusion, but he is hoping to make it to 500k miles.

Aaron Z

 

[clemsonfor]

Thats nice! I like Toyota.

I would buy a prius for a commuter car and a cheap run to town car if i could afford one, but i cant.

 

[troutsqueezer]

Let's hope they don't lock this thread like they did just on the other one. I'm not sure why that was called for, there are many discussions on here more contentious than that one was.

I'm considering buying a second one myself. Been looking at the Prius V. In my family, it's a competition. I bought the first one in 2005 after my brothers and sisters advised me not to but I had already done the research and they didn't. Two years later my sisters each bought one followed by my brothers two years ago. Now they all want to compare features and mine being the oldest, has the fewest features, of course. But I was the pioneer and I remind them of that every time we get together.

 

[tcartwri]

potatoe..

 

[rsallen]

I work in the automotive business;
I find the Toyota crowd in general to be a rather self satisfied lot. And the Prius owners are no exception.

 

[azkubotaguy]

I own a Tundra, Tacoma, and Camry - all great vehicles, I used to be a Ford & Chevy guy for years, in my opinion they are better built, last longer, and have higher resale value down the road. As for a Prius they have a stigma where I live as most of them have Obama/Biden Stickers on them, how dare they do that to a Toyota :thumbdown:

 

[The Fred]

I work in the automotive business;
I find the Toyota crowd in general to be a rather self satisfied lot. And the Prius owners are no exception.

I work on import cars for a living. When the Prius first appeared most of us thought it was going to be a piece of crap; boy were we wrong. I see many with 200,000 miles and look back at the service records that show only front wheel bearings, brakes and some minor issues, headlamp bulbs and such. They do start using oil after 130,000 or so but that's a minor disturbance. They turned out to be an erxcellent choice for a used vehicle. Parts are relatively reasonable unlike some of the other Toyotas. Filters from Toyota are very inexpensive too.

Other Toyota models however don't fair the same here where we live. I see many many Tacomas with bad frames, seized front brake calipers at 50,000 miles. Rav 4s with bad exhausts at 100,000 miles ($1700 from Toyota). Evap box for a RAV4 is over $800 dollars, rear viscous couplers that fail in under 60K (NOT warranted by Toyota because they DON'T call the viscous coupler part of the driveline) that is a $1200 dollar repair.

Hylander Hybrids have not been so blessed either, they EAT rear brakes and we normally see gas milage in the low 20s, hardly a good value in a used vehicle.

Every brand has it's highs and lows.

Fred

 

[rsallen]

Yeah, disclaimer from me;
I work on European cars, and I usually only work on Asians when my regular customers request it.

 

[aczlan]

I work on import cars for a living. When the Prius first appeared most of us thought it was going to be a piece of crap; boy were we wrong. I see many with 200,000 miles and look back at the service records that show only front wheel bearings, brakes and some minor issues, headlamp bulbs and such. They do start using oil after 130,000 or so but that's a minor disturbance. They turned out to be an erxcellent choice for a used vehicle. Parts are relatively reasonable unlike some of the other Toyotas. Filters from Toyota are very inexpensive too.

Forgot, he said that is uses ~1qt every 3-5k miles, but as he said "My Saturn did that when it was new, this has 350k miles"

Aaron Z

 

[Dr_Zinj]

I remember having to replace the front end on my Ford Aerostar every 50K. After the second one, I traded it in for a Nissan Sentra, but only because the wife was driving our other van, so I only needed a commuter vehicle, not a hauler.

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Now one thing I've used my tractor for a couple of times is pulling a stuck car or truck out of a ditch or snowbank. But where do I hook a tow chain up to a doggone Prius? Only times I've seen any towed is on the back of a tilt bed truck, or with a front wheel sling & trailer.