Buy 2011 Prius or not?

$2.60 a gallon for gas....don't remember it being that low in the DC area for quite some time.

You can bet on that average going up without a doubt

 

Gas is currently $3.89 for regular unleaded at our local station...

 

Well, I'm also considering buying a 2011 prius and trying to rationalize the purchase. Yes the Prius gets excellent gas mileage...but from the various threads I've read on PC there seems to be a lot of issues mentioned....For example, the reported marginal radio reception, the performance of the vehicle in cold climates, the probably need for snow tires if you live in an area where it snows which then may require added cost for tires, maybe wheels and TPMS., no daytime running lights( but you can keep your lights on though) and then god for bid if you loose your key fob...and you are away from home...necessitating.towing to the nearest Toyota dealer, another $200-$300 for the fob and programing plus towing,. It appears there is no easy way for having a spare "key" on you. It just seems that a Prius may be too much work and too much hassle if you do run into a problem which will quickly eat up any savings obtained through gas mileage.. Having said all that....I will probably take the plunge and buy one. Maybe I'm over analyzing it.....but it seems some of these concerns could have been eliminated if Toyota kept it simple....A simple key and spend other $10 on the radio.

 

Best wishes on your research/decision if you should buy a Prius. As far as radio reception, I find I get much better reception if I hold my hand outside the car while touching the radio. Also, I had my key fob chip imbedded into my index finger and wired to my pacemaker, so having to replace the fob battery is not a problem. I do get a heart palpitation when I start the car, but it's worth it to me.

I love my Prius. Seriously, if you're thinking of a Prius, now's the time since gas prices are cruising higher and higher. Here in Pinehurst, we're at $3.50 gal.

 

A Greenville delivery company has 3 Prius cars that are generally used 2 shifts daily. I discussed the driver of an 06 with 300,000 and going strong. Had to have the catalitic converter partly replaced but no other repairs except normal maintence

 

Stop worrying about this right now. The batteries typically last hundreds of thousands of miles and you have a huge warranty for the battery anyway. Resale and reliability on these vehicles is high. There may be reasons to not buy a Prius but maintenance/repairs is absolutely not one of them, period.

 

The "Prius over the Corolla" argument is tough in some respects. The truth is, if you're satisfied with a Corolla, it's hard to make a purely financial argument for the Prius. In your case, if you're honestly getting 37 MPG per tank, you'd get about 500-600 gallons of gas saved over the course of 80k miles. Even at $4/gallon, that's not a lot of savings. I'd argue that the Prius is bigger and better, but that may not matter to you.

 

I just traded in my 2005 corolla LE with 51k for a prius II. I averaged about 27-30 mpg in the corolla driving in town and highway. The used corolla has a very high trade in value right now and I took advantage of that fact. The new prius is great. more room, drives nice, and is much heavier. If you second guess yourself on the extra price to buy a prius vs the cost of gas, etc. and the payback period, then don't get one. I think I made the right decision in this case and will keep this car for a long time.

 

My wife's 05 Corolla S has 147,000 miles on it and the only 'repair' it's ever needed is one headlight bulb. Of course all the maintenance was done, and done on time. Over it's life, it's gotten an average of 33 MPG with about an 80 mile per day commute, where probably 45 of those miles are highway. My wife is also a leadfoot, driving without any concern for fuel economy.

I now call the Corolla the gas guzzler .... LOL.

I've gotten 46.2 MPG calculated with my new 10 Prius II in the first 2300 miles, with a brand new engine, in freezing cold temperatures. I'm hoping for mid 50's average when the engine gets broken in and the weather becomes warmer.

REV

 

All online support forums give the impression of endless problems. This is because most of the people posting are doing so because they have issues. The overwhelming majority of owners don't participate in online forums because they don't need any help.

In other words, reading posts on this forum is like taking of survey of patients waiting in an oncology department -- not surprisingly, most of them will have cancer.

The Prius is a very reliable automobile, with a very low cost of ownership when compared to most other cars. Don't let this self-selected group scare you away.

Tom

 

Actually, the MSRP for my stripped 2005 Corolla 1.8 M was 7,195 less than the 2005 Prius. (20,975 vs 13,780) For 2011, also the 2011 1.8M Corolla stick is $ 7,450 less than the 2011 Prius. If I use KBB resale, I would pick up about 2,770 of this difference in resale. But if I look at the whole purchase/sale transaction, I would save over $ 4,200 (including TVM) with the Corolla including the difference in fuel over the last 7 years. Gasoline would have needed to be just over $15.00 per gallon for me to break even.

 

So it appears that in your case you saved just over $1/day by driving the stripped Corolla rather than the Prius.

For that extra cost to vanish over the same period of ownership, you would need some combination of higher gas prices, more total miles, greater % city miles, more resale pick-up once the present FUD is over and/or a more comparably equipped Corolla.

Another thing to consider is the replacement cycle. How long you are likely to keep each car. I felt that I would be likely to be happy enough with a Prius to keep it a lot longer than any of the other options I looked at and this makes a big difference in the depreciation hit.

In my case I compared the Prius to a mid range Fit amongst other vehicles and I concluded that I would recover the higher cost of the Prius within the period I expected to keep it.

Another factor was the insurance Prius gave me against rising fuel prices. If fuel rose higher than I expected, I would be protected and if it rose less or fell, I would save money (a "downside" I could live with).

At the end of the day I also concluded that the Prius fitted my needs and wants better and the difference was significant enough to be worth paying extra for if that had been necessary. As it looked likely to save money I never had to decide how much extra I would be prepared to pay.

 

Interesting to hear your decision making, individual situations do matter and the best vehicle depends on your intended use. If you need a hatchback, then Matrix or Fit are the likely competition for the Prius. I have isolated my Corolla use to commuting and decided not to go even smaller due to safety. If I need a hatchback, I use my wife's Venza.

For me, with a 65 mi all Highway commute, the Corolla or Elantra are still far better than a hybrid due to initial cost. The differential MPG can't pay for the 2nd drive train, batteries, inertial braking technology and other forced options that come on hybrids. For even more pure comparisons (and the Corolla/Prius is very close if you check all dimensions), the Fusion and Camry which both come in gasoline and hybrid versions can be compared using your annual miles driven and hwy/city split. The highway mileage figures for the hybrids are only 3 mpg higher than the gasoline versions. Basically, without a size/weight or drag benefit, to skew the MPG comparison, the highway mileage figures come together. The EPA hwy cycle must require heavy use of the gasoline engine.

The ultimate solution from an energy standpoint could be plug-in electric for commuting and diesel for the highway.

 

I think that the price differential has more to do with very different base equipment levels rather than the Prius being a hybrid. It seems to me that for every extra basic component in the Prius, there is a corresponding component that goes away and at the end of the day, the Prius has fewer parts rather than more.

So far as usable interior space is concerned, I concluded that the Prius matches more closely to the Accord and Camry rather than the Civic and Corolla.

When I was looking I expected to buy a Fit but to work through it systematically, I first established what was for me mandatory, what was major, what was significant and what was minor.



Of the mandatory items:

• Enough drivers seat legroom to be comfortable on long trips
  • Eventually decided that the Fit failed for me with my long legs. Civic, Corolla, Matrix &Gen 2 Prius also failed
• ESC VSC
  • I intially though that this was a gimmick but after some research I felt that I'd be crazy to buy a car without it.
  • I could not get it on the Fit in Canada & IIRC it was a problem on the Corolla & Civic. Can't recall the others.
• Regret
  • I eventually decided that if I bought any of the alternatives, I`d end up regretting it

On the Major items:

• Minimize fuel use and emissions
  • No alternative matched the Prius
• Traction Control
  • Gen 3 Prius TC seemed the best of the options I was considering (I`m very happy with it)
• Noise
  • Gen 3 far better than all other options in contention
• Depreciation
  • Decided that Prius was the best long term bet
• Versatility
  • The most versatile overall for our various uses

Other items of significance

• As I worked through the process, I came up with more than 20 additional significant benefits (ie of significant financial value to me) of the Prius over the Fit. I think that in my case, the difference would have been greater in relation to the Corolla, Matrix or Civic.

 

You pretty much win the thread.

 

Are the calcs posted ? I am skeptical

Ok, I saw Corolla 37 mpg average based on highway driving. That sounds about right. Depreciation is such a nebulous affair, I prefer calculating cost over lifetime. Both cars are easily good for 250k miles before any though of replacement should occur to a person putting money savings as a first priority. The Prius will consume about 5000 gallons, and the Corolla about 6756 gallons, or about 1750 gallons more. $3/gallon is a breakeven point if you compare base Corolla to base Prius, although I think few would argue that a base Prius is quite a bit more than a base Corolla, and it has the added benefits of less pollution and less drain on the US economy from foreign oil purchase.

I can understand people who say "I will not pay more out of pocket to be a better citizen," but I think only idiots say "I ignore good citizenship even if it costs me nothing."

Am I clear, OP ? The answer to "show me the money" for you is: keep the Corolla. In ten years or so we can talk again

 

You do realize that is ONE Prius being tested by CR.
Browse through the other threads and you can find other Prii with battery failures.

The battery should be a concern. Not everyone keeps around a fund for that amount of repair. As far as I know, the Prius can't run without the battery.

 

Did you account for the $1000 headlight replacement many have reported here ?
Those are the kind of possible expenses none of the "regulars" care to bring up whenever a newbie asks for input.

 

The problem with those optional HID headlights? The HID headlights that are no longer available for the Gen3? The ones that Toyota agreed to pay for if they broke before 5 years of use?

I can see how it would not be at the tip of anyone's tongue.

 

That's after a class action lawsuit has been filed. Is it a defect or designed ? Headlight replacement still requires removing the bumper. The $500 smart key replacement is another possible expense. Point is these are hardly economy level vehicles (think $25 oil change and $5 headlights).