My 175,000 Mile 2009 Prius

Based on mileage alone, you are already at the end of design service life on the Prius. There is a member here that had a 2009 and put 465,000 miles on it before trading it for a new Prius. All the batteries in the car were original at the time of his trade in.

Also I'm not exactly sure how deep your pockets are, a new Prius would sound great if you can afford it. Your car at 175,000 mile still hold a little value in the used marketplace. But if you continue driving it where it goes over 200,000 miles, it would be much harder to part with it based on the mileage (at a very low price). So your decision is to drive to the ground or sell it now. Personally I would drive it to the ground, averaging 35000 miles a year, you are saving money everyday you drive it.

 

In normal, mostly hwy and moderate speed/load conditions, battery life should be measured in years and not miles.
While your climate is not extremely hot, PA is fairly hilly. My guess is you still have a lot of life in your battery. Any oil consumption?

 

Congratulations! Your achievement makes me feel better about my decision to purchase my first ever Toyota Prius.

I'm curious about how much of that was highway driving.

 

Kudos to you! I would keep it for a couple of more years and then get a Gen4 in it's second year of production. Good luck!

 

Hard to know when the traction battery will go. My friends 05 Gen II went yesterday with only 81k on it. California warranty was set to expire next month on battery.

 

It is not likely that the dealership will give you any real info on the battery state of health, and in any case you are already beyond the "mature" stage. They will hook up Techstream and tell you there are no DTC present, so all is well, and charge $120 for the work. You could order the mini VCI for $30 and do the same yourself. Look at the battery readout and check for any variation in the internal resistances of the module pairs. But even that does not tell you when you will have to actually do something about it.

 

highway is pretty easy on the battery, i would hang onto it for at least another 75,000 miles. if the battery does go, you can get a rebuilt for a grand or so. not bad for that kind of mileage, and a lot less than the price of a new car!

 

What bisco said is how I feel about it. You have had a good run, that is for sure. If you can afford a new one, grab it. IMO they are much better than the Gen II you have now. Gen IV will be out in a while, but I would wait until second model year if you want one of them.

Best of luck to you,
Ron (dorunron)

 

Drive. Skip the III gen and get a 4th gen when it arrives.

 

Keep on driving!!!!

 

My 2009 Silver Pine Mica Touring just turned 170K miles. Also had 4 sets of tires and trans fluid changed twice by me. I'm about to change it for the third time.

Funny, I consider this our new car still. I usually keep cars for 20 years. Just sold a Lexus we had for 18 years with 333K miles on it and it still drove like the day we bought it. I kind of expect my cars to last that long, so I wasn't even considering 170K miles really all that much given that it was in such a short time span and 98% long freeway commutes.

Serpentine belt????? Prius doesn't have one unless you're talking about the one that drives the water pump. Should this normally be replaced? I think gen III did away with that one too.

You changed your spark plugs and coolant (engine and inverter) around 100K, right?

I'm curious about your front brake pads. We still have about 80% left on ours because it was mostly freeway and that pads are hardly ever used in normal breaking until you get below 7 mph, so I'm a little surprised you had to replace them. Did you do it because a dealer told it was time or that they were too worn? Did you get to see them yourself?

 

Yes, it def needs replacement once in a while. It has been my experience about every 100kmiles but, I don't drive as much as you all. You can inspect it and look for cracks. Since its only been 5 years, yours is likely ok.

 

I to have a Lexus, 92 LS400 with 177,000 miles, what model did you have? Dealer tells me mine is not even broken in yet. I love this car, plan on keeping it for ever.

 

Sell it now and get a get a Dodge Ram pick up.

You deserve some bad gas mileage and some maintenance issues.

 

1995 SC400. Still drove like new when we sold it. No creaks or rattles. Had to replace radiator. That was the only thing that ever broke. Pretty crazy for the age and mileage.

 

I believe the early to mid 90s was really the pinnacle of Toyota/Lexus engineering. Years ago when I owned a 92 Camry LE (solid as a tank) I recall reading an article in the mid-90s where a Toyota engineer was reflecting on how Toyota's focus on quality really became excessive (if you can actually have too much quality). He offered an example where some Toyota engineers were obsessing over the build and durability of an ashtray in the Tercel and suddenly a light bulb came on and collectively they realized "this is a Tercel, not a Lexus." The point was that during this timeframe, Toyota wanted everything to be as perfect as possible ... certainly over the years they've adjusted their standards in order to remain competitive and profitable. Although I believe Toyotas are still some of the highest quality vehicles made.

 

Yup, we bought a 2007 SC430 the year before with 11K miles on it, so it was almost new. Beautiful car and I really love it, but there are tons of things that I've noticed that clearly aren't built was well as the SC400. The floor matts don't have that super high dense thread count patch below where the heel sits so the floor matts are already showing wear while the sc400 mats don't. Things are pressed together on the 430 rather than screwed and bolted and it's already developing creaks and rattles. The steering wheel shaft on the 430 feels flexible while the 400 was super super stiff. There was no give at all in the 400's steering wheel shaft.

The leather, although nice, is not even in the same league as the 400's was. I believe the Lexus vehicles of the mid 90s are perhaps the most over engineered cars ever made.

 

Don't jack the OPs thread and turn it into a Lexus SC thread.