Prius: The cost of ownership over 10 years

I'm kind of surprised. I knew Prii are some of the most reliable cars on the road, but the Hybrid Battery has to go out some time. For some people, it goes out before 10 years, but most don't. This probably adds a significant amount to the maintenance cost. When I bought my 2005 Prius, the salesperson told me, "Good luck with the reliability; the Prius has 42 computers on board" or something like that. I don't know why he would say that if he's trying to sell me the car. I've had nothing go wrong except the a/c for $300 and the recalled hybrid water pump which stranded me in 2007. It burns a lot of oil, but I expect that by now.

 

Does this include all repairs?

 

Site link in first post does not work?????? I am skeptical about these numbers for 10 years. 7 years probably ok with a Prius. Thought the Corolla would be number one for sure on total cost to own in 10 years or maybe a Hyundai?

Skeptical!

 

It's from yourmechanic.com rather than carmechanic.... direct link

The Most and Least Expensive Cars to Maintain | Advice from YourMechanic

 

Prius might not be on top for 10-20 year period.
But OK, we take No. 1 for the 1-10 year period.
Looks like an avalanche of Toyotas in the top 10

 

Well, we can calculate that. When Consumer Reports finally had enough data to calculate statistically reliable Prius battery replacement rates, they published a rate of 4% by year 11, increasing to 5% by year 12.

For ten years, let's just overestimate and use the 4% year-eleven figure. A brand new battery's about $2200. Let's assume you don't want to swap it yourself, you pay for the job, say a nice round $3000 out the door (probably a high estimate).

So, the expected battery cost in an average Prius at that age, the cost times the probability of occurrence, would be $3000 ✕ 0.04, or $120. I see no reason to doubt that yourmechanic.com worked that into their $4,300 estimate.

Surprise!

-Chap

 

So why is Prius so low? Brakes lasting longer?

On the flipside, I could see the Multifunction Display being an Achilles Heel: weren't there a lot of failures in the v? Our 2010 (Canadian) Touring does not have the MFD, and somehow we muddle through.

 

Why do you guess that? Post #7 showed a reasonable probability-weighted battery replacement cost at 10 or 11 years to be somewhere around $120, so there is not much reason to guess they didn't figure that in to their $4,300 total.

-Chap

 

i can see prius being the least costly from year 10-20 as well, even if it does need a battery. what cars don't need expensive repairs in 20 years of driving?

 

The Most and Least Expensive Cars to Maintain | Advice from YourMechanic

Site link.

Interesting article but a lot of variables to the equation. Some questions to ask: Where are they getting these results, who are their customers, what factors are they using, did they get everything fixed, etc.
Some folks are just fine driving a car with a worn out engine.

I do believe Toyota is the best company all around and the Prius is a very high quality product. Just not ready to drink the orange cool aid just yet.

 

Also some have oil burning issues due to a worn out engine at 125-150K. Figuring 12K a year that would be 120K at least. Most of us drive more than 12K a year.
How is the Corolla engine these days? Use to be a bullet proof car in the 70s.

 

Prius will need an engine rebuild and a tranny at 10-20. Some trucks are pretty bullet proof. Kind of the nature of the technology for the hybrid engines is that they are built for the least resistance internally.

 

Prius uses a corolla engine with some mods I believe.

 

Does it include the traction battery replacement?

 

For the sake of argument, I opened my books. Here is the result. My 2007 is going to be 9 years in 2 weeks. It has 125,000 miles. So you can add 10% to adjust for 10 years. As you can see nothing major. Just the regular stuff. It comes to $5,600 + $560 = $6,200. Not $4,300. Maybe I included something that should not be included?

Work Price
Oil change 25
Oil change 28
Oil change. 15,000 mile service 102
Oil change 31
Oil change 35
Oil change. 30,000 mile service 125
Oil change 40
Oil change. New tires, allignment 650
Oil change. HV Water pump replaced - recall 15
Headlight (right side) 315
Oil change 15
Oil change. Headlight (left side) 290
Oil change 15
Oil change. Drive belt 165
Oil change. 12V battery. Clean and adjust rear breakes. Throttle body clean 445
Oil change 32
Oil change 35
New Tires, allignment 571
Oil change, Whater pump replacement (warranty) 35
Oil change, Front breakes, Break liquid, Transmition liquid, Spark plugs 600
PCV Valve 130
Oil change, Tire rotation (1 of 3) 105
Headlights (right and left) 560
Oil change, Tire rotation (2 of 3) 0
Cabin filter, Air Filter 0
Oil change, Tire rotation (3 of 3) 0
Rear breaks clean and adjust 70
Oil change, Tire rotation (1 of 3) 105
Oil change, Tire rotation (2 of 3) 0
Rear trunk handle garnish 225
12V Battery 325
New Tires, allignment 530
Oil change, Tire rotation (3 of 3) 0
Cabin filter, Air Filter 0

 

We may not know for sure without contacting the authors but, as already covered above, there is no reason to think it doesn't: reading the linked article, it does say they have considered "expensive one-off costs, like a transmission rebuild, that skew the mean higher." That's presumably exactly the way they would treat a Prius battery; if you figure $3k for the job and a four percent probability of needing it in the first ten years (as published a few years ago by Consumer Reports from their data, but that was for 11 years), it should have skewed the mean higher by about $120.

The nature of an average is that, for every car model they reported on, you'd be able to find drivers of that car whose own numbers came in above or below. There can be regional differences in pricing; there could be differences in what you're counting ... did they include tires as you did? Does your model have way more expensive headlights than the model they considered? My jaw drops at those prices. Probably they wouldn't consider replacing a trunk handle garnish to be generally-necessary maintenance, for any of the cars they reported on.

At the end of the day it's not so much the absolute prices they've reported, but the comparisons between them, as long as they have been consistent about the geographic region where they are getting their pricing, and the rules about what they include, for all of the cars in the study.

-Chap

 

I read even before this post the 2nd gen Prius is most reliable car ever. So I don't question the conclusion of the original post. Just wanted to compare with what I paid, and found I did pay about $2,000 more in 10 years than the guys reported. I live in LA, so this could be one thing. But headlights is very typical problem for 2nd gen Prius. Everyone went through this. And it is very expensive to replace. The bulb itself cost $150. I used to drive with my lights On for security before I realized how much it cost. In regards of the trunk handle, you can find a bunch of posts on this forum how the rubber gets dissolved with years in gen 2. There was no way out but fix it. Dealer wanted $500 because they claimed the whole construct had to be replaced. Only after 2 month fight with Toyota customer service they agreed to pay a half or 60%. Another thing was a bad water pump, which is also typical for this model. Failed at 90,000 miles. I was lucky I had an extended warranty at the time - it did not add to may expense. So apart from the tires, I don't see how one could be on the other side of the average.