When to retire the car?

i would repair the battery, and go for a half million miles+. i've never heard of a dealer replacing a cell, that is very interesting. do they warranty the work? but you have other options. you can get a rebuilt dorman battery from o'really's auto parts for $1,400. plus install. 3 year warranty, but you have to pay labor. or look for a hybrid battery rebuilder in the area. nothing works like a new battery, but that's a big ten year investment in an old car.

 

Retire the prius and buy another one. Life is short, enjoy it

 

I echo Bisco comments about the rebuilt battery. Have you considered donating the car to a VoTech school and taking a tax write off. Don't know if it works for you but I bet a Votech school would love to get their hands on a current car like the Prius

 

OK......

So, what I would do is sell the Prius, and the Dodge and get another Prius or whatever car that you do not mind spending 4 hours a day in that is not so expensive that you're just throwing money away by depreciating the heck out of it.
If you get a new Prius, I lean towards a base Prime, which in some parts of the country are as cheap as the hatch (like the parts that have traffic dense enough to spend 4 hours a day in!)

Obviously you're not worried about spending money on cars with that many in your garage.
Spend it a little more wisely and the four hours a day that you're in your car can be a little more enjoyable.

Good Luck!

 

465K miles, banged up, and burning oil... I say ditch it. It's worth almost nothing in its current state (with a dead battery). Donate it to charity for a nice tax write-off, and take the $3300 you would have spent on the battery, and get a nice '09 - '12 3rd Gen. with 100K miles on it... then drive it for 365K miles.

 

500k would be so tempting!!!

TL;DR, buy a used 2008-12. If you care for some of my reasoning, continue on.

But if it were me, cash for a 2008-12 would be the way I would go. I pay cash for five- to ten-year-old vehicles every time. Never have a payment, and the vehicles have always been good to me. I pay a little more than I "need" to because I avoid private party sales. I try private party every time I need a car, but every single time I am met with flakes who don't show and scammers who are obviously trying to rip me off, and the honest people want nearly as much as I pay at a used car dealer anyway. So I just go through a local used dealer that only sells electric and hybrid vehicles. They've been pretty good to me, and I know that they're trying to sell cars they think are in good shape (where the private party folks often intentionally try to hide problems).

I never buy new, especially if I would have to get a loan to buy it. Getting a loan on a depreciating asset has just never made sense to me. You will lose money guaranteed, and likely a LOT of it. I get why a lot of people prefer to buy new, but pretty much none of those reasons have anything to do with financial sense. It's usually more on the "peace of mind" side of things.

 

I would retire the car through charity donation or utilize the cheapest battery repair and then sell it.

As for which replacement year is best, they are all really reliable. The 2010s seem to have a few more problems and recalls than other years. I'd avoid that year if any.

Since you spend so much time in the car daily, go for comfort. A non-hybrid getting good mpg might be better for you if it saves a lot of up-front money and is more comfortable. You can buy a lot of gas and cover a lot of miles with the difference.

I'm always in favor of paying cash for whatever you get. Do the best you can to avoid monthly payments.

 

I would strongly consider third gen for replacement. Probably a bit chauvinistic on my part. Our 2010 has been just champion, btw.

 

Interesting choice.
I mean to me...if you AREN'T going to retire a Prius with 465k, a failing hybrid battery, and burning a quart of oil every few hundred miles, that has hit a curb twice and been hit by a deer? When would you retire it? Waiting for a meteor to hit it? Most people I think would take it as a nearly biblical sign, a shaft of cognizant light in the darkness or a burning bush...with a disembodied voice saying.."It's Time For Retirement". BUT...

Seems like the "game" of keeping it going is what is being valued.
And I suppose that's valid. If you've got the time and money. You may soon be able to boast about having the highest mileage operating Prius in North America. (That could be true now, it's got to be in the running) However....

with that many miles and oil consumption, be prepared for the engine to fail next.

I'm actually all for Non-Logical purely emotional decisions. Makes life fun.

 

^ I can't get enough of this.

 

Hey don't get me wrong.
I admire the experiment. I just could never afford to make that choice. If only because I can only afford 1 vehicle at a time.

I kind of want to hear about throwing a new Hybrid Battery into that Prius....and the next major interval...we could be talking 600K or more. At some point? You just have to applaud and say...keep running with that torch.

 

We have a washing machine that should have been turfed out long ago, spent so much on it. It's acting up again, right now...

Similarly but the opposite with a kitchen range: something in the display electronics failed, and replacement of that component rivaled the price of a new one. So we replaced, and everything on the new range feels cheaper: thinner sheet metal, bottom drawer you can barely fit a pot in...

 

What about the battery reconditioner sold by Prolong? The best automated version is $600-700

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Sorry to hijack the thread.
But my Grand Parents would buy the best appliances they could, then they bought maintenance plans. Then they kept those appliances FOREVER.
When they passed away, they had some nearly vintage washer, dryer, refrigerators...that since they made sure the maintenance was perpetually done...every year...were in excellent shape.

Unfortunately...we couldn't sell them for their real operational value because people would look at them and think they were so old they had to be almost dead. Too hard to explain that they had been maintained for 25 years like museum pieces.
Those old latching handle refrigerators....were tanks.

Will now leave the thread to discussion about Prius and Prius decisions.

 

I am old enough (49) to have once used those refrigerators. They were tough enough to withstand a nearby nuclear blast, just like in ROTLA 4

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Actually I meant Indiana Jones 4

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There is no Indiana Jones 4 as far as I'm concerned.