when should you trade in your Prius,before it becomes a money pit?

After a nuclear war, the only two things left alive will be cockroaches and the UZ series motors in that SC400! I understand Toyota spent a billion dollars developing that motor. With the success of that series of motors (now in its 3rd generation), I'm thinking they more than got the investment back! I think the UZ motor will go down as important as the Chevy pushrod and the Rover V8 in terms of importance.
I miss my white '95 SC400. RIP.
The Model S should be interesting. I'm waiting to drive one. Let us know your impressions when you get yours!

 

Money pit is relative to expectations. I have 95k on my 2007, and all I've done is change oil, air filters, trans fluid, and tires. it's been so cheap that I paid $110 to fix a seat squeak that bugged me, so actually, add that to the mix. My Subaru cost me $800-1200 a year in actual repairs at this stage, so I'm happy and in it for the long haul with my Prius.

There is no magic number when all hell breaks loose on these cars. My parents' Fords always needed a transmission at 100k +/- 10k, but I've heard no such predictions on these Priuses. The only things that were really an issue have been involved in recalls and are fixed regardless of mileage (steeing shaft, hybrid coolant pump).

If you generally buy a brand new car, remember that the biggest pit is at the exit of the parking lot when you buy new. I always buy a 2-3 year old car, when other folks freak about the warranty running out, and I keep it for 7 years or so until comfort of the seats or new tech has me drooling for another 3 year old car.

 

Yes, I think 3 is the magic number, although I sometimes go with 5 or 7, if that's a Toyota.

 

There is no magic age or mileage to get rid of a prius. They really do not become money pit's in the traditional sense unless drivetrain components are damaged through severe neglect &/or abuse...

FYI on Gen 2, (or any Gen prius for that matter), inverter water pumps should just be considered a routine maintenance item & changed on a schedule. I recommend changing them at 120k to prevent any issues.... Engine water pump & thermostat & both coolants might as well be changed at the same time.... My wife's dad who gave me my 2005 Prius said everything on this car lasts so long it is incredible.

Grampa remembers when water pumps only lasted 10-15,000 miles, & a car with 50-60,000 was a really high mileage car...

 

How do you put $3K into a new car each year??

 

I’ve got 65K miles on a 2006 Prius. Replaced water pump 5 years ago and new tie rods this year.

It HAS to be my last car as I am on Social Security only and 100% disabled--can’t work.

Wait you cheat the system by not buying insurance? I REALLY hope you get hit with a $5 million settlement. You make the rest of us pay extra for pigs like you.

 

Having purchased new, now, 7 Prius Hybrids and 1 Highlander Hybrid, and being an electrical engineer who has loyalty only to reliability, safety, and optimal ROI for a vehicle, my research and personal ownership (I'm approaching 200k miles on my 2013 Prius with zero defects or repairs), I'm 100% sold on Toyota's hybrid vehicles. I've not had to do brakes yet on any of them. I just purchased an MSRP $52k Highlander Hybrid without hesitation. I do 100% of the maintenance myself except for oil, and my 2013 Prius feels as solid and gets amazing MPG like it did when I purchased it new. While man-made global warming is a farce, its a normal cycle of our earth, it feels wonderful saving money on gas. I'm hoping Toyota's next gen Sienna is a hybrid, which I suspect could get as high as 36 mpg, and I'm there with $50k+ to purchase their limited premium AWD model.

Do the math on the gas savings alone vs another vehicle in its class, and it our case (we drive 2k to 6k miles a month per driver), and its a no brainer why we wouldn't purchase a Prius. The hatchback is wonderful for my college kids to haul all their stuff to school. The crash test ratings are excellent. The cabin is relatively quiet. I can drive 800 miles to see clients and my back doesn't hurt when I get out of the vehicle. Visibility is superb. My daughter's 2017 headlights are amazing and her safety tech is wonderful! When mine dies, I'll replace it with another Prius with those goodies.

Hope this helps.

 

can you do the math for us? i'm not very good at it. thanks in advance

 

2007 with 250K on it... Still going strong. They were only going to give me a token amount for it in trade for our new 2018, so I will just keep it and drive it until the wheels fall off... Will help keep the miles low on the new one for a little while...

 

My 2010 is now at 325 K. The latest thing is the TPMS light is on, I think it's a bad wheel sender. I'm retiring it to spare vehicle / wife car. It's been my work wheels since 2010. My only caution is to avoid the 2010 Prius due to the oil consumption issue that Toyota has refused to properly address.
I replaced the gas engine at 250 K with a lo mile engine. The replacement now has about 120 K on it and it is consuming oil.
I'm going big and comfy this go round. LS 430 is on it's way to me.

 

nice, let the fossil fuel consumption begin!

 

Is your replacement engine from 2010 as well? You can always do a piston soak on your car and see if the oil consumption improves.

 

Only 65k on a 2006? You had better get something to exercise that traction battery or you will wind up having to replace it.

 

What ages the battery? Age? Charge/Discharge cycles? Other factors?

 

Plenty of people here far more qualified to answer that question than me. All I know is every time you see a low mileage Prius here it has traction battery problems. I think the cells within the modules get out of line with each other from sitting.

 

Not driving a car is the biggest reason I think the batteries fail. All of my failures have happened while I let the car sit for a week or more. If they are driven daily, there is little chance of it getting out of balance.

Too many full cycles also contributes to wearing out the modules. I knew a person that live up in the mountains, where he would fully charge the battery coming down and fully drain the battery going up. That type of driving will kill a battery

 

Yeah we're sometimes homebound for 3,4,5 days. I keep a 12 volt smart charger hooked up, but wonder about the big boy. So far so good, but who knows.

Ours is 2010 with currently 79K kms on the odometer. Also, it's build date was August 2009, and we bought it "new" in November 2010, with about 15 kms (yes, 15, not 15K) on the odo.

City planners in neigbouring Port Moody had the less-than-brilliant notion, to build a middle/high school waay up a mountainside. Every so often we need to drop off or pick up the grand kids, but I'd really hate to be doing this twice daily: hard hauling all the way up, then regenning like crazy back down...

 

I bought a 2005 from a member here last year, she lived up in the hills around my house. She had a similar driving pattern of going up and down a long stretch every day. That car had a warranty replacement at the 9 year mark.

My 2010 (built Sept 2009) that I bought used in 2014 also lived up in the hills for nearly 5 years. That battery is really weak right now, the SOC would drop from nearly full to nearly empty in the first 30 seconds of driving. So I expect that battery to fail fairly soon. I still have a warranty until Sept 2019, so if it hasn't failed by June 2019, I won't be driving it for a couple months.

 

Kill it through neglect, or relentless hill climbs: choose your poison lol.