Prius driven infrequently

Self-discharge of the hybrid vehicle (HV) and auxiliary (12-volt) batteries is a risk, in principle, especially if you plan to leave the car completely unused for periods of 60 days or more. As I posted in April 2018, the car keeps an internal record when that happens, which suggests that Toyota’s engineers may have had a reason to be concerned about longer storage times.

If you’d be driving the car every week, or even every month, for example, it should be fine, as long as your trips are generally long enough to allow the hybrid system to keep the HV and auxiliary batteries charged. Depending on what you believe will happen to fuel costs, the payback period for the higher initial cost of a hybrid vehicle may be longer than its useful life, of course.

 

Yeah we're only doing about 4K miles a year, but a fair number of longer length, cross-town drives. 10 years post build-date now, and for 15 months post build-date the car sat, at dealership, around 15 kms on the odometer. Hybrid battery seems fine, so far. 3rd gens are all nimh, not sure if that's a factor.

if it's regularly languishing for 3~5 days, you may need to consider regular hook-up to a 12 volt smart charger.

 

The only thing you will need to monitor is your 12VDC battery...same as you would a regular car driven that little.

 

The car can tolerate sitting around. It isn’t ideal, but it isn’t awful either. Most ICE cars handle it better.

The way I see it, the high repair costs of a hybrid car are a risk worth taking when you are required to rack up a lot of miles.

I’m sure the salesman is imagining this car going into the crusher in 2034 with only 60k miles on it (entirely plausible given what you’ve shared) and he’s having a hard time holding back some emotion on that point.

 

My greatest concern would actually be about benefit.
I think you can own and operate a hybrid with limited usage. But the question becomes "why"? IMO the singular greatest advantage of a Hybrid is the fantastic gas mileage.
Many people would surmise, that if you are only driving 4000 miles a year, you might as well just get an economical ICE vehicle and abandon any Hybrid system concerns.

That being said, if you want a Hybrid? I would say, at 4000 mile a year, it might be more about consistency than total miles. That is, a little driving every day? Or long periods of inactivity?
I think you're better if it's a little driving every day as opposed to long periods of inactivity.

I drove more than 4000 miles a year with my Prius, but 5 days out of the week it was pretty much a short to and from work commute, and any trips for shopping. So little miles 5 days a week. I still felt I got benefit. Even in that scenario, my gas mileage was better than it would be with an ICE vehicle. Even though for those days, I fell below the 50 mpg benchmark.

I made up for it, by enjoying my Prius as a weekend road trip vehicle. For which it was fantastic. I could drive almost anywhere I could or had time to drive, and not really worry about fuel costs for that trip. The Prius was absolutely the best road trip vehicle I have ever owned.

These weekend road trips, and occasional long trips, bumped my overall mileage for the year up, and bumped up my overall MPG with the vehicle.

I would be prepared if I wasn't driving more miles, to expect "less" MPG benefit. The Prius, Hybrids, and really any vehicle are not as efficient in short trips.

 

I have driven only 18,000 miles in 3 years (6k per year) on my 2016 Prius with no noticeable problems. Typically I drive 10 to 20 miles per day. Once a month I make sure I go a little further, 50 to 100 miles. And since the speed limit most days is 35mph to 45mph, I make sure I take it on a highway going 55mph or more. I am not concerned but I am not an expert. If I wanted more info I would talk to the mechanics that actually work on the Prius and ask if they ever saw problems with the Prius at low mileage usage.

 

how much gas money will you save at 4,000 miles/year? doesn't sound worth the hassle, these cars are made to be driven

 

OK, that makes sense to me- that’s pretty much why we bought our Prius C instead of a Yaris/Fit/Accent/other subcompact. We were willing to pay a little more for the smoothness and quiet offered by the hybrid powerplant. Now, we are plowing 25k miles/year onto that car… so the good mileage helps. But even at that use rate we aren’t going to earn back the extra cost through fuel savings.

Prius and Elantra are both good cars… compare insurance costs too.

 

what is your price range?

 

Sounds good. I'm not driving as much as in younger years, but I love the PRIUS, it's a comfy car, and having to fill the tank every 1000 km is great. I've done about 9000 MILES per year. Fuel savings have been excellent. A similar sized Petrol car would have used about double the fuel or more. But our Australian fuel is more expensive than yours.

I had intended to do some long distance touring, but with elderly parents needing care and sorting-out soon after I bought the PRIUS, that hasn't happened - yet.

Yes, I think the RAV4 is great too - may be my next car?

 

there are an awful lot of cars in that price range, hard to believe prius is the most comfortable you can find, seeing how many people here complain about the seats.
but it's your choice. personally, i would never buy a hybrid for 4k a year. it's just not worth the potential downside

 

People complain. My Avalon forum is full of seat complaints and it’s like driving from an easy chair.

 

very true, and they come here to do it

 

But are we listening.

Maybe we should go over there and complain about our Prii.

 

If buying new, that downside doesn’t kick in for a lot of years. From what I’ve read all over this board and beyond, everybody’s first decade in a new Prius is excellent. Second decade gets pricey, doesn’t matter what the odometer says. Use it or lose it.

Yeah, it may feel a little wasteful… but there’s nothing actually wrong with it. Betcha I could get over it.