New 2020 Prius or Get Touchscreen Repaired?

My 2008 Prius has 82,000 miles on it. It has never really given me any trouble. Husband and I are both retired and we have three vehicles. We have a 2011 Sienna and also a 2015 F350 diesel dually that pulls our fifth wheel trailer and our boat.

Just recently my touchscreen stopped responding. It light up just fine. I tried the trick I saw on you tube of sliding my finger all around these edges with some pressure. That did not work. We have checked the fuses and they seem OK. We have a mechanic who has the same year Prius with 190,000 miles on it so has experience with caring for a Prius but does not have any interest in trying to fix my touchscreen. I have seen an ad for an auto repair place close by where they claim they know a lot about hybrids so have thought of talking to them about it. I have read the many posts about getting a unit from a junk or ordering a touchscreen on e bay but my husband is not interested in trying to take the dash apart without causing damage to it to do a replacement or repair. He prefers that I consider just buying a new Prius. We are both very interested in all the newer safety features like blind spot warning and front collusion avoidance and rear cross traffic and the like. We both have excellent safety records though so not as though these things are essential.

I have become aware though of the issues that it seems all the car makers are having with their windshields. Have read about the Prius windshield issues and how it is impacted by so many features being built into the windshield. Do any of you think that there is a chance that if I limp along with using only the controls I can access using the steering wheel buttons that there is a chance that the auto industry will solve the issue of windshields being too fragile these days? I suppose that it is silly of me to damn an otherwise very reliable vehicle like a new Prius over the chance that the windshield will break because the new windshields are too lightweight or whatever is causing the problem. Many thanks to all of you for your opinions.

M2D

 

Thank you for your response. I think part of it is also that we are older people and my husband has underlying conditions that make it necessary that we be careful with the Covid-19 situation ongoing. Do we really want to have to deal with buying a car right now? We are only leaving our home to food shop every two to three weeks. We have wandered through a large dealership's lot to look at the new Prius and I have been checking out current pricing online but we sure as hell would not consent to be held captive at a dealer while they try to sell us additional stuff or drag it out forever with the finance person when we have excellent credit and would probably pay cash. I suppose we could make an online deal and have the car delivered to our house.

In reading online I have become aware that the windshield issue is responsible for current class action suits across several brands of automobiles so it seems as though there is no escaping the problem.

You are correct in your advice brisco. I appreciate your taking the time to think it out.

M2D

 

Apologies bisco, I spelled your name incorrectly.
The other big issue is that I do not like the looks of the current Prius.
The inside seems to be acceptable.

M2D

 

That is what my dear husband said! You are too funny!
Thank you,

M2D

 

I was just reading a Jerry Mildred thread about replacing his wife's car and his looking around at different Prius models.
It brought back memories. We bought my 2008 white Prius when I was driving so far to classes with our then dog since passed.
Having the Prius made it so much more economical to attend far flung classes, seminars and events. You can carry so much in that car. My boy's crate (cage) could fit into the back seat as the door opens so wide. Then I had the entire hatch area for my folding chair, food cooler, luggage and tons of dog related stuff. We live outside of Boston. I have driven that car to Montreal, Fredericton, NB and Halifax for canine events. It has always been reliable and low cost to drive and maintain. This car does not owe us a thing. Our current dog is 11 now and retired fro m competing as am I. She is a great pup who has traveled with us all the way to Alaska by way of Banff, the Ice Fields Parkway and the Alaska Highway. Of course we did that trip in the F350 towing our trailer. All of our vehicles are white because it reflects the heat in order for our dogs to stay cooler if we are at an event.

It is possible to be too sentimental about a car,

M2D

 

Thank you Steve48. First I think I may call a not far away auto service place first that advertises they specialize in hybrids.
I had never heard of them until recently.

Also want to add that this car has been a safe car for us. When it was just over a year old we were driving down a main street at about 35 mph when a woman (forget what she was driving) fell asleep or maybe meds affected her drove right into our rear.
She said something about how she should not drive when is tired. We were moving when she hit us so maybe that helped absorb the shock. The car was fixed and was fine. Then in 2016 just six weeks after I had open heart surgery to repair my mitral valve we were hit from behind once more. We had stopped because a fire engine was out of the station and in the road in front of us. No sirens were sounding. The driver was waiting for the traffic from the other direction to clear so they could swing the truck out into the street. A man driving a Sprinter type food delivery truck rammed right into our rear. Turns out he was driving with a suspended licence. I had been sitting with my back and head positioned right up against the back of the front passenger seat with my head against the headrest. I had just been cleared to ride in the front instead of the back as they do not want you to be hit by an airbag until your sternum is healed. I was fine. My husband had been leaning forward a bit and so did have some whiplash but no real injury. The firemen all came out to help and they called the police. Couldn't have asked for better attention. Car was repaired once more. So our Carfax is not good. I have always felt safe in this car. It has a solid feel to me.

M2D

 

Wanting to report on my progress with the car. I made an appointment with a private garage that does a lot of work with hybrid cars and especially Prius. I cannot get in there for a while as the man who has the skills to fix my screen issue is out on medical leave but will be back shortly. I was thinking of also asking the local dealership for an opinion/price on the touch screen as was suggested here but have not done that as yet.

Well, the check engine light came on the other day. I called my usual mechanic to have him look at it. He owns a 2008 Prius just like mine but he has twice as many miles on it. Turns out that the code hat showed up is for the evap cannister. They called me to say that they were just going to reset the check engine light and see how it went as a new evap cannister might be $1200 and they did not think it was worth doing that if I was thinking of getting rid of the car. It past inspection with no trouble in June. They explained that it is located in the back of the car as I had told them that we had been rear ended four years ago. I cannot really think that I can blame it on the accident after four years have gone by. He also asked whether we overfill the gas tank because that can damage the cannister. Told him that I knew from day one of owning the car not to do that and that we always pump our own fuel and stop when the pump says to stop.

Now our mechanic who owns the same year Prius is interested in buying my car and is willing to fix it up for himself as he puts on a lot of miles commuting to his job in his Highlander. I told him about the two accidents as that would show up in a carfax anyway and I believe in being honest with people. He has offered us $1200 for the car and we are considering it and will get back to him next week.

My niece's husband in Alabama has a used car business with three locations so he sees a lot of cars. I am going to send him the information along with our VIN number to see what he says about the possible worth of the car. I have read on the forum about the evap cannister but have not seen and prices quoted.

$1200 is a little less than we expected to get. We thought he might offer $2000 but that was before this new issue.
We have been looking up inventory of the Prius Prime and have seen that they are taking off $3,500 from the price with the car also being eligible for about $4,500 from the feds and a rebate of $1500 from the state of MA. So it makes it a good time to buy a new prime.
We are inclines to accept his offer but would value your opinions and will check with our nephew as well.

I have read a ton on these forums the last few days and very much appreciate the time you all put in here answering questions and sharing from your own experience.

 

My niece's husband offered us $1,900 and he would send a hauler for our Prius.
We felt that we would be imposing on him to have to move the car to AL.
We spent a day cleaning her up and took her to Carmax. They offered us $3,500 for the car.
We decided to take it and now we are free to make whatever deal we can on a new vehicle.
The devil of it is that we are driving so little during the pandemic that there might not be any sens to acquiring another car until the pandemic is under control and we have been vaccinated. Just thought you all might want to know what we decided to do.
Many thanks to all of you.

 

Also I have read a good deal about the check engine light issue here on the forums. The mechanic did not tell us a specific code nor explain why he thought it was the evap cannister. I have read enough here to think that it might not be the problem. But we are not interested in running from pillar to post till we find someone who might really know. We discussed how we are going out so little during the pandemic that our Prius was just sitting there depreciating anyway. We have been using the Sienna to go out to do a large stock up only every three weeks or so.