Was the EGR system service done as regular maintenance at dealers?

... a prius with 200k can leave you stranded anytime anywhere and it's sure not a low cost or next day repair.
my two other toys were like new at 200,00 with zero repairs no dangerous recalls.....not a lot of fun to have inverter go out at 75 mph on the Interstate in the left lane with no place to pull over....or..brake pump went out and barley got the car stopped before hitting a truck.
I have four cars and a Goldwing......the v gets the best mpg but that's all I can say. and more people like me come on here or go to a dealer everyday.... when toy replaced my master and pump I asked the mechanic and he said they've had a bunch of these in for the inverter and the brakes.....and they had the car for three weeks..... waiting on one of the parts.
Just my experience......and I get prius info from more places than this website.
Just my experience......don't buy one with over 150,000 unless you like this stuff....
but the synergy system does work nice......

 

I wouldn't even consider the car unless it has a new HV battery in it. Average HV battery needs replaced around 9-11 years, some fail sooner and some fail later. They average around $3,000 to replace with labor and tax.

 

what if the car has 200,000 miles w/new Toyota hv battery?

 

Last time large-sample survey data was reported, it was from Consumers Union back in 2012, and they were seeing replacement at 4 percent by year 11, rising to 5 percent by year 12. Hard for me to see how the 'average' could be 9–11 given those numbers. My 2001 was still on the original battery in year 15. Never put in any special effort to prolong it.

I'm only up to year 11 so far on my 2010. If the average is 9–11 then I'm already on the late side of the average; if the CU figures are right, I'm not above 4 or 5 percent failure probability yet.

People often hear 'average' and picture a symmetrical distribution like a bell curve, with the mean in the middle, while the distribution for Prius battery lifetimes is surely skewed; you're very unlikely to need to replace the battery years ahead of schedule, but plenty of them are still rolling along years later than expected.

There's got to be enough data available now for somebody to put together a report that could describe the real distribution with more details than just its mean ... and that would be a lot more useful to people used to thinking about different distributions, though it might strike others as just so much gobbledygook.

 

Two years ago I test drove a two year old 2017 Prius v with 33k miles and remaining factory, powertrain and hybrid warranties. It was listed at a Toyota dealer for $19.5k. That same car is now four years old, a few more miles but still in powertrain and hybrid warranties. It will sell for 25% more today even with more years and miles on the odo.

The new car lots are virtually empty. The biggest dealer in San Antonio had six vehicles on the lot yesterday, a few Tundras (made here) and a few 4Runners (expensive low mpg dinosaurs). So it is not surprising buyers snap up used Prii especially when conventional wisdom suggests Toyotas easily go 400k miles.

In Texas, like California, a car is essential survival gear for every adult from 16 to 95 and our freeways routinely cruise at 80 mph. We have ac blasting nine months a year. So our hybrid batteries see a lot of heat over extended periods and weak spots like head gaskets and inverters are fatigued to failure early. The battery cooler is barely adequate as it attempts to blow cabin air over the cells. The guys up north don't stress a car like their southern brothers and most don't put on 15k-30k miles a year.

 

Maybe? my first car was 19 years old when I bought it and 24 when I retired it. I feel qualified in calling that car old. Maybe it colored my judgement too much? Every car I've had since then was younger but they also all had more age-related flaws, mostly due to the inclusion of more technology and materials that weren't either steel or glass.

I'm not claiming that 10 year old Priuseses are worthless beaters ready for the crusher, just that they're likely to be past the halfway point.

In salty/wet areas it's even more likely to be true, though in the arid southwest any car can last longer.

 

Past the halfway point might be fair, as in my experience replacement parts start to show NLA in the catalog as the years march toward 20, so simple repairs start to become procurement tests.

 

NLA?

 

no longer available

 

When I was in high school, if you had a ten year old car or anything close to 100,000 miles, it was something your friends made up comical names for, and it looked and acted the part. Or you were spending all your out-of-school time keeping it operable.

Somewhere in the decades since then, something seemed to change.

 

Global warming alarm bells ringing off the wall; it’s time.

 

Even if things were in great shape under the hood, the body would rust out, depending where one lived.

 

My first car was a 1972 that I bought as a 6 year old car where the radio already flashed when the turn signals were on.

 

Technology got MUCH better.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

It also depends on the car (and how well it was maintained). I would much rather see a 15 year old Toyota or Honda than almost any 8-10 year Jeep (usually a POS).

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Toyota dealers only perform unnecessary maintenance, and the EGR cleaning is necessary.

Not joking. I’ve seen loads of “services” that Toyota dealers charge ridiculous prices for, like $350 transmission fluid “flushes”, pouring a bottle of fuel system cleaner in the gas tank for $100, replacing the $20 cabin filter for $60, and on and on.

 

So where do you go for *actual* necessary maintenance?