Sitting on the fence..Need some advice.

It seems that the Prius is a great car for your type of commute. On the other hand, I think that the Prius is the right car for almost everyone (you didn't think you'd hear differently in this forum, did you? ) Seriously, if you don't have serious hauling/towing needs and you're not going to be blazing trails out in the snowy wilderness, the Prius will probably do really well for you.

The weather might be a bit of a concern. If you've read around this forum, you hear about people who sometimes have problems with the traction control being overly aggressive in snow. This sometimes means that it's hard to get up steep, icy hills. Personally, I have never had any problems; the car has been great for me in all sorts of ice and snow. However, my climate (western MA) is probably not as extreme as your's. If you're mostly on highways or well-traveled roads, you're probably fine.

Probably less than you'd see in a conventional car. Some have reported brake pads lasting 100K miles+ and you'll never need a new starter (since the car doesn't have a traditional starter). Conventional wisdom is that there is very little routine maintenance required by the electronic parts on the car, so you're basically just left with non-hybrid Toyota maintenance costs, minus a few things.

There's no indication that the traction battery (i.e. the big, expensive one) will ever need to be routinely replaced. There are sporadic reports of failures, but it's been in a tiny fraction of cars and they have largely been replaced under warranty. Toyota states that they expect the battery to last the life of the car and there's been no indications that this expectation is unreasonable.

The price you're quoting is going to depend significantly on the package that you're getting. For the base package, you should be paying significantly less than $26K; for the "loaded" package, $26K is a very good price, I think.

 

1.Is this the car for my type of commute? Yup. I drive 100 miles a day. 80 miles in on highway (with sections of high speed & sections of stop and go) and 20 miles in city (with stop lights). Can take between 1.5-2.0 hours each way. I don't have heated seats, so I'm going to get a driver's seat with heat and massage to make the commute more palatable.

2.Can this baby handle that long 3 hour drive twice weekly, every week in all kinds of weather(upstate NY)? The winter has been so mild, I don't know if the tires are good with deep snow. But they're not too wide. They should be fine. If you're dealing with more than 5 inches or so on a regular basis, then that might need snow tires and a lift kit.

3.What kind of wear and tear can I expect with this kind of driving?

I spoke to a guy with a 2004 with 140,000miles on his car. He hasn't had any maintenance issues. Gas, oil, tires - that's it. His story is not unique. I have buddy who has been in the auto industry for decades. He claims that Toyota actually over-engineered the car - for example, they could make it faster but chose to make sure it would hold up for the long term by asking less of the equipment/software.

4.Is the battery life something I need to worry about in a few years?
The Prius has an 8-yr./100,000-mi. warranty on the battery and hybrid systems, plus a three-year/36,000-mile warranty on everything else.


As for pricing, I went through Costco. Saved myself the price of the membership many times over. (And got my Garmin GPS Nuvi 670 (or some such nonsense) for about $450) Que Ganga!

 

Re: upstate weather - there are various threads going on right now in this forum about winter/snow driving that should tell you what you need to know. The general consensus is that if you live in an area that gets lots of snow, you definitely want snow tires, but otherwise things should be fine.

 

Sounds like you are putting a lot of miles/year and since most of your commute is highway, the Prius is the right car for you. If you have to haul a little bit more than normal, it has lots of room in the back with fold down rear seats.

To move from a 4.0L Jeep to a Prius, you will surely appreciate the $'s saved in gas and low cost of ownership. Don't worry about the Hybrid battery for now, it is warranted for 8 years/100,000 miles.

 

Read through CarBuyingTips.com new car buying guide, avoiding dealer scams, new cars, used car buying. There may be regional pricing differences. Seperate companies import the cars into different parts of the country. Additionally cars from a CARB state carry a longer warranty than the cars from a non-CARB state.

 

Just go for it. I sold a Mustang GT and got in my new Prius and drove non stop from Raleigh nc to Savannah Ga. It was a 315 mile trip and it was fun and very comfortable (kidneys were a bit challenged for the 6 hour drive). When I arrived I filled it up with gas again and it took 6 whole gallons and cost me $18............Gotta love it.........comfort, fun and great economy.

 

I commute 150 miles each day and just picked up my Prius 3 days ago. I have a little over 350 miles on the car and it shows I'm averaging 45 mpg. I sat on the fence for a while and just made up my mind on Monday to stop stalling and make the purchase.

I'm figuring that my gas savings will pay for my car payment. I traded in a Ford F-150 pick up and put a few grand down to keep my payment low and in 3 days I can see my savings already.

 

Did you get a good deal through Costco? I found I didn't - here Costco is sticker less destination charges (~500). I found I did better shopping around. The price of the car didn't change much, but the value of my trade in did. I did not purchase from the Costco affiliated dealership.

 

I would suggest immediately replacing the tires with decent all-season tires, such as Michelin HydroEdge (my own choice), or a snow tire that is used in your area a lot.

The OEM tires, in my experience, are less than acceptable, especially in "weather".

Oh, and for the length of trips you take, your MPG should be pretty sweet, even in the cold, since there will be plenty of time for the Prius engine/exhaust system to get up to optimum temps.

 

PG -

Around here, the Prius is in such high demand that the dealers are not really negotiating too much. I work for an Auto Finance company and have access to various sources of data that helped me figure out that Costco was a good deal. Now, I will agree that the Costco deal isn't the lowest price you can get. But I was in and out of the dealership in about an hour. For me, saving the emotional energy/time was worth the trade-off of a couple extra $$. I'm glad you found a great deal on your car. More power to ya'!