Just bought an 05 Prius last week. 85K miles. So far, I love it. Took it on my first road trip this weekend for a short drive down to Cincy to hit up IKEA. Got about 40MPG, which isn't great but also way better than the 96 Tercel I traded in. I'm guessing the low MPG is at least partly due to cold temps and the snow/wet roads we've been dealing with here in Ohio. This is my 3rd Toyota. My first car back in 96 was a 1980 Toyota Cressida that only had 70K miles on it, and was completely decked out (power *everything* and factory CD player, which I'm sure cost a fair chunk of change in 1979). My previous car was a 96 Tercel that I owned for about 5 years/60k miles with minimal problems. I'm hoping that my Prius has the same kind of longevity. Just wanted to say hi... I've been lurking on the forums for a couple of weeks before I purchased my car, and hope to use this site as a resource for some of the mods I want to do (plan on DICE install, EV button, going to have the car painted black as I'm not too keen on the current color and de-badge it). Here's a pic of my car as it is right now: (can't post links yet so you'll have to cut and paste) flickr.com/photos/brutalentropy/4357155787/ You can see that it needs a wash after less than a week of driving around in this crap weather we've had lately :-P - Dan
I also have a 2005 Prius and a 1995 Tercel, both running perfectly. The Tercel has about 160,000 miles on it. I plan to buy a 2011 Prius next fall. Good luck.
since your prius is out of warranty you can install the ev mode which allows you to turn the engine off in situations when you don't need it, such as lurking around parking lots or when the light ahead turns red or even if its green and you know you won't make it. in cold weather the prius likes to wait until you get to the light before it shuts off. I used to think my prius had a tiny camera and waited for my light to turn green before shutting the engine off. it was so frustrating & futile for the engine to shut off for a millisecond
Nice. I loved my Tercel... it was a nice little car. I only paid about $2200 for it back in 05, bought it at 105k miles, traded it in last week at 163k miles. Nice car, but sorely lacking in features. My girlfriend has an 09 Honda Fit, and I found that we took it almost everywhere because it was such a nicer experience than driving my Tercel... Made me realize how much I missed amenities such as power windows and... ya know... *heat* during these awesome Ohio winters :-P I really wish I could have afforded a newer model, but it's not the end of the world. The 05 I purchased was really well taken care of, and the ride is SO nice compared to the Tercel. So far, I'm very very happy with my purchase.
I do plan on installing the EV mode, although it was my understanding that I do still have some warranty left on the hybrid battery system, is that incorrect? The research I did online stated that the 05 model year warranty was 8 year/100k miles for hybrid battery system, so I wasn't planning on doing the EV mod until I hit 100k+ miles.
