Has ANYONE at all had a positive experience with their gen 1 prius?

Price was right. You should be good to go after testing. So how long does it take for a rain shower in Florida, 10 or 15 minutes? <grins>

All power from the battery has to flow through the computer controlled inverter so there is no effect. What ReInvolt does is run cooler with less overhead (very difficult to measure.) Mostly it means not having to worry so much about too much heat . . . still, it is best to keep it as cool as practical.

Bob Wilson

 

I might have jumped to conclusions, but I read it as "nah" to

... which would be my answer as well: it only reduces the maximum power the transaxle and drive train can be exposed to; the engine may run more often and start/stop more frequently, but I doubt by enough to affect its wear noticeably. So, nah.

-Chap

 

I havent posted in a while, but I have had an amazing run with my 2001 Prius. I bought it off of a coworker for $1500 almost 4 years ago. He was the original owner and car was intermittantly shutting down while driving it. Dealer told him it had a bad catalytic converter and it would be $1600 to repair. I bought the car, and troubleshot it to a bad potentiometer in the gas pedal. Replaced it with a $50 pedal out of a California salvage yard. I went ahead and replaced the cat with an aftermarket one for about $150. The pedal fixed the issued and problem solved. 4 years later, the ONLY thing i have done to this car is transaxle oil change, inverter coolant change, regualar scheduled oil changes, cleaned the A/C evaporator (Smelled bad and shot a can of foam up through the drain to kill off the nasties inside the A/C unit) and a fresh set of tires. Car has 280,000 miles on it and still gets 49-52 MPG per tank full. Its due a set of struts this summer but besides that, the car has been amazing and everything still works as advertised.

 

Hey pristina:
I got my 2001 prius in august 2012. I love it. instead of spending 35-50 in gas every week. i spend about 27-33 every week and a half to 2 weeks. it rides smooth, quiet. i put a scangauge on it and my battery state of charge stays around 65 to 68%. I put a set of HID headlights in it. and have LED turn signals and front LED parking lights. my dome light is also LED.I replaced the regular bulbs in my dash(where the buttons and climate control is) and converted them to blue leds. I put mobile 1 10w-30 full synthetic in it, lubricated the cat converter valve, I tore apart the Hybrid battery and cleaned the terminals and busbars free if corrosion. i fixed a couple of the voltage sensor wires as they broke easily from corrosion. then I sprayed the bussbars and terminals with battery terminal protector. Ill be taking apart the battery in february to make sure my fix is holding up. I run 45psi front and 42 in rear of my tires. right now i average 43mpg but its cold here in pa in the 30's. Im working on a hot air intake for it so the cold wont affect it much. I am going to change the transaxle fluid in february. after that im going to customize it with lighting and new speakers.

Yes the battery and hybrid system are in the back of my head believe me. but that scangauge i just got is reassuring that things are ok. SO far i got 155890miles on it and I love it. I bought it with 150xxxmiles

 

Our 2002 Prius, bought new in March of 2002, has been the best car we've ever owned. Maintenance costs have been vastly lower than on our former 2000 VW Passat, still owned and still costing our son a bundle every time he turns around. My impression is that Toyota worked extra hard to make sure that first year of U.S. Prii were well-built, and they also stood behind them very well, even extending free recall work past the 8 years and 100,000 miles we originally expected for pollution-related parts. For instance, at around 50,000 miles there was some concern about the high voltage battery packs on this model leaking, so Toyota swapped them all out in order to check for that.

We ARE now at the point of no longer putting big money into it if anything goes really wrong, but hope to still drive it at least a couple more years, as we are still getting the same great 40-50 MPG mileage we did when it was new. It's still rust-free too after 11 years of Chicago winters, and rides as well and quietly as ever.

 

I just got a 2001 Prius less than a month back and its great... Ive saved almost $400 in gas already...
only thing wrong is a feint clicking when I accel from a stop... but this is my first prius, and for all I know, it may be normal...

 

A faint clicking is usually a CV joint getting ready to go bad. Verify this by turning your wheel to the stop and slowly take off. If you don't get any noise turning all the way to the stop, turn the wheel to the other stop and try again.

If your CV joint is going bad, the clicking noise will be more pronounced when the wheel is turned to the stop. If it doesn't get more pronounced, look elsewhere for the problem.

The clicking noise is not normal.