Family/Friends concerned about Battery

5+ years ago I would advise friends considering hybrids to wait and see, or lease if they really wanted one. But, reports of people having to spend thousands of dollars every 3-5 years on new batteries simply never materialized. At this point I consider it proven technology.

 

Perhaps, these two threads would help.

200,000 Mile Club | PriusChat

299,999+ Mile Club | PriusChat

 

That means at least 12.5k miles per year. The general principle is that traction battery life is more related to the passing of time and the stress of use than it is to the number of miles. So more miles is a good thing on the battery.

Another way to look at it is this:
Even if your battery conks out at 100,000.01 miles
AND even if Toyota doesn't honor the warranty
AND even if you pay full whack to a dealer and pay $3.5k
then it costs you 3.5 cents per mile for the battery and the car still has a good resale value.

It's other components that people should be worried about.

Actually though, once you have a replacement battery it's only a 1 year warranty, but Toyota hybrids sell in part because the batteries last (cf Honda Civic Hybrid) and they sell in numbers so batteries aren't sitting around long.

 

Texas is served by Gulf States Toyota Distributors. You'd be wise to compare prices in neighboring states to the west (yea, I know how far west that it from Houston) as GST may add options to the base imported car that you don't want or don't value as highly as GST does. There are two such distributorships and they go back to the early days when Toyota was trying to get established in the US and they (GST and SET) paid for the rights to exclusive distributorship to several states in return for risking the money to establish the early dealership network. I've saved $2k+ on a deal by going out of state but when I bought my second Toyota I made sure the dealer knew I could go one state away (and had before) and he had to come close to the price I'd pay there.

 

We have not yet bought a Prius (in fact, we haven't taken a test drive yet.....probably next week), but it is unreasonable to believe hearsay evidence (which is what it sounds like the OP's relatives are doing) about a car, or, well, pretty much anything. People who are likely to do this are probably not going to be convinced otherwise.

"Where did you hear that?"

"On the Internet and, y'know, if it's on the Internet, it must be true!"

"Where did you hear that?"

"On the Internet....."

 

Just out of curiosity, but is your gf's Father paying for the car? If you are paying the car note WHY does your girlfriends Father have any involvement on your purchase?

Im sure hes a swell guy and all, but he and probably every other family member/friend that has tried to negate your potential hybrid vehicle purchase are going to likely continue to put your Prius down, even after you buy it. If you cannot "convert them" to Prius-neutral, then they are going to be waiting hand and foot for any little thing to go wrong, or gas prices to go down so they can rub it in your face. Best to do this on your own and prove you are independently fully capable of making your own decisions/buying your own vehicle.

/End family counselor part of me

 

Good! Go get 'em Byronyk Let us know how the Prius visit goes and what you decide.

 

Like others have said - most of those who have anything "bad" to say about a Prius are the ones who don't own one. Browse around this sight and you'll find plenty of reasons to buy a Prius over the others. I now own two and may be buying a third this summer. Can't get enough I guess.

It sure beats the heck out of the maintainence costs I used to have with the VW.

 

Ya know, if you were to buy the annual Consumer Reports Car Buyers issue and accidentally left it open on the table for them to read open to the appropriate page ...

Of course no car is perfect and something could go wrong. True of any car.

 

Consumer Reports did a test with a 1st generation Prius that had over 200,000 miles on it with the original hybrid battery. They tested the average MPG and found it was down by only something like 1 MPGs. Do a search for that video, it's on youtube. I've seen the video and CR was not worried about Prius battery reliability one bit.

 

Lifespan/Operating costs - Prius Wiki (which I posted earlier) has a link to the text. Feel free to add a link to the video on the Wikia...

 

As long as one is comfortable in it. I messed up buying the 2nd generation Prius as I pretty much knew the seating was jacked up for me. ....

Things are going so much better in this 3rd generation Prius. Prius still on early generations, a work in progress and there's some little things that could be better, but overall, a really good and reliable car at 10k miles so far.

 

I sure hear that.

 

Different piece of advice: save until you can pay cash for whatever car you buy. If it's a new whatever you'll save thousands.

 

If you are in Houston you should really consider going with TXU, their "free nights" electric program, and a PHEV with a large enough battery to get you around all day. I know it's Houston but you are in one of the hotspots for plug ins with cheap electricity.

 

Good stuff. You're always welcome to add good stuff to Lifespan/Operating costs - Prius Wiki.