What is your best Guess of how long a Prius Gen III will last?

I voted 150-200 k. By then a car is getting old and creaky, and I'll be wanting a new one. I had a 1993 Nissan Pickup that had gone 200,000 miles in 11 years. I took a photo of the odo at 186,000 - one light-second. All but one other vehicle have been driven to over 100k. The only low-miles car was a Subaru Justy I took to 89,000. Lovely 3-cyl car, four-wheel-drive, got 35 mpg but needed something bigger to drag a boat around with!

 

Cubans don't salt their roads...

Salt kills cars where I live. 10-15 years is pretty much the limit for cars driven in the winter around here. Mileage is pretty much irrelevant.

 

This question is hard to answer.

Only if because any machine, can be made to last indefinitely. Varying degrees of expense eventually force most of us to make decisions about the utilitarian vehicles we drive, but there is almost no issue that can arise that can't be fixed. Even rust issues can be dealt with.

Ask anyone who restores classic cars. It can be fixed, repaired or restored...the only question becomes is it worth it?

I'd say a Prius could be made to last almost as long as you want.

 

yep, but nothing like what road salt causes.

 

I am ready for a plug in Prius all electric that has a 200 mile range! Now!

 

How much are you willing to pay for it ?

 

It is called a 'Tesla S'.

Bob Wilson

 

Lol @ all you dreamers out there voting 300k plus..I'd like for that to be the case, but I've also heard/read about too many cases where the battery loses its capacity long before that. The car may actually be drivable at 300k however, your mpg will be a fraction of what it used to be.

 

I have heard/read of too many cases of people getting 300k with original batteries.

Anecdote is NOT the singular form of data.

You do know that the battery can be replaced, yes? Costs about the same as getting a transmission replaced on a normal car.

 

Since anecdote is NOT the singular form of data, how about the expected life of the hybrid battery directly from the manufacturer? lol definitely NOT 300k miles.

 

Alright, help us out. What does the manufacturer say ?

 

REPLACEABLE.

 

It's a "secret" but OBVIOUSLY, based on a ton of experience with the currently "old school" Ni-Cad batteries, the life is not extensive. What toyota does well is getting maximum life out of the batteries by maintaining the charge levels efficiently and effectively by keeping it within reasonable tolerance without putting much pressure on the batteries. If I remember correctly, the optimum level of charge for longest possible life on these are between 40-80%, which the Prius maintains on a consistent basis on its own under most circumstances. So yes, I lied about actual manufacturer life expectancy, but there is plenty of user experience and data to develop a solid conclusion without accounting for the extreme circumstances of 300k plus as well as early premature failures.

 

Plonk.