Prius Oil and Oil Filter Choices

If you're changing your own oil and expect to maintain your warranty, then using genuine Toyota oil and filters would very prudent. Costs cited above are very reasonable; I can't see how one could do any better using Mobil1 and a reputable non-Toyota filter.

 

IMO the only filter is a Toyota factory filter.

 

I just bought a couple of K&N filters. I like Royal Purple filters the most, but they aren't making any for the Prius....

 

There have been long and bloody oil and filter wars fought on this and nearly every other automotive site.
It's always been interesting to me that the folks who fight the most passionately in these pissing contests are the ones who trade their cars out every three or four years, losing any gains (real or imagined) from using the top shelf "Gucci" filters and fluids.
If you're one of the folks out there who think that they "have" to use OEM products, that's fine. Either let the dealer do it and put the giveacrap switch in the "don't" position, or at least buy the filters and fluids at a discount if you're going to DIY. Just don't be one of those saps that get strong-armed into thinking that you have additional warranty security from using OEM filters and fluids, because that's just not the case at all.
You do have to use fluids and filters appropriate for your vehicle, but they do NOT HAVE to be the OEM brand, otherwise the Gucci brands would be just as inappropriate as the big box brands.
Me?
Counting lawn equipment and motorcycles, I have six vehicles to maintain. Interesting enough...all of them can have (and have had) Fram filters.
They sell them at WalMart by the hundreds of thousands. If one in a hundred thousand self-destructed inside of a motor or failed to filter oil????
It would be on the news and WalMart would stop carrying them.
If you think Prius owners are snitty about their filters and fluids?
Go to a Harley site.

Fram filters are good enough, and WalMart also sells oil rated for all 6 of my vehicles.
I don't have the time, the patience, or the money to keep up with all of the current filter and fluid fashions.
I'll have to settle for good enough, and for me....good enough is usually 10 years or 250,000 miles.

 

Sometimes it's about convenience..
All things being equal (OEM Toyota oil = Mobil 1 oil as far as warranty coverage goes) there are many many more Walmart stores then there are Toyota dealers. I can shoot out on my 30min lunch break- hit the local Walmart for a 5quart jug of Mobil 1, plop down my $24 and be back at work in time to finish my sandwich. A trip to the "local" Toyota dealer is at best one hour round trip- assuming they have someone manning the parts dept window and there's no one ahead of me waiting on line, and the cashier is available. As far as the OEM Toyota filters- I order them from ebay or Amazon- nothing is more convenient than that.

 

Don't tell me how good Fram filters are, I've used them in all my engines as long as I can remember. I had a Honda Odyssey that had nothing but Fram filters and Mobil 1, in 2010, I had to trade it in. It had 298K on it and used no oil, but the AC compressor quit. I'm sure that the junk Fram filters somehow caused the failure. (sarcasm off)

 

OT- but did you get in on the class action suit regarding the run of bad Honda AC compressors?
My 2003 CR-V qualified, it's compressor blew four years after I I bought the car.

 

I don't think that it qualified, it was a '95, one of the best I've owned.