Gen4, is it worth it?

The Prius is not a lifestyle...for me it was an experiment. I would not buy a GEN 1 or 2 because of the way they looked, but apploud those that did to test the reliability...which is most important to me. The GEN 3 looks became tolerable and pre-Tsunami became reasonably priced. At just over 100,000 miles the reliability and TCO has paid off on my 2010, so much that I bought a 2015 for my Son. But I still would not have bought a Prius if it looked as bad as the previous versions and will not buy a GEN 4 for the same reason. Sorry.

 

I would say that the Prius does pay for itself: over the life of the car but often not for the first owner who eats most of the depreciation. When you trade your PIP, someone will buy it and get amazing bang for the buck! You are doing a service to the nation by buying fuel efficient vehicles and trading them every 4 or 5 years!

 

Now you guys have spoiled it for everyone. Not supposed to bring up math

 

This is a fallacy. Here's how my Prius TCO breaks down:

$0.21/mile - initial cost
$0.06/mile - insurance
$0.025/mile - maintenance
$0.058/mile - gasoline

So, gasoline is only 16% of the total cost of ownership. Peanuts, right?

Let's look at it another way. I was also looking at a car that got 32mpg. So how much have I saved so far compared to that? Almost $5,000. $5,000 isn't peanuts to me - it's the cost of my telescope, or quite a nice dSLR kit, or a very nice 2 week vacation for my family.

 

Isn't there a moral component to the vehicle one chooses? Aren't we responsible for the air we breath and the climate we experience? Don't we have a responsibility to next generation? Or is it all dollars and cents?

 

well said.

 

I agree. The only reason I'm ready to replace our 2008 is 155K miles. I know it can last a lot longer but I don't want my wife driving something that begins to have problems. Also if I wait until problems show up then I have this dilemma. Do I just sell it as is, or fix it up then sell it. If I spend the money to fix it I'm then tempted to keep it. I've been through that scenario before.

 

If you can get enough $$$$ back when you trade in or sell it outright, then it makes financial sense to
upgrade to a newer car with lower miles.

On the other hand. How long have you owned the 2008? Do you own it in full? Has it been trouble free thus far?
Then there's no urgent need to get rid of it. Unless you don't like to or can't DIY repairs. Many can't - I know.
But if you can DIY, you literally can drive your car until the wheels fall off. And if I hadn't changed my front left
wheel bearing soon that's what would have happened LOL!

 

Funny about the wheels falling off.

We bought the car new in Feb 2008. It has been near perfect. Only two things. One is the rubber cover on the hatch switch which I replaced. The other is for some unknown reason about two months ago the mileage dropped from 45 to 35 mpg. It has slowly crept back up but isn't back to what we consider normal for this car. I've monitored many things with an ODBII Bluetooth adapter and a Torque Pro app on my smartphone but everything seems normal. But it was this drop in mpg that got me thinking it was about time to replace the car.

I don't want our daily driver, and one we take on long trips 2 to 4 times a year, to have issues. I'd rather replace it when it is still working well. It's fine that other's would make different choices than this. I can appreciate squeezing every dollar out of a car. We won't likely buy the G4 until about March 2016. We put about 1850 miles on the car each month so by March the car will have something like 167K miles on it. Sooner or later we'll have to replace the original brakes...

 

If you drive like me, probably much later. Original brakes on my 05. Still had plenty of pad life left when I did the wheel bearing, But the front disc brakes on a Gen2 Prius never need replacement - well maybe not never.

 

All I've learned from this thread is how badly Toyota screwed up the roll-out of this car. A crisp, clean introduction including all pertinent details (including tech specs and perhaps a subtle hint at pricing) would have left us talking about something meaningful. Instead we have to sit around arguing about what it looks like from 15 feet away and what we think it might be like to drive until, what, end of the month? Longer? I don't remember leaving Prius Connection Detroit with this level of FUD hanging over the 3G. But at the time they told us what they had changed about the important under-hood stuff and let us gawk at the cool drivetrain display.

But maybe times have changed. Or maybe it's just because of the tail lights and 'bathroom fixtures.' IDK.

 

And.....Darth Vader wanted a loo nearby........and so Toyota obliged.

 

Traded in? Where? At the auto recycler? (just kidding)

 

Amazing. That's excellent. I'm sure it headed to a recycler or charity as soon as you left the dealer.

I saw a few clunkers like yours on my way to a 5K run on Belle Isle in Detroit this morning. Early 90s cars cruising down I-75 toward the river, one of them with a spare on the left front wheel.

 

The biggest things that are interesting to me about Gen 4 over my Gen 2 are 0 miles and years, and four wheel drive.

 

Indeed, maybe times have changed. Whether or not it was exactly planned beforehand to be like this, has not been revealed by Toyota, and will never be revealed, but... What happened is precisely according to a modern marketing strategy which expects much from the role of social media to spread something new, and which is more and more applied to many things varying from new products, new music and movies, even to new political ideas. Just by 'leaking' details step by step, together we develop much activity in the social media speculating and bringing forward newly 'discovered' elements. In this way much more attention is generated and much longer. You see such forms of marketing more and more. On fora like PriusChat an enormous increase in activity can be observed, just because of the uncertainty that was not immediately taken away. Many of us were triggered by the challenge and became a kind of research journalists or private detectives. Giving all details immediately would never have led to activity and attention at such a level.