New Member: Considering a Prius, have questions.

Those headlights are worth every penny. I'm sure that most body parts on the Prius are no more costly than a comparable Toyota, though.

 

It does not hurt if you leave it in "Ready" mode with the A/C on. It will cycle the ICE on and off to keep the traction battery charged. When you get in the battery meter will probably be showing 2 or 3 bars, but don't sweat it. It is perfectly normal.

You can lock the car with the mechanical key that is found in the key fob. You can do that and leave the car in "Ready" mode to keep it nice and cool for the dog. I hope you got two key fobs and two mechanical keys. You asked about taking fob with you and leaving car running (Ready mode). The car can be driven without the fob, but cannot be started up without the fob. In other words, if you were to lock it up and leave it in "Ready" mode, one could bust a window - hop in and drive off. But if they ever power down the Prius, it will not start (go back into "Ready" mode) without the keyfob.

If you would like, I could get together with you and probably answer a lot of questions face to face. Plenty of places to meet over coffee if you would like to do something like that. I am retired, so have plenty of time on my hands.

The only time you would want to use "B" mode is if you are coming down the side of a mountain. Pretty much useless in our neck of the woods. It will help you to stop quickly if you have to do a panic stop though, but I would not recommend you do that unless you just have to. "B" mode is used in the same fashion as S OR L in a "regular automatic" when you are doing engine braking. Also using "B" mode when you are coming down the mountain to help to keep from fully charging the traction battery so the ICE does not have burn off as much excess electricity from the regeneration when going down hill for a long time.

Hope this helps.

 

I got the 2010 Prius III Hatchback "Life". 1 owner before me, just few fixed bumps from "masters of parking", everything else is original.
Bought it with 105'000km ~ 65'000miles, now it has 140'000km ~ 86'000miles and only thing I changed were the front break discs (and pads) since they weren't changed since new. Besides that the regular changes of oil, filters, the normal stuff.
The car cost me 12'000 € ~ 13'360$.
I do around 20'000km ~ 12'400miles per year and the up-kip, including gas, oil, filters, tax is around 1112€ (~1238$) per year + insurance (price of insurance is not included in that 1112€). With price of petrol at 1,075€ per litre ~ 4,54$ per gallon.
Regarding the battery, it seems to be ok. I even saw a report on Prius II, a taxi driver from UK had 1miliom miles on it and no problems, never changed the battery.

 

I wouldn't count on a million miles, but if you get up past 150k, just know you can get rebuilt batteries (new cells) for like $1300 all day long. I haven't met anyone who has one, yet, but they're available readily.

 

I feel the same with my wife's Prius. I never thought we'd own one and now I actually prefer driving the Prius around for errands and such. I love my 6-speed manual in the Civic Si, but sometimes you just want a break Plus, I love how it's sort of a game to try to get better gas mileage.... and continually amazes me how little gas it uses. Even at a fairly low number of about 46mpg, it still uses gas at less than 1/2 the rate of my wife's previous vehicle.

 

I've seen some information on HertzRent2Buy program and was interested. I'm going to be driving to and from school once a week 220 miles round trip, plus about 20 minutes to work every day (shift work). Would a Prius C -4 be a good car. I know C stands for "city" but if it'd give me better mileage then the next car that cost the same amount of money (11k) I'd be down.

Also for those of you who do weekly road trips, how often are you filling up?

Thanks guy! I hope to join the team soon!

 

a c would be fine. highway is a bit lower than the hatchback, but no biggie. rental cars worry me, a bit like russian roulette?

 

Yeah that's what worries me! I'd be taking a chance with the rental! Thanks for the reply!

 

If you were going to get a rental to race, would you choose a Prius c? It should be very well driven for a rental, as there would be no joy racing it.

The c is a good choice for 2 adults or fewer. If kids or other adults would be in the car often, the c is unwise.

 

lol you're funny. Typically it'd be just me and the man-friend. Thanks for the input

 

One time years ago we bought a rental car Mazda 626 and it died at around 110k miles for donation to charity. But not too many Mazda 626 from that era had long lives. And it possibly served its purpose as a demolition derby car my kids used to learn to drive.