Prius as newspaper delivery vehicle?

You go, Dustin!

 

Stitch in time ...

An oz of prevention saves a lb of cure.

 

In addition to the standard maintenance listed in the booklet:
Do clean the pet hair out of the HV battery fan if you often transport pets.
Do change the Transmission fluid every 100k mi. (Do not let anyone do an expensive "transmission flush")
Do test the 12V battery under load. (Because the 12V battery is not used to crank the engine, it may not be obvious when it becomes too weak.)

 

Change it. After doing it once, it takes the same mount of thime to change the oil

 

Only thing I would mention in addition to what other's have said is to understand the different Prius warm-up stages: http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/five-stages.txt

If you can be gentler on the car until it reaches at least S2, and perhaps even S4, you'll get better fuel economy and likely extend the life of the car. After some time you can recognize when the car is in S3 and wanting to go to S4 and then you just wait with the car stopped for 5-10 seconds until calibrates engine timings and turns off with a small "jolt".

Toyota doesn't call for changing the transmission fluid as they think of the life of the car as less than 200k. Based on the used oil analyses performed on this forum, the general consensus is to change the transaxle/transmission fluid at 30k, and then every 60k miles. On a car with close to 200k, I would change all fluids without a known history.

 

Thanks Kevin!

 

A Prius is awesome for paper delivery! I bought a 2005 in July of that year with 5000 miles for just that purpose. It lasted me right at 11 years, with a guesstimated 360k miles. Besides chewing through tires (don't bother with OEM, because they were the worst!), I replaced 2 water pumps, one serpentine belt, 2 12v batteries, one wheel bearing, one CV shaft, 2 sets of plugs and one set of brake pads but not shoes, iirc. When the tranny died, it needed another wheel bearing.

My suggestions, besides staying up on recommended maintenance schedule: Use synthetic blend oil with viscosity appropriate to weather conditions and possibly an additive, replace tranny fluid at least every 50k miles, and find a way to install a filter on the air intake for the battery and learn how to quickly get that fan out and clean it regularly, probably whenever you change the tranny fluid. I also found that a K&N air filter did a better job of catching dust because it is oiled, but that also requires frequent cleaning and retreatment, more often than the suggested 50k miles.

The only problem I see for you is the traction control cutting power to the wheels when you'd be better off for them to keep spinning. I also got far better mileage than you are. One night I averaged 74.4 mpg, but that is in FL and eeking out every bit I reasonably could. I regularly got 60-62, and even on more rural routes I was in the 50s. However, you'll probably get better mpg in warmer months. I found that using the heater killed mine, since the engine has to run to keep replacing the heat lost quickly through open windows. I'd suggest trying a 12v seat warmer and leaving the heat off. In time, you'll also learn how to pop a paper in a tube without coming to a complete stop, which will help tremendously on both mileage and wear.