PriusChat is the best sales tool Toyota has!

I suspect a pre-requisite for sales-people is a healthy dose of ignorance. I get so frustrated when I go searching for cars - when my product knowledge far exceeds the entire showroom of sales staff.

Real Estate is similar, but honesty is even worse:

 

Welcome.

We have some people that pull the cars apart too, either mathematically or physically.

One member here is putting a Firebird convertible body on a Prius v, making it a hybrid.

Feel free to ask any questions.

 

Now that's funny, right there!!!

 

You should continue to hang around here now as a bonafide owner/member.

 

welcome! all the best.

 

Welcome from me also. In the past there has been some good dealership people here. There was a gal from Ca. Dianne I think (I apologize if I got that wrong). Troy from a dealer in Ma. was one of the original people here and gave Prius Chat members a great price on extended warranties, and even the Prius team (a factory group) right around the time the Gen3 came out that gave some good information. Not sure if they even exist anymore. But your right the local dealers seem to po,po Prius Chat. It's there loss.

 

Definitely true...
one reason to get a Prius is you have PriusChat to help on any repairs or roof racks stuff like that.

 

What! No mention of us putting the world back the way it really should be. Your right, a small omission.

 

The profit center is the service shop, not the sales floor. If everyone knew how to diagnose and fix their car it would be bad for business.

 

And the dealer knows hybrids generally need less service.

 

I was under the impression that the maintenance costs were actually higher than non-hybrids.

In reply to the subject of this thread. I would agree this place is a huge asset to Prius owners. Sort of like a "club" on a worldwide level. But it does scare me at times. I'm more of a "browser" here than a poster. Find myself daily reading over the new posts. In the last year and a half, I've honestly found myself worrying about my darn High Voltage battery. Yeah, I know that's ridiculous and they typically last the life of the car, but wow there are a lot of people here with blown out High Voltage batteries. I'd drive my Prius C for 200k if I could, but will it last that long? The more I read, the more I sort of doubt it will.

 

The frequency of repairs is less due to design. The parts needed for major repairs will be more expensive if new dealer service is used. There are usually alternatives though. The car needs to be properly maintained though. Some people are adding items to extend the life of the vehicle.

Toyota designed the car for 150K miles in my opinion. Many people successfully extend the car beyond that point which is where much of the high ticket repairs originate.

 

It's generally thought of as long lasting, and relatively low maintenance. TAXIs are getting extraordinary kilometers with relatively few failures of any sort.

The traction battery has an 8 or 10 yr warranty. The transaxle has far fewer wearing parts than either a conventional, Dual Clutch or belt drive CVT, and, unlike the last 2 I mentioned, is expected to last the life of the car with only occasional fluid changes - it is based on a simple planetary gearset and 2 Motor Generators.

Brakes, apart from fluid changes will likely last the life of the car.

And the petrol engine only runs maybe 70% of the time, has no starter motor, a/c, alternator or Power Steering belts, and is relatively unstressed, as the motor-generators provide much of the drive.

 

Nobody knows. Only time will tell, but if you look after it your chances are good.

 

I have a son who's a Honda Tech (Master tech), and a brother who's a GM Tech (also Master Tech). Either of them generally take care of any maintenance/repair needs of our family. So that stuff doesn't scare me. It's the High Voltage battery - stupid expensive and how to get the longest life out of it I don't know. Other than driving normal, not letting it sit in a low state of charge on these single digit temp nights, I don't know what else can be done. I'd do a "Prolong" charger, but sure as heck, we'd screw something up and throw codes all over the place. So if that ever happens, it'll be after the warranty expires.

Truth be told and I hate to say this because I really like my "C", but I'd love to sell it and get myself a simple Civic or something. Most of the cars I've had since I was a teenager (was always a Nissan man, even though I worked at a Toyota/GM Dealership), but those things went 200k+ miles and all I ever did was belts, brakes, hoses, fluid changes. Never a single major repair. Not even so much as an alternator or water pump. When the High Voltage battery dies on me, it's $3000.00... It's kind of depressing, because when/if I dump that much cash on a new battery, I'll never get my money back in fuel savings for it.

At least that's how I feel and what worries me. Hope it's all for not though.

 

Welcome!

 

On the Prius there are no belts, the brakes and the brakes & hoses are used a lot less due to regenerative braking & the hybrid system.

 

You saw my reference!
That is a pretty unique Prius in your picture.

Firebrid: The Prius v Powered Hybrid Convertible | PriusChat

 

You almost certainly won't have to ever replace your Traction battery.

PRIUSs go well over 200,000 miles - with NO Brake or belt changes (there are PRIUS with 800,000+kms whatever that is in miles).

TOYOTA has built into the charge/regen/re-charge system plenty of safe-guards. For instance, it won't/can't discharge past a minimal figure (or over-charge too) - the figure you see on the meter on the dashboard isn't really the REAL figure, just the amount which TOYOTA allows you to use. That's why they put a 10 year warranty. And a warranty is an indication that a gadget/machine will last maybe 2-3 times that length of time.

A "simple" CIVIC isn't as simple as a Civic used to be - all cars are getting extremely complex chasing better MPG/l/100km, all run by complex computer systems, and most with almost no clearance for even small hands to get in to do simple maintenance.