Money money money

Are you replacing the battery with a brand new battery from a Toyota dealer?

How many miles on your Prius?

Good luck with the battery swap .

 

these are the threads i point to when people claim prius is cheaper to operate than some gas ecoboxes.

 

Very new Prius owner here. I may be wrong, but I'm learning that if one wishes to keep their Prius long-term, it would probably be wise to have a "car repair fund" savings account in place.

 

I totally disagree Bisco... Do the math before making your claim. If you added up all the money you spent on gas on a Prius and double it, that's amount a regular car would of cost in gas alone not counting repair costs... Repair cost are way smaller than the amoun of money saved if you drive significant miles.

For example: in 2012 I bought an '07 with 105K miles on it and have driven it an additional 125K miles with no major repair costs. At 50mpg at $3 a gallon that's $7,500 in gas in a Prius, or $15K in a regular crap pure gas nitrogen poison engine car. With numbers like that I could buy a second '07 Prius with 100K miles on it with just the money I saved in gas... And if I ever have to replace my hybrid pack, that's way, way, cheaper than the money I saved with that battery. Totally worth it!

 

gas price and miles driven are definitely key. but we're missing two metrics:

1) fleet miles

2) total repair costs

basically it comes down to the individual. and the only way you'll know if you saved money is after the fact.
some get lucky, and some don't, but it is not a given.

 

and of course, dealer service, private mechanic and diy will also make a huge difference.

 

I always say that the Prius won't save you money.

But I will definitely decrease your fuel consumption compared to other vehicles.

 

and there are so many benefits that go along with that.

 

So I buy a Prius with 105K miles on it and drive it for an additional 125K with no repair cost other than oil, filters, some bulbs and some free recalls and those basic facts are still too a priori for you and I have to wait for a posteriori? Are you serious? I've saved enough in gas alone to replace the vehicle entirely and you stick your a posteriori at me to bolster your failed argument? Why don't you just admit you're wrong for a change?

 

we can agree to disagree, but you haven't proven anything except your individual experience, which i already conceded.

your example is after the fact, is it not?

a 200,000 mile pri with no major repairs may be a unicorn, or it may be common. how can we find out?

 

It appears sometimes that you are slightly anti-prius according to your comments. Comments such as "Get a Corolla" or "Dump the Prius" could be misleading. My experience has been overly positive so far. Do you have any major cost that you have encountered while owning your Prius?

 

I had no major cost on my 2008 Prius and traded it in with 108,000 miles and there was nothing wrong with it.
I had all the fuel savings for all those years 10 to be exact.
Say whoever bought my old car drives it another 100,000 and it either is trouble free relatively or it may need a new HV battery.
I had the advantage with the car buying it new, buying it used lets face it, it is a Pig in a Poke.

 

But, I do appreciate both positive and negative opinions. It helps tremendously at decision time.

 

i am on my third prius.
my neighbor has my 2004, with 150k, no issues.
my daughter has my 2008, 110k, no issues.
my pip has 60k, no issues. (other then the pile of recalls i have to attend to at some point)

my concerns are from spending 13 years here, reading and responding to others concerns.
in a perfect world, a prius would save you money, but alas, it is not perfect. however, i always offer many other good reasons to drive one, but many do not care about the environment, or geopolitical issues, only saving money.

when someone new comes here, says they have a limited budget, don't know anything about cars, but want to buy an old prius, i'm concerned that they might have one of those expensive repairs we see here, however infrequent they might be. or that they will have a problem and have to go to a dealer because there are no hybrid mechanics near them.
perhaps i am overly cautious, but i think it would be a disservice to the readers to only hear good experiences, when we see horror stories here everyday.