Its the best and last US version available. They slightly improved the engine’s reliability by then. Toyota did not make many 2017 v’s so they were hard to find in 2017. Now 2020 Prii are hard to find with many dealers having zero on the lot. The hybrid Rav4 pretty much took the v’s place.
Old Here I never owned or operated that Gen or model Prius. So I don't have any specifics. But I would say you're in the right place. I would just spend some time browsing the specific Prius v forum. Reading various threads. If you develop specific questions, you can find the answers here. Off hand, I never read anything "bad" about the model. Maybe it's biggest issue is that it's no longer available. PS. Your post say's 17 Prius v. Your profile says 2018 Prius v.
There are plenty of failure modes on a third gen prius v but the advantage here is its a 2017 with some of the issues like oil burning and inverters improved. Reading through the forum is likely to discourage anyone with the "possible" expensive problems but generally speaking you are in great shape through 150,000 miles and may get 200k without serious issues. Change the oil every 5k and consider doing an egr cleaning at least every 100k (which is expensive other than diy).
2012 Prius v (wagon) owner here. Be aware that the v quite a bit heavier than the liftback. Therefore, I cannot even come close to the MPG I can get with our 2010 liftback. Check the difference on Toyota Prius V MPG - Actual MPG from 1,048 Toyota Prius V owners.
Not too concerned about the MPG - The v is twice the car my Honda fit was, and gets 10 more mpg, I can live with that. My wife was concerned with buying a discontinued model. I am a little concerned also now, hopefully it's a good investment. It only has 40k on it.
We bought a 2015 Prius V with 60k miles about a year ago. We have had nothing but Hondas since 1985 and we have never owned a hybrid vehicle. Nothing to report so far. We have put about 15k miles on it. We just drive it. It replaced a 97 Odyssey that we drove for 21 years and 268,000 miles. The 97 wasn't like the current generation Odyssey, it was a four door station wagon with a 4 cylinder engine. I have always done the routine maintenance on our vehicles. I drive a vehicle until it dies or something fails that I deemed was too difficult for me to repair in my garage. A power steering hose failed. I bought the hose but the nut on the lower end of the hose where it attached to the power steering rack crumbled when I tried to remove it. It meant that I would also have to replace the power steering rack so I knew that it was time to let it go. We began a search for something like the Odyssey. We wanted a small four door, 4 cylinder station wagon. We drive several trips a day of under 10 miles and a few longer trips. This Prius V fit the bill. Even though we got the level 2 (base model) it has so many so many features that didn't even exist 20 years ago. Button start, seven airbags, CD player, bluetooth, more audio modes than we will ever use and keyless door locks. Best of all, while the Odyssey probably got around 30 mpg on the highway, it got about 20 mpg with our driving routine. The Prius V returns around 45 mpg on every tank. I recently changed the oil and filter. The bottom of the engine compartment is covered with a plastic cover to improve aerodynamics. There is a hinged plastic panel door under the engine oil pan and filter that you have to unbutton. Toyota uses a cartridge oil filter that drops into a removable cup. It requires a special wrench to remove the cup. I thought spin-on filters were an industry standard. Having purchased the wrench and done the oil change once it is not a problem, it is just different. If you spend much time on this site, you will read about the EGR cooler service that needs done at about 100k miles. My Odyssey's all required a timing belt/water pump service at 100k miles so we just traded one service for the other. Other than that, you just have to take it a day at a time. Stay safe.
We got our v to replace our Mazda MPV...great van...but the damned thing rusted out like no tomorrow. The v has a *huge* amount of room....especially if you remove the rear seats. We remove the rear seats when we move our daughter to and from college...works great! I also removed the rear seats for a couple road trips my son and I did. Hmm...I think I have a few pics of it somewhere around here...I'll update this post as soon as I find them. Edit : And here it is! Hi all, new Prius v owner | Page 7 | PriusChat
Like I suggested above, its an excellent car with the best hybrid system available. Even buying a new battery at 200k is not a killer if you consider the gallons of gas you did not buy. The vehicle is solid and down here holds up well but we don’t have salt on the road. If we did I would have it undercoated with Fluid Film every couple of years. Bottom line, drive it for 100k-150k more miles and then replace it. Maybe take it to Eric O at South Main Auto in Avoca (also on youtube). FLUID FILM | Powerful Corrosion Protection & Lubrication
