Honest opinion. Is this a bad idea? High mileage job

What's the job you are considering ?

What jobs have you done since January?

What is the history of your Prius?

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

A Prius is a major mile absorber; better than just about anything. In theory you've got the ideal car for that task.

What's the dealer been charging you for? Every car needs maintenance, maintenance costs something and dealership maintenance is the highest-priced kind, but it still seems steep.

 

depends on what the job pays. a qualified inspector should make decent money.

a prius at 118k only required oil and filters and tires to this point. what repairs have they done?

at 120k, you're going to be looking at a couple grand at the dealer

 

If you can find a local independent mechanic who knows how to repair and maintain a Prius, your charges might be slightly lower due to lower overhead. We all would need to know what type of repairs have been done since January.

 

I think I see what's going on- you appear to be trusting the dealer to tell you what the car needs, and they're helping themselves to your wallet along the way. It's likely more maintenance than your car needs but you probably have other uses for those dollars.

Take the time to find your original owners' manual, find the recommended maintenance section. Identify the next likely interval for service. Take note of the actual procedure indicated. Then when you go in, you ask for that specific procedure.

If you continue to go back and order from the "mileage menu" they will continue to eat you alive. When they ask your odometer reading and then point at that overhead display, that's the trap swinging closed.

Also, find a neighborhood mechanic. Local friends & family recommendations count heavily here. Oil changes do not need to be done at dealership prices. Same goes for lots of work. You kind of want to be in the position where you take it to the cheaper guy first, and when he says he can't handle it is when you make an appointment at the dealer.

 

I've never had my 2014 Prius to a dealer since driving it off the lot brand new. My local mechanic, who's worked on all my cars for early 30 years, has never run into an issue he couldn't handle (yet). I agree with LJM (above), find a good local mechanic, and stay away from the dealer.

 

You got good car advice above, now some job advice.

You’re driving 30k miles a year for a job that pays $40k. Those are not good numbers.

The good news is that as an independent contractor you can deduct those miles @ 57.5 cents per mile. That’s a $17,250 deduction.
In theory, that $17,250 is really just money you paid out in travel expenses. (car payments, gas, oil, maintenance, insurance, etc.)

With your car, you’re probably still coming out ahead because the fuel efficiency and relative low maintenance costs.

If you can do one or two more inspections per day, and then take the other advice given in this thread to decrease your vehicle maintenance costs, your numbers start to look much better.

I agree with @Leadfoot J. McCoalroller your Prius is the ideal car for this job, if you can have it maintained somewhere other than the dealer.

Good luck!

 

Sounds like you and your dealer both are trying to make a good living with your Prius.

You have one of the better cars for your job - probably one of the BEST.
You just need to go to the University of PriusChat and unshackle yourself from the dealers service department.

Start reading in this forum for an hour or two a night for any post that mentions Dealer and DIY, and watch some YouTube vids.


Good Luck!

 

I agree with TVpierce. Since I have been furloughed off my regular job, I have been doing real estate appraisal work. The trick is not to just keep accepting work as they email it to you, its to select jobs that make sense for your distance and time. You will get slammed with too many assignments that actually cost you too much time. Also, all your tools are complete write offs!! Laptop, software, measuring devices, cameras, oil changes, tires.........you get my drift. It may not look like you are making money, but you stand to get a huge refund if your taxes are done correctly.

 

The most important part of the equation was left out; income bracket. If you make over $100,000 then the most recent repairs won't even put a dent on your overall finances on the terms that you're not heavily in debt therefore you can always move up on car conveniently when ever you want. If you make less than $40,000 and still making payments and if those repairs are revolving, I'd save up for reliable car & get rid of the prius soon as I can. The good thing is that the repairs done were long term parts and not to be revisited every 5,000 or 10,000 mile interval maintenance, half of the fixes were the typical 100,000 mile items. I drive 2,100 miles a month and been doing for the last 2 years, I'm a essential worker so mine is still running back and forth with wear & tear during this time. I won't give out job career advice yet even though I once worked as a job career coach, there's not enough background information of what you've done professionally prior to what your doing. In other words we can't guide you to another direction if we don't know where you've been, jobs you want to avoid and where you want to go.

 

With that mileage It's very likely that the EGR system has some carbon buildup in it if not completely plugged up. Before putting lots of highway miles on your car I'd clean out that system for another 100k miles. It'll then give you better gas mileage and help keep the engine from overheating. The parts to clean are the EGR cooler, the EGR, the EGR tube, and the intake manifold.

There are different ways to get this done. You can take the parts off yourself and clean them, or buy used parts and clean them, or brand new parts. If there's no way to swap parts yourself I'd find a trustworthy independent shop to take it to.

While you're doing this a PCV catch can will help keep the intake manifold clean and prevent the common startup knock issue.

 

don't ignore anything. car should get an inspection every 5k, somewhere. rotate tires. oil and filter every 10k, cabin filter inspect/clean/replace every 15k, air filter inspect/clean/replace every 30k, etc. but yes, you can reset it.

find your maintenance schedule and follow it. try to find an indy mech if you can.

 

your list of work above looks fine to me except the chain tensioner leak, that was a ripoff. 4 oil changes in 118k doesn't sound right though.

if they did plugs, you're due for all fluids soon.

any car would need what you have put into service so far, and brakes times 3.

 

what tires are you getting? they are semi important

 

good tires iirc. i think there is a thread here.

i would follow the maintenance schedule for brake flush and all other maint.

 

For me, every 5k maintenance is checking everything: fluid levels, filters, tread wear, etc. Every 10k maintenance is oil/filter, checking everything again, then any longer interval replacement items (per the manual).