Restoring life to a faithful old Prius

Most of your desired improvements can easily be done yourself... But I'd stay away with spending money on larger wheels and tires and chassis stiffening parts. Way too expensive for an old car. And seeing as you're in Texas you'd be better off buying some lifting pads to raise the car an inch rather than lower it.

If I were you I'd just clean it real good and find a used replacement hood with better paint and invest that $2K on a Toyota hybrid battery upgrade; NexPower Energy pack. They're superior in every way especially during a heat wave when your AC drops your hybrid pack charge down to 3 bars.

This pack is compatible with Gen3 Prius (2010-2015) so you can use it in your next Prius you get years down the road too!

 

I would replace those headlights first - safety item. A pair of TYC's is $132 on RockAuto.com, and that company has a pretty good reputation for fit and quality.

Then try a junkyard for the grill and under body plastic bits. Some of those things, like the fender liners, you can also get at Rock Auto. If you get really lucky at the junkyard you might find a hood and bumper cover with the right colors, and that would probably be cheaper than having a body shop repaint them. On the other hand, if you can bring those parts in loose to the paint shop they might do it for a bit less, since they could just sandblast it them and paint them, which would remove all the labor needed to mask off the car.

I would not mess with the suspension or wheels. It isn't going to look better at a different ride height and the wheels you have look fine in the pictures.

 

You can polish and clear coat those headlights and they'll look near new.

 

There is evidence on here that in sunny hot climates that hybrid battery in the darker colored Prius don't last as long. But it's probably more about how you take care of your car in hot weather than anything else.

 

Having my first darker colored Prius now, any advice on how to take care of it in hot weather?

To the OP: I always dig seeing the old Prii. Wish I had like a 2007 or something sometimes.


2011 Prius w/ solar roof (RIP)
2019 Prius (traded)
2013 Prius
2021 Prius Prime
(In that order)

 

I wouldn't replace the headlights if I were you, just polish them.

The new headlights will yellow fairly quickly.

With a drill polish pad and some Mother's Polish, you could take 5 minutes 1-2 times a year polishing each headlight and they'll look good as new.

The only thing to worry about is if there's damage on the inside of the headlights from heat build up due to the Halogen/incandescent bulbs.

This really isn't fixable and would warrant a replacement with an upgrade to LED or HID bulbs to prevent damage in the future.

HID or LED bulbs don't cause this problem because they run cooler when emitting light.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Keeping the hybrid battery from getting too hot is key... So parking your car all day in full sun with windows rolled up and then jumping into hot Summer rush hour traffic will maximize the heat. Alternatively, parking in the shade, keeping windows slightly down and putting a sun shade on the dash can help. Also the cooling system for battery pack has its intake inside the cabin. So if you have your AC on and keep your cabin temp cool, you're battery pack will stay cool too.

 

I drive cars a long time. What I've done to freshen up a car:

1. Professional detailing - get all of the dirt out of the carpets, shampoo the seats, clay bar the exterior and a coat of wax makes all the difference. They can fix the headlights, too.
2. Replace the mats if needed, that's a relatively cheap upgrade - especially going for all-weather mats, if you're outdoorsy.
3. Catch up on any missing maintenance.
4. A new head unit with bluetooth, a backup camera and modern maps app?