Time to move on from our 2011

Well, our 2011 Winter Gray Metallic Prius level 3 has given us 138K pretty much trouble free miles, and we have decided to move on to something new before serious problems start coming up (water pump, head gasket, brake booster, hybrid battery, etc.).

Today, we put a deposit down on a 2025 Toyota Crown Signia (hatchback) hybrid XLE AWD in Oxygen White. This vehicle, according to our salesperson, replaced the Toyota Venza hybrid that Toyota brought back briefly.

It's a very nice vehicle, the main drawback for me is it doesn't come with a spare wheel/tire, it comes with a tire kit. I'm going to check out under the rear cargo area after delivery to see if there is any way to carry a spare wheel/tire.

 

No 2024 Venzas available, except a Nightshade edition.

We don't want to deal with a black car.

We are going to look up the Kelly blue book price for the Prius, but we are also thinking about donating the car and taking the tax credit.

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Actually, the Nightshade for sale was black, with just under 10K on the odometer. Selling for over $41K.

Yes, the Crown Signia is like a long wagon. Lower ground clearance than a crossover. Even the windows have minimal factory tint on the rear windows, not the dark tint found on utility vehicles like the 4Runner, etc. Toyota classifies the Crown Signia as a sedan/wagon not a utility vehicle.

Toyota discontinued the Venza again, 2024 was the last model year.

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Still waiting on delivery of the Crown Signia, and I've been reading a bit of the owners manual I downloaded.

The recommended oil viscosity on the 2.5L Atkinson engine is... 0w-8!!!

Jeez, I thought 0w-20 was thin, and 0w-16 was getting ridiculous, but wow.

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Here in Hawaii, we have to deal with a "middleman", namely Servco, who has exclusive sales rights on Toyota, Lexus, and Subaru vehicles.

Unfortunately, as exclusive dealers, they rarely sell vehicles under MSRP, and all of their parts are marked up about 33% as well. They know that shipping costs from the mainland US will be expensive, so they get away with ripping us off.

So, IMO it would be pointless to post the "deal or OTD price paid" on our vehicle in a public forum.

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Yes, we were in a similar situation with our 2011 Prius hatchback. We wanted to move on to something else before major repairs started to become necessary.

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Update, posted the 2011 Prius in good condition with 143,XXX miles at $5000 but got no responses.

Dropped the price to $3,500 and had one inquiry from a female, who eventually decided against meeting up to see the car. Which kind of relieved me TBH, because I was morally battling with myself about if I should be warning her off purchasing the car with some of the potential problems down the road.

The plan, then was to donate it to charity and take a tax deduction.

Ultimately, we have decided to keep the Prius and use it while it is still running problem free. We will drop the collision and comprehensive insurance on it to lower the cost of carrying the insurance on the car. I will use it as my daily driver to keep my current vehicle miles down as much as possible because I have recently piled on a lot of miles driving my elderly father to his many medical appointments.

Who knows, with the installed oil catch can, perhaps the Prius can make it to 200 to 300K trouble free miles. I already have a spare EGR cooler, water pump, and thermostat sitting on standby.

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I swapped the EGR cooler and EGR valve at 120K. I took out the OCC a week ago when I was going to sell the car. The intake manifold and EGR pipe was pretty clean, just a light coating of black oil that was easily wiped off.

When I reinstalled the OCC yesterday, after only a week, and being driven a few days without the OCC, the intake manifold had a coating of oil around the intake and small egr passages already.

That's why I feel that the OCC really helps keep the oil out of the combustion cycle, so carbon formation is kept much lower, hopefully keeping the oil control rings on the pistons from seizing. But I have an unconventional micromesh filter setup in my OCC, which I think does much better than normal OCC setups at removing oil, especially in mist form.

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