I decided to move on. I owned my 2015 Prius V three for about 6.5 years, purchased as a replacement for my 2005 Vibe (which I probably would have kept longer if it was an automatic transmission). Overall, I've really enjoyed the car as has my family. I didn't put on a lot of miles since I live only 2 miles from work and bike most days, but I enjoyed most of those years. So, my final tally of pros and cons for me and my uses. Pros Fuel economy: I averaged about 40 mpg overall. Space: Plenty of space for our family of 5 (we're on the shorter side, so we fit well). The V has a larger interior and more trunk space than the Vibe, with better fuel economy. A win-win for sure. Spacious trunk: I didn't love the high deck, but it could hold quite a bit. Built in navigation: We do a fair amount of adventures away from civilization, and I liked the built in navigation. However, these days I use google maps more because I downloaded the maps for offline use, and google maps usually picks much better routes (oddly, you'd think it'd be more up-to-date, but google maps frequently has the wrong speed limit). No glitches: The touch screen only glitched twice in 6.5 years (went blank). No noticeable programming glitches which is great (our Sienna has some minor glitches). Proximity sensor & push start: I love it. Keys stay in pocket, so easy when I'm carrying too much stuff. The car is smart enough to not let me lock my keys in the car. I did this in our CR-V once at a fairly remote campsite. We had no cell service, but fortunately the campsite office was still (barely) open. I did learn that it takes AAA about 30 seconds to break into a car. Cost has been relatively low. Cost per month was $145 including sales tax paid on car, all repairs needed (though I did the work myself, so that lowered my costs a lot), replacement tires. Cons Fuel economy: The V is under-powered. Take a gen 3 platform, and stick a larger, heavier body on it. The engine worked very hard going up hills and would barely accelerate, and A/C on full blast killed fuel economy ... when running, the engine worked too hard. Noise noise noise: What a noisy car. My Vibe was as bad, but I added a bunch of sound deadening because I was doing a lot of trips between upstate NY area and Boston at the time that made a huge difference. I have to lean back and tell my kids to speak louder in the Prius V on highway. So ... freakin' .... loud. Rust: So far, most of my repairs are due to rust. Hatch gas strut, brake dust shields, driver side rear brake caliper pins, passenger side parking brake, cross brace. At least the frame didn't split in 2 like Tacomas lol, but this car isn't even 10 years old yet! New car (and our Sienna when it gets a bit warmer as it's single digits/teens this week) is getting fluid film every year. HVAC controls. I hate that single dial. Built-in navigation: Slow to respond to entering data. Touch a letter and there's a small, but very noticeable delay. Plus, it's chosen routes were frequently no the best. Upcoming EGR maintenance. No temperature gauge: It's cold up here ... I'd like to know when the car is warm enough to turn the heater on, and I don't like auto because I want to determine how fast the fan is or is not going. I just picked up a hybrid AWD Maverick to replace the V. Our Sienna is our people hauler, and the Maverick will be our gear hauler as my wife, who homeschools our boys, takes them on plenty of adventures. The awd pickup will be perfect for them going off the beaten path, with the bed for kayaks and gear, while giving up little in fuel economy for most driving conditions other than highway (40 mpg city vs 43 for the V ... that's a small reduction for a much larger vehicle with awd). I wish you all many miles of clear EGRs, solid head gaskets, and minimal rust Overall, I really enjoyed my V. I will miss it overall.
Enjoy your new family ride. My son really enjoyed his 2015 Prius V and traded it for a 2023 RAV4 Prime XSE as a replacement. If the trips with gear are relatively short, perhaps a PHEV might have been a good choice while still getting decent fuel economy. . I recently replaced my totaled 2017 Prius with a 2025 Camry Hybrid XLE so I may be leaving here soon too. There is only one Camry thread and it has not had any activity in months.
I looked at the RAV4, but then cablegate scared me away. Toyota's fix really is no fix at all. We have significant salt applications up here, and a $6k-8k cable that Toyota initially tried to brush it under the 3k/36k mile warranty is just a no-go. In reality, a pickup works for us right now, and Ford is the only one who offers a viable compact, hybrid pickup with decent fuel economy. I've heard rumors of Toyota maybe producing something similar, but I don't want to wait years for that to occur. In my mind, the best part is I feel the Maverick will work great for my wife. She grew up with all females, but has embraced and loves the boy mom life. I feel that she and our boys will love the additional flexibility of more storage room, awd, and greater ground clearance. Plus, we're short and so have no desire to try to get kayaks off the roof of a Rav4 or Sienna. Plus #2, now I don't have to jam logs into Sienna for our wood stove....you can only fit so much in the back of the Sienna before it sits too low, and it makes a mess in the interior.
Only 84k. I got it with 31k miles. Though miles per year are increasing as our kids get older, are in additional co-ops and are doing more activities.
South Main Auto (YouTube independent mechanic) is in upstate New York: rust is a fact of life with most everything he works on.
I certainly agree with that. But, my benchmark for my con is my '03 Corolla & '05 Vibe, and the '13 CR-V we had too.. I tried to maintain the Prius better than my Corolla, Vibe, & CR-V with car washes after snow and salt to keep it cleaner/clearer of salt, whereas I never once bothered with the Corolla, Vibe, or CR-V. It wasn't until after the Corolla or Vibe were over 10 years old that I started having noticeable rust issues, and the CR-V underpinnings were fairly clean when traded-in with much less rust. The Prius was around 8 years old when issues caused by rust started to show up and it was better maintained overall, so it just seemed to have much lower rust protection than the other 3 cars.
Even in lower mainland BC (Vancouver), I was dismayed by the rust progress on our 2010. Previous Hondas had been much better. I've heard some rust-preventing coatings that were previously used are now discontinued, in particular on nuts and bolts. Still, stuff like the rear axle seems have gotten one purely cosmetic coat of regular paint, just enough to look pretty on the showroom floor. The rear solid axle, trailing arm, stabilizing bar, all the bolts, whatever, all developed rust bloom fast. Someone here suggested boiled linseed oil. I tried it, by hand, applied with brush and rags, and it's stood up very well. I did one end at a time, take the wheels off, remove plastic panels for access, and basically look where it's rusting, apply it there. I've done everyting (roughly) twice now, over the last decade, and it's been sufficient. We do try to reduce travel during the "salt months", wash the underside when it warms up, and the car's garage stored. Helps immensely being reitired, you can just sit out the messiest days.
These days, Toyota considers cars ad disposable. I wonder what subscription options will be on my 2025 Camry when the 10 year subscription runs out. Does that mean they expect me to throw it away?
