Being an old-school DIYer, I've always found a service manual is a good early purchase with a new car. The price of the Toyota service manuals is more than a bit steep, so which of the "aftermarket" manuals (Chilton, Haynes or Bentley) have folks found to be clearer and/or more complete? ... any preferences? thanks.
Here's the url for the Bentley Manual on Amazon, I wouldn't even consider the Haynes or Chilton manuals. http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/0837615534?tag=priuschatcom-20 is $44.07 and free shipping.
Note that Toyota has a subscription website where you can download technical information including repair manuals. The price is $10 for one business day access or $50 for one month access. The Prius repair manual is ~4,000 pages, and it is not a trivial task to download the hundreds of associated .pdf files. However, you can also download tech training info and the New Car Features manual which provides substantial theory of operations not found in the repair manual. If you decide to go this route, download the 2004 NCF plus the NCF for succeeding years up to your model year, so that you can see the changes from year to year. techinfo.toyota.com I agree that the Bentley manual is the best "third party" choice.
I've got to second the choice of Bentley manuals. As a former VW-Audi owner I've had Bentley manuals for every other car I've owned. They are often a better choice than the Factory manuals which can be a bit ..um... would obtuse be a the right word? I've got my Bentley Prius manual on order!
I have an All Data subscription for my Toyota's. It's almost as current as Techinfo. Downside is browser-based, unless you use software to convert to pdf The All Data appears to be exact copies of Techinfo procedures, including current TSB's.
