i currently drive a 2003 vw jetta tdi with 213,000 miles on it. i drive 40,000 miles per year (almost all highway) and am debating what to buy for my next car. seems like a prius makes sense as long as the battery doesn't die. looking for comments from those who have driven their prius 150,000+ (more toward 250,000 would be better). any big maintenance issues? how often do you change oil? use synthetic? regular or premium gas? trying to anticipate overall costs for 5 years.
I'm at 168k miles. Had brake actuator replaced around 38k miles, replaced water pump around 100k miles, replace transaxle fluid at 90k miles and 165k miles, radiator fluid changed around 100k and spark plugs replace around there too. oil changes at 10k until I hit about 100k I think then I switched to 5k oil changes. Changed front brakes at 110k i think but it looked like I could've easily went to 200k on originals. Still on original rear brakes.
Even if the traction battery does expire, <$2,500. Contrast that to a transaxle, a motor, etc, in a conventional car My 2004 Prius had nothing beyond routine maintenance, over 150,000 miles. The regenerative brakes mean the pads should last >150,000 miles. It's a good idea to do an early initial service on the cvt, then every 30,000 miles or so. This takes 4 litres of WS fluid, cost of fluid about $30. The 2004-2009 Prius required a conventional 5W-30 oil. I used Mobil 1 0W-20 synthetic. The 2010's require 0W-20. You're supposed to do the oil/filter every 6 months or 5,000 miles
My local NJ Toyota dealer told me that they've never seen the main battery fail yet in any Prius they've serviced, going back to Gen I. You hear stories of Prius taxis going 200K to 300K before needing a battery. Interestingly, the dealer said it would be $3,500 for a new battery, but the battery itself can be purchased from Toyota via the web for around $ 1,800. I can't imagine it's that hard to change. At least not $ 1,700 worth of labor. My Gen II 2004 has 84K and still on orig front and rear brakes that have a ton of life left in them. Of course, highway driving will wear brakes out faster and does tend to lead to warped front rotors, but not so bad!
I drive 35k miles per year. I'm at 179k. Everything is original. I will be replacing the spark plugs, PCV valve, inverter pump, water pump, serpentine belt and all coolant next week. All of this is preventitive maintenance. Nothing has failed yet. Original brakes still have plenty of life left. Traction battery readings are good. If the battery does fail, they are generally availible for $500-800 on ebay. These are generally low mileage batteries from wrecked cars. 200k is just barely broken in for a Gen 2. I assume that the Gen 3 will be just as good if not better.
I drive 40-50K miles per year mostly highway also. The Prius is about as good as it gets for this kind of driving. I purchased mine used last year with 70K miles on it. I'm at 102K now with only scheduled maintenance. My dealer says he is seeing these come in with over 300K now. On the other hand I think most cars manufactured today will make 200-300K provided you keep up with maintenance. Best of Luck to you.
I like this article by Luscious Garage on their blog: Luscious Garage | Blog | 250k Mile Prius Also, regarding battery life from a different article: Luscious Garage | Blog | Hybrid Battery Failure
thank you everyone for your thoughtful comments. i'm strongly leaning toward a prius. i've done the timing belt and water pump on my TDI twice ($500-800+ each time) and also had to get the manifold cleaned ($1200). the transmission is about shot, too. any other experiences with high mileage and highway driving are appreciated. also, how do you like the handling in rain and snow? i live in ohio and we've had some bad snow the past few years. my VW handles great, but sits quite low like the prius.
I would recommend new all weather tires. Many different posts on the forums regarding what works best. My only complaint is at higher speeds (above 60) you can really hear the engine spinning. They say the 2010s are more quiet but my gen2 is very loud and annoying when driving faster.
I'm a big Prius fan, but for your predominantly highway driving, you should consider an HCH-II if a sedan meets your needs. Prius kills it for city driving, but the HCH II probably has a small edge on the freeway. Either would be low maintenance. Just another option.
It depends on the speed you drive on the highway. At 75 MPH, 2010 Prius should give higher MPG than HCH-II.
Cinderfan, I have a 2006 Prius purchased in March 06 that currently has 162,518 miles on it. So I average a tad under 50,000/year. Most of my miles are highway miles of course and I am currently averaging around 48 MPG with Ema. Like others have posted I have done no major work on my car outside of routine maintenance. I have always used dino oil at 5000 miles but if had it to do over would switch to synthetic after the first change. Of course the 2010's are synthetic so that is a good thing. I got about 76,000 miles out of the stock integrities but they are a terrible tire, IMO. I replaced those with Michelin Harmony that are still on the car and at 7/32" the last time I checked a couple weeks ago. Changing the transmission fluid earlier is a good idea from what has been posted with used oil analysis's on this site. I actually didn't change mine until 130K but although it was bad when it came out I have suffered no ill effects <knock on wood>. I plan on changing every 60,000 from now on. The last notes I have on maintenance I was at $5,400 for her in December of 2008 (I need to update that) BUT big BUT that number includes $1,000 or so for Dynamat Extreme sound deadening material & installation, my DICE for iPod, BT tower brace, BT skid plate, BT stiffening plate, the Michelin Harmonies, wipers, air filters, etc... That is probably still a little high for maintenance but I do an alignment check every 20,000 miles and have them do most but sometimes not all of the things at the 30K, 60K, 90K service levels which costs a bit more too. I would expect the 2010's from what everyone is saying to be even better. And if you make mileage on your car think of 150,000 miles times the current rate of $0.55/mile :eyebrows: :cheer2: That's $82,500, LOL so a little maintenance can afford to be paid I think. I would highly recommend the Prius as a high mileage high freeway use vehicle. I would also recommend this site for keeping up with maintenance, upgrades, ideas, etc... for your car as well. This site has a long list of highly knowledgeable people that are very willing to offer suggestions and insights. Thanks guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy driving, Chris
Cinderfan, for a few people the Prius seating is quite uncomfortable, so you need to find out if you're one of them via an extended test drive (possibly through the courtesy of a nearby PriusChat member?). If Prius is comfortable for you, then I think you would find very few cars equally suited for 200k miles of highway driving. If you drive it 'normally' this distance you will burn abot 4400 gallons of fuel. If you put the effort into learning Prius driving skills described here and elsewhere, you could knock about 800 gallons off that. Very, very few cars will provide you with that option.
Depends on where you live. Here in Vermont we call all weather tires "summer tires". No experienced Vermont driver would consider driving without four snow tires.
Without a doubt, appropriate tyres and smart driving make for a good winter car, not the car. A few years in Buffalo NY taught me that. For that storm where you wish you had chains on your tyres, google tyre socks.
I agree. Even more amazing, we have folks around here who try to drive around on "all season" tires at -40, on ice, and wonder why the tires are spinning
