At what point would you stop recommending a Prius?

The title of the thread can imply different things to different people.

Personally ..... I do not recommend any product to a friend ... unless asked. Too many variables.

I agree with Mendel Leish .... it was removed from my short list almost two years ago.

 

Haha! And that's when the Gen 3 fell into favor for me. I never wanted a Gen 3 more until then. And I've had a Gen 3 for over 4 years.

 

OP, I anticipate you can just sell that car in 4 years and take driverless taxis everywhere. I anticipate doing that.

Otherwise..buying any car that is 4-8 year old should cost about the same total cost of ownership to operate every year. That includes depreciation, repairs (I think), gas, etc. I think it's similar if expanded out to encompass 3.5-10 years. So, imo any car in those age ranges that passes my mechanic's inspection, especially 4-8 years old is a sensible buy. !

Between Consumer Reports, Toyota longetivity in general and info here, I think it's reasonable for the Prius to last to 250k miles (as a starting point). I could try to pinpoint that, but I have about 14 years to figure that out. I guess you have about ten years before it's a concern, imo. Pretty long!

IMO, a reasonable approach is to anticipate prius end of life issues and changes in technology, and be a bit ahead of those. ( I have a 2013 with 48k miles.) Based on that, here's what I've been thinking:

2019-2022: If driverless cars (DC's) are cheaper than owning a car (or close enough because then I can do work in a DC/relax/etc), sell the Prius and take taxis everywhere.

2020-2021: See if the 2017 electric cars with 200 mile ranges on the used market are worth trading in for. (They''ll be 3-4 years old, the beginning of the sweet spot). With these cars, you can drive for a few days and then charge then at home....almost never using the ICE (if it has one). One of those may be cheaper than owning my Prius. Especially if the cost of gas goes to $10-20.

2022 or maybe 2023: Consider selling the Prius while it is 9-10 Years old, I.e. before it loses too much value from being very old (though it should be running just fine..).

2025 I.e. at 180k miles (probably in 2028, for you!): If I still own my current Prius, see if it's still running strong, or maybe trade it in..I guess. Honestly, I expect it will be running fine.

2027-2028: At 200k or maybe 220k miles, consider selling the Prius while it still has value based on miles. I.E. since it should still be worth repairing up to 250k miles, I would be selling before the car has so many miles that the new buyer wants to low ball me because he's worried about having a big repair coming up on my prius.

2031: If I stick it out this long (no way!), my Prius will have 300,000 miles and be 28 years old. It won't be the oldest Prius on the road with the most number of miles, since there are Prii on priuschat.com with 400,000 miles and beyond. So I guess this scenario is possible. At that point, who knows! Maybe I'll build a tiny museum for it!

PNB

 

I dont have the time or inclination to get into this conversation. Isn't there something called Common Sense?

 

At the top of the web page there is a link to Unwatch Thread.

 

Thank you.

 

The "common sense" if you feel that way .... is to not open the thread.

I doubt if anyone on PC reads all of the threads. Just skip this one.

 

He didn't know how to do that so I informed him. He is now gone. Back to the nonsense then?

 

Hey, I resemble that remark!

 

My Father always use to say....if you are going to spend 10 000$ on a car ..make sure you have 2 times in saving so you will definitely have power to overcome anything come your way driving car you just purchased.....

 

So, if you are going to spend $30K+ on a Prime, you need $60K+ in the bank??

 

1/3 of my monthly income is my budget...

 

Priuses are pretty good cars.
In fact.....there are very few cars that are cheaper to buy and drive....BUT(!) that presumes that you're going to buy it and drive it long enough to repay you for the added expense of getting a hybrid over a comparable car.
The waters get muddy very quickly when you "compare" one car with another but suffice it to say that if your principle aim is transportation for 4.5 people, then there are a lot of cars that can start out doing that more cheaply than a Prius.

However (comma!)
VERY few people who buy new cars keep them for 15 years.......or even 10.
AND people who buy 10 year old cars have varying abilities in car maintenance and repair.
This means that a $2500 repair bill can easily be performed for much less by a person armed with $100 worth of tools and some Youtube videos. Even something catastrophic - like a transaxle replacement can be done in a home garage for less than $500.
Also, people with tools and a little bit of motivation can perform all of the normal maintenance routines required by cars with 120,000 miles of less much more cheaply than folks who have to take these cars to the dealer.
.
My daily drivers both have over 100,000 miles on them....but I can stroke a check for any repair up to and including replacing the car, so my comfort level with driving an older used car is going to be a lot higher than somebody who is trying to work their way through college.

I'm thinking that Priuses are generally good for about 15 years or about 225,000 miles.
BUT....if you don't have a few thou in the bank or the ability to do your own maintenance you may want to stick with ones with less than 100,000 on the odometer.

Good Luck!

 

Interesting topic. I have been looking into the 2004-2009 Gen 2 Prius for a while now as project type car.

It seems that they have good resale value while they are under 200,000 miles and still driving. The only 2 killer issues are the HV battery and transaxle. If either of these have been replaced on the way to the cut off 200,000 miles the car has a high asking price on a car lot. Private sale seems to be hit and miss with many on here only driving the car a few miles until the warning lights go on and the $$$$ cash register bells start going off.

So for my Prius project I have set a few bench levels for the 2004 to 2009 Gen 2's -

1) Under 150,000 miles with full service history is a class A candidate for a clean up and resale with 2 or 3 years of good motoring before expensive repairs may be required.

2) Under 100,000 miles will cost premium dollars to purchase but should have many years of good motoring with a possible HV battery requirement before the scrap yard.

3) Over 200,000 miles will be a parts only car and "low balling" the only way to purchase.

4) Purchasing a dead Prius will be about $1000 for anything around the 200,000 mile mark and maybe $2000 for one under 100,000 miles but must have Toyota documentation to support the miles traveled.

5) Our personal Prius (2008) will not be sold and kept to just see how far it will go. DIY is no issue for me until I cant hold a spanner (I hope well into my 70's) The car has been owned from new and serviced when required and still drives very well for the miles. They are great cars.

So for me the 2004-2009 Gen 2 Prius has lots of life in them if you can get cheap fixes for the 2 main issues they suffer from. They maybe a little under powered but if driven with a little respect will return great mileage and service.

 

Hello!! Not yet an owner, but I love Prius.

Would you say a Prius 2006 with 84500 miles and not changed battery, for about 6800 dollars is a good deal or it isn't worth it?? For 12500 miles per year, how much does it cost to have a Prius?? Services are expensive??

 

Others with more experience will chime in (I'm a recent used owner),
But I'm hearing oil changes at 7k, brakes at 1800-200k, the two issues above seem important, and that's about it !! I.E. anything else would be the exception and not the rule.
(Am not even sure if the two big issues are common, but obviously they are to be avoided.)

Gas is negligle.
Oh, and just drive. You can't save much money by driving carefully. It's already next to nothing on the gas. I have a thread on that if you search

 

nothing till then? Toyota would like you to service them every 3 years or 30K miles.

 

In Greece????
I have no idea.....

How expensive is gas?
Can you do any of your own service?
This is an 11 year old car......will you be depending on it for daily transportation?
Will you be paying cash and will you have money left over after paying for the car for repairs?

Insurance???
Availability of replacement traction batteries at a reasonable cost?

 

Whups, I forgot about the 12v battery (like, $200). But should do at 4 years, for reasons. (there are threads on that as well as various opinions). Regardless, average $40-50 each year for the periodic 12v replacement.

Overall, for all maintenance and repairs, seems like chicken feed compared to some cars I've driven.

I didn't know about the drive belt. I thought the Prius had no belts.