Buying decision - Prius vs Corolla - Reliability

OP:

If I remember the numbers correctly (taking the all important opportunity costs into account), a cost analysis is probably a toss-up for the sort of situation you describe, and depends on luck and assumptions. If I were you and presumably had no particular affinity to either car, I'd just shop local for a lightly used car and choose the best offer around. I was at the Toyota dealer today checking out the '2010. They had one used Prius '05 with 75k miles listed at $17k, and another '08 Prius with 40k miles listed at $18k. It made me think a private used car sale would be about $15k.

Sagging economy and (relatively) low fuel prices make this a really good time to buy either model. I'll finish with a wild guess: You are more likely to be correct about rising fuel prices, than actually being in the same job for 10 years.

Anyway, all the best. You have narrowed down to two good choices.

 

If you currently have a 16 years old car and you are purely going for the economic of owning a car... wouldn't buying a 3-5 years old car be the best for you?

If you must get a new car and the cost of ownership for a Corolla and Prius are about the same (with a few thousand), get the car that you like better. Think ahead in 10 years which car you would be satisfy with owning.

The answer to me is Prius because it is 10 years ahead of it's time.

 

I'm curious if OP used the same methods I do to compare costs. If we start with the only difference being acquisition cost and fuel, then a breakeven point for a Prius premium over a Corolla is easy to find:

I assume,
The Corolla will use 50% more fuel based on 35 and 52 mpg for the C and P, respectively
10 year, 250k mile life and use
5% annual opportunity cost
$4/gallon fuel

...
Each extra dollar spent on the Prius on day #1 is worth 1.05^10 = 1.63 future dollars.
Monthly fuel savings are $80. Ten year future value is $12,422

So back to acquistion cost, breakeven will be $12,422/1.63, or $7620. In case this number's meaning is not clear ... A Prius that costs $7620 more to buy than a Corolla will end up costing the same 10 years and 250k miles later.

From here just use ratios for different scenarios. E.g., if you want to assume $5 fuel then breakeven will be 25% more. If you want to use different mpg assumptions, figure out the monthly savings, and again apply a ratio against the $80/$12,422 I provided.

Have fun, and merry shopping

 

Belts are a normal maintenance item. Alternators and starters usually last at least 150k, and arguably, they are a normal maintenance item to some people.

Still, the Prius has more things that could potentially go wrong. However, as we have seen so far, the Prius has been very reliable.

 

I bought a 3 year old Prius instead of a new Corolla, I paid the same money I would have paid for a new Corolla. I saved $11,000 Australian for letting someone else drive the car for the first 60,000 kilometres of its life. I now have over 120,000km on it after 3 years of ownership. My car is still worth about $20,000AU of the $25,000 I paid for it. The previous owner dropped over $11k in 3 years/60,000km I dropped only $5k in 2 years/60,000km and most of my loss has been due to falling fuel prices and a flailing global economy.

My maintenance costs so far?
6 oil changes I did myself. Corolla needs oil changes too.
4 tyres. I wouldn't have needed these for the Corolla yet but it would come sooner or later. I've never sold a car with bald tyres.
A $25 fix of my MFD using information from Prius Chat I did most of the work myself. Post 2006 models don't have this issue due to a redesigned circuit board in the MFD.
That's it, warts and all.

Get yourself a good used 2007/8 Prius, you won't regret it.