I think the gen 2 prius is the cheapest , decent car you could buy, including running costs. By decent i mean safe (minimum 5 star safety, side airbags, stability control etc) as well as practical, (seating 5 or moving a decent load when required). It is regarded as the cheapest car over 200000 klm to maintain . And you pick up a decent gen 2 itech for $5000. No brainer
If you start measuring TCO from day one, sure... but much of the point of this thread has to do with TCO starting from say, the 10th year of service onwards. Ordinary ICE cars from 10 years ago can still operate close to the same monthly-average TCO as when new, and while not impossible it is less likely to be so with a 10 year old Prius.
Another way of phrasing my post could have been "if the Prius total cost of ownership were high, the car would not have ended up as well-placed on low-TCO lists as it has". The way I did phrase it is fairly idiomatic, as "didn't get here by being stupid", or, generally, "didn't (some accomplishment) by (lacking what it takes)", common in American movies and such, usually spoken by some hardbitten old character with dry humor. The graphic in the linked article makes that seem a bit of a rose-colored claim even for the gassers: So far, I've never bought a Prius younger than seven years nor sold one younger than sixteen, and in that age range I've found them to beat the TCO of other cars I've known. Yes, my current one could beep tomorrow and have some outlying, expensive-part failure. Even so, it would have to be very expensive to eat up as much as I haven't been losing to maintenance expense, month after month.
@ChapmanF The first chart you posted doesn't include data on years 10-20. The second one does include that time period, but doesn't differentiate between brands and models or even powertrain types. Entirely possible that hybrids are pushing up those tents on the upper-right quadrant. Additionally I give you credit for being smarter than the average used-Prius shopper. I would expect you to have a better-than-average experience.
Wait, what first chart I posted? I think the first thing I posted was a link to an article with several tables and charts in it; the second thing I posted was one of the charts found in the article. Yes, the TCO tables in that article are for years 0 to 10. Yes, "past performance is no guarantee of future results". But so far my elderly-Prius experience suggests that it doesn't suddenly leap away from its low-TCO place on the spectrum, either. I guess the one thing to keep in mind as a used-Prius shopper is you're looking for one that isn't being sold because some expensive failure just actually happened. As long as you're just playing the odds of an elderly Prius in general developing some issue (and not buying the particular Prius that's being sold because the issue already developed), the prospects should be pretty good. By the way, my first Prius (Gen 1, bought at 8 sold at 16 after a crash) was a complete impulse purchase, I had no clues what to check for. I didn't find PriusChat until after buying it. It was a peach.
My '04 Prius has over 222,000 miles and is going strong. The rear hatch is prone to break after years of usage ($500). And the tires and structs were replaced for about $800. The FOB should NOT be lost, broken or worn out. A local tech center refurbished the main battery for $5.00! The oil gets changed once a year or 25,000 miles with Amsoil 5W-30 100% synthetic Signature Series oil. The car wouldn't sell for much, so we kept it when we bought a 2018 Prius Prime. Mechanics say the 2nd Gen Prius is highly dependable and cheap to maintain. And this goes for most all Prius models. I agree! After 15 years, I am seriously thinking of having the EGR valve replaced.
I replaced the front bearing (only $75 a pair on amazon) at 145k on my 2014 - prev owner (uber driver) said left side made noise and sure enough the wobble at speed went away. Pretty cheap if you do it yourself...
funny thing is that I saw one on craiglist listed with 550k miles that was maybe 3 years old for a couple thousands! the add was all in spanish and did say yeah more than half a million miles, not an error. Makes you wonder if they drove back and forth between bay area and mexico non stop everyday! some impossible mileages, maybe a mule
Wow readings tt has me worrying about the Prius I’m purchasing from mother n law... Her husband recently passed away... I’m buying his 2011’ with 107k miles... Excellent condition I’d say for $6800... cheapest one I can comp it to in my area is $8000+ and those usually have 20k more miles!
We have had 4 Prius's over the years and never a problem with any of them. 2 of them went well beyond 200,000 miles and were running fine when we upgraded to a newer one. All were gen 3's 2 -2010, 1 2011, and 1 2014 which we still have, All were well maintained ,12 Volt batteries last 5 years, tires about 40 kmi, some Early wheel bearings we replaced. That was it. The Hybrid battery fear is not an issue now, replacements are $600 in the Boston area and they will come to your place to swap it out , should you ever need one. CU rates them as the most reliable ever over all the years they have been recording repairs. Check the April CU Auto issue.
We just a head gasket blow on an 2010 w 250k. Hybrid Battery was dead and changed at 225k. that seems to be the magic number in our fleet of 17 Prius.... My experience shows that's a good time to replace shocks and struts too. If you wanted to avoid doing repairs I'd recommend selling just before that.... And don't buy one with that many miles.
