Monthly maintenance cost for Prius?

I've had mine for almost 2 months now. No issues to speak of so far. I'll have my first oil change in about 2k miles.

 

I change the oil and rotate the tires myself on my '02 - that is all the car ever needs, well a tiny bit of gasoline too

 

We bought our 2006 on Jan. 7th. At this time we have about 3100 miles on him. I already bought the oil filter and Mobil 1 oil for the 1st oil change, and I'm doing it. I will not pay some shop to change my oil & filter. I'm a good back year mechanic for many years. The Toyota dlr. won't make much off me. I also am an excellent record keeper and put all receipts in the file just in case someone wants proof. I also keep a maint. log on each vehicle in the computer.

The Prius appears to be a low maint. vehicle which is great.

 

Our 2005 Prius, before doing everything myself, averaged to about $10/month. Now, it will be significantly less than that.

 

I'm planning to spend about $12 to 15 bucks every 45 days to do my 5000 mile oil changes myself.

Otherwise, I don't have any plans to spend any money.

I'll rotate my tires at 7500 or 10,000 miles... eventually, I'll check the air filter..

 

After 36,000 miles... oil and filter every 5,000 miles and one air filter replacement.

During 24,000 miles, my previous car, a 2002 GTI had gone through the same plus one battery replacement, one gas pump replacement and two replacements for the window lift mechanisms.

 

Not counting toys (like the mods), I've spent a little over $150 since April '05. That was for two oil changes done at the dealer and one to have a tire that had a leak fixed.

It's hard to tell from so short a time since the car has been out. My last car required more in maintenance, but that was toward the end of my ownership when the car had about 193K miles on the clock.

 

Monthly maintenance cost is what Consumer Reports should use as part of the comparison between vehicles. When readers can see what factors into vehicle ownership, costs become more "true."

 

I just turned 20,000 miles. Did the fours scheduled services by the book using my own mechanic. He charged about $40 each on the lesser services--5K, 10K, and 20K. And a little over $80 on the 15K intermediate level service. To take it to the dealership, even with their "specials" I would have been looking at +$120 for the minor and +$180 for the intermediate.

About $200 for 2 years and 20,000 miles of driving. Lots of life on the tires and brakes still too. Outside of doing it all yourself, I think it would be hard to do much better than that.

 

27 months, 35,000 miles, 6 oil chamges w/filter, 1 cabin air filter, 1 engine air filter. Costs $176.45. Did it all myself, 2 trips to a dealer for recalls.

 

The actual cost of gasoline is $11 per gallon.

Lester R. Brown (Worldwatch Institute, Plan B): Part of that cost is being deferred; part is being paid now. The study that I cite is the most detailed one I've seen. It parallels the methods of the study the Centers for Disease Control did on (the) social cost of smoking cigarettes. The costs to society of smoking a pack of cigarettes they calculated at $7.18. And they included two costs: the cost of treating smoking-related illnesses and the cost of lost worker productivity from those illnesses.

In the case of the cost of a gallon of gas, they included a number of costs: the cost of treating respiratory illnesses, the damage from acid rain and climate change. And that's a very difficult thing to do. There's a quote by Oystein Dahle close to a decade ago now, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He was for many years Exxon's vice president for Norway and the North Sea. He said, "Socialism collapsed because it did not allow the market to tell the economic truth. Capitalism may collapse because it does not allow the market to tell the ecological truth." That's a lot of wisdom distilled into those two sentences.

We need to know the true cost of operating a vehicle, not just the cost of fuel.

 

Just wondering, is 30000, 45000 and 60000 mile services required and what are the costs?

 

Here is another side to that story -- smoking has very little economic cost, and actually saves society money. How do you figure this -- well it is quite simple, smokers die younger and hence many don't end up in nursing homes and don't require very expensive health care in their 80's and 90's cause they don't live that long. Therefore, smoking saves us money.

 

I guess you forgot the cost on our health insurance companies have to put out. Lung cancer cost a fortune to treat. My Grandma has to have oxygen delivered to her house every few days. Who is paying for that?

 

Oil changes are too cheap to count. No repair costs because the car is still under warranty at a bit over two years old and a bit over 12,000 miles (I don't drive a lot).

The real cost of ownership above the price of the car is:

1. Better tires. I bought Michelin HydroEdge tires. Better tires means a safer car, and I don't cut corners on safety, so I consider the car incomplete with the OEM tires.

2. Insurance, beside which oil changes are insignificant. I carry fairly high insurance, because I can afford it and I feel more comfortable with it. I pay $612 per six months, for 250 K/ 500 K/ 100 K on the liability, and $50 deductible on the collision. Comprehensive does not have a number, so I guess it does not carry limits.

I think I spend twice as much on insurance as I do on gas, though I drive more in Spokane than I did in Fargo, so I'll be buying more gas.

 

http://john1701a.com/prius/prius-maintain04.htm has what's supposed to happen during those services, but I haven't found the cost. The 5K and 10K are about $50, while the 15K is more like $150. That may be different at the dealer you go to.

Also take a look at http://john1701a.com/prius/prius-maintain03.htm for one person's maintenance costs.

 

The only maintenance that needs to be done is oil/filters every 5000 miles ( our store offers it free for life.. cost =$0 ) and rotating the tires roughly every other oil change $19.95.

Spark plugs .. 100,000 mi or more
timing chain .. 100,000 mi or more
brakes!!! ... 100,000 or more YBLMV due to conditions
wipers, tires, glass, etc.. as needed.

Did I leave anything out?

$10,100 mi since Nov 30, '05 and the cost is... $19.95 + gas