Prius total lifespan in years of Car, not including battery - your experience

I have four generation twos right now I think and they're all on the road The fifth one is a parts car that we did drive for a while and I'm not sure why I took it off the road I can't remember now It's an '05 short nose so none of the body parts and front end parts fit on an '06 to '09 it's the oddball out of the business that we have so it's engine and trans will come out sometime this summer and just be saved and we've used some of the interior and plastics and stuff like that generally the twos in my experience are pretty much indestructible I mean unless you just trying to tear it up. You probably won't batteries if they're new Toyota batteries 8 to 10 years generally I've seen a lady with 495,000 mi on a generation two that's red with the original battery in it still working fine but this is not normal. The break actuator is the second biggest cost but I buy them used slap them in there they don't work try another one generally I've only done had to do it twice on one car for that reason but now I'm paying $90 for these things or $75 that's a far cry from 1400 so I can do it twice and not feel too bad about it now I can do it in about 2 hours sometimes it takes longer to bleed the brakes with the software than it does to change the part and then if you're dealing with the sensor inside the thing that won't set and all that and you have to change it again oh well that's why I do it because I can and I have space here to do that these cars are like free money I buy mine from towing lots and anywhere I can generally between 300 and a thousand and most of them I buy all four fenders and body panels are the same colors and all that stuff no wrecks no redoing bodies none of that I buy mine and usually I go to them put a 12 volt in it take the key from the people sometimes put a battery in it and drive the sucker away from where it's sitting where they're telling me it needs thousands of dollars worth of work I say yes sir here's $300. Now we've done this four or five times now and we'll probably do it again a few more times I sometimes buy them just for the heck of it to sell them to a friend of mine that I know needs a car stuff like that they're winding up in tow lots left and right right now because just one little thing goes wrong it's an excuse for somebody to get a car loan and a new car keep up with those Joneses you know they live in those fancy neighborhoods and can't be driving around in the 2009 Prius no sir I love those people so the generation 2 is what you want If you're looking at a three or a prime or any of that stuff forget it If you can afford that kind of stuff where you can get out of a car at 150,000 you don't need to be on this list generally speaking I mean you know you should just be driving generation threes and fours and Prius primes and get them with low mileage be out of them by 150 and do it all over again those cars aren't keeper cars You can't even keep up with the interior as it falls apart All of them are the same falling apart just like the other one so there's always that the door panels and interior on a leather generation two are far superior to a generation 3 and above even a Prius prime and all that that interior looks like a Tesla copy and before you know it that stuff starts getting dirty and yucky you spend all your time trying to clean it and you have fun with that don't do it generation 2 all the way till you just can't get anymore or something You rarely see a generation 3 or 4 in as good a condition as a generation too with similar mileage The three and the four will look much worse off especially an inside unless it's garage not driven very often or they have many vehicles and they choose when to drive the generation 3 wisely what have you our cars are used like cars or used by people we put stuff in them I've moved housing supplies farm supplies you name it I've driven the Prius way out on fence lines where other vehicles dare to go no problem it's a solid vehicle and it shows this is some a Toyota's best work ever in the history of the company after 2009 not so much. And good luck to you buddy.

 

my engine blew up at 87,000 miles, 11 years old

 

Yeah I know that's terrible and it sucks bad but that was in the Gen 3 right or some the newer fancy things?

 

2012, kind of an outlier, but there are a lot of bad head gaskets here

 

Well I know I have two of them

 

I have a gen2 (2009) base model that has had only the: water pump, 12v battery, and muffler replaced - so far. 240k+ miles of mostly commuting about 30 miles /day for first 10 years. Occasional use since then.
Original traction battery.
Body is getting rough, but 15 years of winter in upstate NY is like that.

 

34 years, 5 months, 3 days and 6 seconds.

 

10 years is possible before a head gasket or engine in a gen3. Average with some longer and some much shorter. Stats say only 3% make 200k before junked.

Buying a used Prius older than a 2016 hatchback is a bad bet.

 

Well I'm taking all the bad bets then buying older than a 2016 I must be reading something wrong everything I own is older than a 2016. So far 2010 through 2016 or whatever haven't shown me much so I don't really be looking but I'm glad everybody else is.

 

As long as you keep repairing it, it will last a long time.
Even if you replace the motor, that cost less than a new car.

Any vehicle that is maintained and taken care of will last a lot longer.
Mine's a 2010, 331,800 miles on it, still going.
Original hybrid battery maintained with the Prolong system.
Original master cylinder and pump. I replaced the head gasket at 301,000 miles.

Finally replaced struts and shocks a few weeks ago.

Take care of it, and it will last.

 

My wife's '08 prius 2 Mail delivery car, she's been retired for 6 years. 154,000 miles at time of retirement. I wanted to get her a new car because of all the scratches and small dents from rural mail delivery but she won't have it as she loves the car too much. 165,000 miles now with OEM traction battery. For the past 3-4 years I get the red triangle of death in park about once a month when we start it. It goes away when I put in drive or reverse. The mpg is a bit lower but still get 40+ mpgs. The car seems pretty much bullet proof. Only putting 1-2K per year on it we will keep it till is really dies. . My '17 v is our primary car with 45,000 miles.

 

The generation 2 will carry you through the apocalypse once that v is long gone and not even thought of anymore that generation 2 will be sitting right over there beside the barn or whatever ready to go.

 

That's what I'm hoping, but the under carriage is quite rusty from years of just going through winter slop @ 300+ stops per day 6 days a week. I give it 5 years before the money pit really starts due to cancering out.

 

Toyota has a lot of experience in building cars that can survive 15 years of salt-treated winters.

Very few people keep any Toyota beyond 20 years for any reason.

We put our own bet somewhere in between, but we won't know for a while.

 

Gen 3, with build-date August 2009, purchased new in November 2010 (had about 10 kms on odo, that's one-zero kms). It's rolled by 100K kms Christmas Eve., currently around 100,600, which kinda explains our usage or lack thereof.

It's had:
1. two full EGR cleanouts
2. dual Moroso Air/Oil Separators installed, for about the last 5 years.
3. oil filter conversion to spin-on, a few years back.
4. underbody cleaned and treated for rust mitigation, a couple of times now.
5. waxed mostly every 6 months, falling back to yearly now, with our diminishing usage.
6. same as abouve for oil/filter changes.
7. hybrid battery fan cleaned a couple of times.
8. transaxle fluid 3 times (at least one time to many)
9. Brake fluid changed thrice (once by dealership in course of recall for brake booster, twice by me)
10. All recall campaigns done.

We're very low usage now, but try to avoid short runs. If we're going out to visit, or just an outing, we'll incorporate a shopping trip, especially heavier items. We're luck to be walking distance to nearby stores, which helps. The car often sits for a week, even more, and I keep the 12 volt battery on a CTEK 4.3 charger 'round the clock.

So far running like a top, hybrid battery like new, body/paint like new, ditto for suspension, no change in dipstick level between changes. The brake booster sounds a little "sketchy" sometimes..

 

Stats are based on state registrations of older high mile vehicles still on the road. Accidents and expensive repairs take them out. This has little to do with a specific model.

Fair warning.... Prius Gen3 Issues

Gen3 Prius with the 1.8L engine from 2010-2013 and most 2014s have bad pistons and rings causing excessive oil consumption around 150k-200k, the Brake Actuator is a $2500 failure in the same time frame and the Inverter was also defective from the factory. The brake actuator had a special replacement warranty ("customer support program") that expired after ten years 150k max miles. Most gen3s no longer have the special coverage.

The hybrid battery is good to 180k-220k and the only good repair is new from $1600 diy to $3000.

Too many of these gen3 models eventually exhibit short duration and occasional "cold start rattle" that turns out to be head gasket leakage. Owners either ignore it or clean their egrs, change plugs and injectors and or add pcv oil catch cans, usually too late in the game if engine "rattle" is already occurring. Overheating or blown engines can be an end result of head gasket failure.

Buy a simpler used car.

3 Reasons To Steer Clear Of A 2010-2013 Toyota Prius | Torque News

and Prius Shakes

If that was not bad enough, flippers use temporary sealers to pawn off head gasket failures and odo rollbacks are easy and promoted on this forum. Any car sold with a "replacement" hv battery is usually a hacked mix and match used assembly, also temporarily revived by flippers.

Finally 2016-17 Prius v "wagons" are also gen3s.

 

The Gen 3 is a good car. EVERY car has it's issues.
If you are able to do the labor, you only pay for parts. Just do your homework and
find a good one.
The newest model year you can afford would probably be the best idea. Newer tech,
lower mileage, maybe better features.