Sold my Prius; the Prius experience through my eyes

qft.

 

And it won't. At 96K, my '04 had 80% left rear and 60-70% front.

At 101K, I now have ~100% front because the shop (yes it has been around some time and is presumably reliable) that replaced my driver's side wheel bearing (nasty noise!) managed to forget the shim and inside pad when they put it back together. They didn't even manage to see they were missing when I took the car back because it made a nasty noise when I used the brakes. The following weekend I took off the wheel and looked, expecting maybe they forgot the anti-squeal shim. Boy was I surprised (and POed). Fortunately I had no need for emergency, or even hard, braking those 2 weeks. Even though there was no visible damage to the rotor (I never saw the piston) they voluntarily chose to replace both front rotors, the pads and the caliper on the driver side. My brakes will outlive my use of the car. At some point it will be replaced with a PHEV or an EV when there are good, proven choices.

 

Very good points! I concede!

Now go buy yourself a new Limited Edition 2011 Prius next year! I'm going to start the rumor that Toyota will make a loaded version (package VI?) with both the Solar Cooling package and the Advanced Technology package. I know there are people out there who will succumb to that temptation!

 

Really? Why not in the U.S. then? Don't say EPA's MPG rating, especially since yours doesn't have the heavier 17" alloys.

 

In CA, the HSD is warranted out to 150K miles


And that's ignoring the fact that MANY here on pc have over 200K miles with little maintenance. Heck, there are cab companies with over 300K miles logged ... and stilll going. But heck, folks gotta justify doing what ever they do. Good luck!

.

 

So what Toyota dealer charges $1,000,000 for nav? I would suggest other PriusChatters avoid that dealer.

 

Remember that's in US dollars. About the same price as a toast & jam breakfast nowadays.

 

I have to say that I am very like seaside. It seems that a lot of people on this board think you should drive a car until the wheels fall off and I would agree financially it makes sense but like seaside, I love autos and could get a new one every year if I was rich. I probably keep a car for a couple of years on average. I know it does not make sense to a lot of people but that is the way it is to me. If the value of my Prius did not tank with all this bad news I would probably be getting something new sometime before the winter. I still may but it will depend on if the value goes up a little. Just remember that everyone is different.

 

Just traded my Pri for a Camry, never did "fall in love" with the Pri.
I did like the mpg.
0% interest, $1,000 Toyota loyalty bonus, two year free service package.
Dealer even signed a statement all acceleration problems have been fixed.
My wife drives the car most of the time, if something happens, look out Toyota.
So long to the friends I made along the way on this forum.

 

Well, I can't say I keep up with seaside but I have owned a few cars in the 10 yrs I've been driving. I have only bought 2 of them new, and it probably would have stayed as 1 right now had the new Prius not been so darned tempting!

I've had: 1989 Mercury Tracer, 1995 Geo Metro, 1996 Mazda Protege, 1996 Nissan Maxima, 2003 Honda Civic, 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid, (some year) VW Passat, 1998 Chevy S10, and now the 2010 Prius. I also owned a 2009 Honda Motorcycle and now have a 2009 Harley. Of course, not quite as many cars, but most of those were owned less than 2 years. In fact, I think all of them were, except the Geo Metro. The Passat & S10 were 2nd cars at the time.

 

The OP claims to have a fat income stream yet he finances instead of paying cash? If that's true it's stupid; he's just giving away money.

*plonk*

 

That makes complete sense if the return is better than the cost of the car loan. I will borrow any amount of money if I can guarantee a return greater than the cost of the loan. It's the guarantee part that usually stops me.

Putting this another way, you are using your car loan to finance your real estate business. I would have thought that there would be a cheaper way to borrow money, but with the auto business in the crapper you may be onto something.

Tom

 

I believe me
Does the '05 have HIDs? They really ARE easy (especially if you have small hands ) and there is NO REASON to remove the bumper to do it. Toyota recently dropped the price of the HID bulbs after people complained how much more expensive they are than those from other manufacturers. I think they are still a lot more than 'equivalent' non OEMs purchased on Ebay (reliable vendor!!)

The HID leveler sensor on the rear axle. I don't know if it extends beyond the '04-'05 years but there was some issue with sealing the potentiometer case. Apparently they fixed it at some point.

There are 3 springs inside. 2 of mine were horribly corroded at just under 100K miles, amazing I didn't get the warning a LOT earlier. The other looked brand spanking new. There was no evidence of moisture in the case. I cleaned it up, made 2 new springs from the core of a coax cable, all better. Cost: nothing more than a little research here on PriusChat.

They charge $390 for the part which includes the bracket the potentiometer and 'arm' are mounted on AND the 4" long 'dogleg' strut with a ball joint on both ends that connects the arm to axle bracket (sold separately for almost nothing) on the axle.

My dogleg strut had a tear in the boot of one of the ball joints and it was impossible to move while the other end rotated in all directions easily. They don't sell that part separately. Talk about a ripoff, it is held on to the 'expensive' part by 1 nut (which they sell separately for about $0.20). I was fortunate in that PriusChat member Kenmce had an entire unit with non working potentiometer and gave me the dog leg. I was considering buying a similar ball joint (sold online for about $5) and either tapping or welding it onto the old strut. I'd have to go some to let Toyota screw me for $390 for a piece that should cost MAYBE $20. OK, you can get them online for maybe $100 less but that is still well over $200 more than one should pay if they only need the strut.

 

I was ogling a GTI at Hayward VW last Saturday. Was on the way home from a motorcycle group ride, dressed in full leathers. The salesman asked several times if I wanted to test drive the car. I did.

I think this one had the 18" wheels and you could feel the road quite a bit, but not too bad. Salesguy said hit the gas, see what it'll do. Pulled a U-turn, got into the throttle ... got off the gas within a few seconds ... it was up to 45 MPH in probably 3 or 4 seconds. It was very quick.

You've definitely got a fun car and there's utility with the hatchback. Seats 4 fairly well too, but not much cargo room back there. You could average about 28 mpgs, but, yes the turbo requires premium gas, about 6 to 7% more than regular.

 

My 2008 buyers guide shows the GTI as worse than average reliability. The dealers try to say that was for the 03 and earlier cars, but the newer ones are much better. VW has been making GTI's since the '80's, so if they haven't got it down by now, don't think they ever will.

But, some people love 'em, reliability issues and all.