When to retire the car?

just curious were these the original batteries in the 2007? sorry if i missed that if it was previously mentioned

 

Boooo should have made it to 500,001 miles. Defective.



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Wow, nice. And here I am wondering sometimes about my '14 (yeah different generation i know) making it to 225k safely without major battery issues

 

I wouldn't be the slightest bit concerned.

 

I mean i'm not loosing sleep over it but the car won't be paid off until it has approx 160k miles on it (i do between 25 and 30k a year), so i just always wonder how many years i'll be able to drive it payment free

 

I assumed you were near 225k now, and that scared you.

 

Just set aside money so you have 3k by around the 10 year mark for the inevitable battery failure. Then you'll be good at least another 10 years!

 

This line of thinking (that the battery WILL die, and that it will be the ONLY major problem) is incorrect and potentially dangerous. There are a bunch of very expensive things that could fail on a Prius, and although they don't all wear the same way, many have fairly similar odds of failing. And those odds increase with age, mileage, and wear and tear (temperature, weather, driving surface, etc.). Regular maintenance is the key to having the car last as long as possible, but beyond roughly 15 years and 200,000 miles (and sometimes before those markers), anything can happen.

 

Yes this is correct. I bought a project 2010 Prius that started with oil burning, which then had EGR issues that had shaking at startup, then lead to head gasket failure, then lead to O2 sensor errors, and this will eventually lead to Catalytic converter failure. And when it reaches about 10 years old, there will be a battery failure. $3000 wouldn't cut it

 

It is true that one should set aside more than $3k for car repairs. I meant, but poorly explained that one should earmark 3k just for the battery, assuming that is a time/wear item, and more $$ in case of other repairs.

I personally like to keep at least $10k aside for car repairs myself. As a former owner of European makes (Range Rover being my worst experience by far) I'm always wanting to be prepared for the next problem. I will say that my 06 Prius has by far been the most reliable car I've ever owned, like many others have said.

 

My car is only worth $3000 I would never put $3000 into it....The battery problem is a huge myth and a joke...People will put $600 in tires, $200 on the 12V, and $500 in suspension and walk out of the shop as if nothing happened ---- but totally freak if they need to replace the traction battery. A shop near me charges $400 to rebuild the cells...Very cheap fix.

 

One thing I have never understood about this position is that it does not take into account the cost/value of a replacement.

If the car needs to be replaced, then the cost of a replacement vehicle needs to be considered in the assessment of a repair. Sometimes it might not be worth it to make a $1k fix on a $2k car. Sometimes it might be worth it to make a $2k fix on a $1k car. It all depends on what the replacement vehicle is, in my mind.

 

oh my goal is to get the car to 225K, should be about 9 years. and then replace it. My drive is too far every day to risk going much beyond that. Plus i will have driven about 3 years at that point with no payment, so I'll have money saved up for down payment on new car

 

Can I ask you a few questions. What was your maintenance like regarding oil changes and oil used? Also, was it pretty much only driven on long highway commutes or did it also have a lot of city miles? Did you do anything to help prolong the use of the battery?

I'm honestly amazed by 470k miles. That would be awesome. I'm in the process of shopping for a low mileage 09 and would love to replicate whatever maintenance you guys did that led to such great usage.

Stephen

 

What kind of oil did you guys use? (Brand and weight). Did you need to increase weight as the miles racked up to keep it from burning too much oil or anything like that?

 

every now and then, you get a keeper. don't read too much into it.