Thoughts on the Toyota Prius

[Anonymous]

Hybrids are a waste of money and trunk space.

[Anonymous]

I have a Toyota Prius. It does what I need it to do. I haven't had any mechanical problems with it.

I don't really like it. I liked my Hondas much better. Toyotas feel very plasticy to me.

[Anonymous]

We replaced our much-loved 10 y.o. BMW with a Prius, and I love it! It's so quiet. We've had no maintenance issues with either car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get one! I REALLY wanted to buy a BMW 5 series, but somehow fell in love with the Prius that I had as a rental. I ended up buying a used 2012 Prius II with 37k miles back in February. It is the weirdest feeling to be able to go 400 miles on one 10 gallon tank...in the city. I drive like your typical "crazy" beltway maniac and somehow still manage to get 47 mpg each month. I went up to Sandusky in the summer and made the 420 mile trip on one tank. I couldn't help but grin when the car display told me that I'd spent $35 in gas from here to there.

They're low maintenance for the most part. Toyota suggests an oil change every 10k miles for the newer models. You can go to Jiffy Lube and get those at whatever their regular price is. I had the 40k service a while back. Toyota wanted to charge about $130 for an oil change, filter, tire rotation, belt inspection and general look-over. My mechanic did it all of that for $30. I love this little car.

Toyota's quote sounds correct. Toyota recommends on oil change once per year because they use the premium oil which costs about the same as 3-4 cheap oil changes (about $100) and a tire rotation is about $20 most places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get one! I REALLY wanted to buy a BMW 5 series, but somehow fell in love with the Prius that I had as a rental. I ended up buying a used 2012 Prius II with 37k miles back in February. It is the weirdest feeling to be able to go 400 miles on one 10 gallon tank...in the city. I drive like your typical "crazy" beltway maniac and somehow still manage to get 47 mpg each month. I went up to Sandusky in the summer and made the 420 mile trip on one tank. I couldn't help but grin when the car display told me that I'd spent $35 in gas from here to there.

They're low maintenance for the most part. Toyota suggests an oil change every 10k miles for the newer models. You can go to Jiffy Lube and get those at whatever their regular price is. I had the 40k service a while back. Toyota wanted to charge about $130 for an oil change, filter, tire rotation, belt inspection and general look-over. My mechanic did it all of that for $30. I love this little car.

Toyota's quote sounds correct. Toyota recommends on oil change once per year because they use the premium oil which costs about the same as 3-4 cheap oil changes (about $100) and a tire rotation is about $20 most places.

I'm the PP above. By premium, I mean synthetic which is required in some Toyotas.

[Anonymous]

Father had a 2006 Prius with no major issues (ie low maintenance costs). Passed it to my sister in 2011 and it's going strong after all these years.

[Anonymous]

I don't love my Prius.

The gas mileage has been much less than we expected, due to the fact that we use it only for very short commutes, etc.

I have not found the interior to be very durable with kids.

Ours is a 2008, so of course it's starting to have some maintenance/repair costs, and we've discovered that even parts that don't have to do with the hybrid drive itself aare much more expensive than regular cars.

I love the idea of contributing less pollution to the environment but I don't think, for our needs, the Prius was the best choice.

[Anonymous]

Skip the hybrid, not worth the extra cost, loss of space. Get a regular honda accord

[Anonymous]

Batteries need to be replaced in hybrid after the warranty negating all the gas savings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Batteries need to be replaced in hybrid after the warranty negating all the gas savings

To a lot of people it's not about gas savings, but about being more environmentally friendly. Even counting the battery, Hybrids still have one of the lowest total lifecycle environmental impacts.

[Anonymous]

My bleeding-heart DH wanted a Prius. I figured it was a better midlife car than a convertible and ended up liking it more than I'd thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Batteries need to be replaced in hybrid after the warranty negating all the gas savings

That's not what mathematics says. Although a dealer will charge $4000 to replace a Prius battery most people to it off-market for around $2000. Replacement is needed between 80-200K miles, although some 1st gen Priuses are still on the original battery.

A regular car at 25 mpg will use 4000 gallons to go 100000 miles. A Prius only uses 2000 gallons for the same distance.

At $3/gallon, the Prius saves $6000 over that distance

At $4/gallon the Prius saves $8000

In addition, Priuses almost never have transmission problems. Regular cars will need a new transmission at that distance.

[Anonymous]

Batteries use a ton of rare earth metals, and mining those is the opposite of environmentally friendly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Batteries use a ton of rare earth metals, and mining those is the opposite of environmentally friendly.

Sigh. First of all, the batteries can be and are recycled.

Second, the rare earth metals mined in the US increasingly come from old mine waste piles - gold mines specifically. While these piles have been a source of pollution from the 1850s, they are now being repurposed and cleaned up.

Finally, the othe rare earth mines are far away in Africa; the Chinese will work those mines whether you buy a Prius or not.

PP: I can only guess you are trying to assuage your guilt for driving an Escalade.

[Anonymous]

Poor visibility