Thoughts on the Toyota Prius

[Anonymous]

We are going to be in the market for a new car in the very near future. We would like a relatively inexpensive sedan. This car would replace our BMW which I have come to despise over the years because of the insane maintenance costs. We like to buy our cars outright and keep them until they start becoming unreliable. We have been thinking about buying some type of basic Honda, Toyota, or Nissan sedan. We are interested in the Prius (and like the fact that it is a hybrid) but is it a high maintenance car? What are the repair costs like? Again, one of the biggest things we disliked about the BMW were the cost of repairs. Any Prius drivers out there who either like or don't like their cars? If not a Prius, any other suggestions? We would ideally like to spend around $25,000.

[Anonymous]

We have a 2009 Gen 2 Prius. We take it for oil change/maintenance roughly every 6000 miles. Otherwise, we have had no maintenance costs for the Prius. Approaching 60K and we have no other expenses although we are likely to be needing new tires in about 10K miles. Otherwise, not much other cost.

Love that we get 50 mpg and that I can go about 400 miles between fill-ups and my fill-ups are usually about 8-9 gallons. Saves a bundle on gas. Although it cost us about $3K more than a comparable non-hybrid, we've about made that up with the gas savings. I'd say we've used about 1200 gallons of gas for those 60K miles instead of about 2000 gallons. 800 gallons of gas at an average of $3.50/gal is about $2800. At this point, we expect to have the car another 5-7 years and all of the gas savings now is just money in our pocket.

For us, the green effects are worth it. Not only does it save on gas, but the emissions are significantly less too, so it's environmentally good in more than one way. We also found that the hatchback gave us much more storage room than other comparable mid-size car trunks. And with the ability to fold down the rear seat, I've been able to do some good hauling around without needing the big SUV.

[Anonymous]

In general, American cars are the cheapest to maintain. Then Japanese. Then European.

I'd stick with Honda personally. But the Accord hybrid is closer to $30,000. The Civic hybrid is $22-25,000. I don't know if that's too small for you though.

I've heard some good things about Nissan Altima, too, but their reliability ratings are average like the Prius.

Honestly, though, whatever you get will be cheaper than BMW repairs.

[Anonymous]

I love my Prius. Agree with everything Prius owner pp said.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

We love our Prius for the same reasons as pp. We've owned ours for seven years now and so far have done only oil changes and just recently replaced the small battery in the car. Not the big one, but the one in the engine that runs the small electrical things like the radio, starter etc. that was a lot more expensive than the typical car battery because of its location in the engine, but in seven years that's been the only significant expense. We still have the original brakes and have them looked at when we get oil changes and the technicians keep telling us that they are fine and that the Prius brakes are very good.

[Anonymous]

What scares me about the Prius is what would happen to one in an accident. Look at the Camry or Fusion hybrids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are going to be in the market for a new car in the very near future. We would like a relatively inexpensive sedan. This car would replace our BMW which I have come to despise over the years because of the insane maintenance costs. We like to buy our cars outright and keep them until they start becoming unreliable. We have been thinking about buying some type of basic Honda, Toyota, or Nissan sedan. We are interested in the Prius (and like the fact that it is a hybrid) but is it a high maintenance car? What are the repair costs like? Again, one of the biggest things we disliked about the BMW were the cost of repairs. Any Prius drivers out there who either like or don't like their cars? If not a Prius, any other suggestions? We would ideally like to spend around $25,000.

If I were you, I would stretch the budget to 30ish and get the accord hybrid. It is truly excellent. truecar has the current market value of an accord hybrid without nav for 28ish.

[Anonymous]

I have a 2007 Prius with 124k miles and love it. It does terribly in the snow and you have to get used to different blind spots, but otherwise it is great. It is really well engineered. We can get our DCs upright bass in it and three people. We are at a point where the cost to maintain is increasing, but it is still in the reasonable range (we had more costs with our old Sable wagon at the asme stage).

[Anonymous]

PP here:

read this review:

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2014/02/review-2014-honda-accord-hybrid-with-video/

Auto-blogs and writers who usually crap all over hybrids because they love sharp handling powerful sports sedans pretty much all have come out in praising the accord hybrid.

The hybrid system is better than the prius' imo and yet it retains a handsome profile over that of an egg.

If I were in the market for a new car and didn't want awd, this would def be my #1 choice. Go and test drive one op!

[Anonymous]

Thank you all! We will test drive both the Prius and Honda Accord hybrid.

[Anonymous]

I actually put snow tires on my Prius because I spend a lot of time in Maine. It does great in the snow.

[Anonymous]

OP, you should also look at the Ford Fusion hybrid (sedan) & the Ford CMax hybrid (a short station wagon). (My understanding is that they're the same engine/drivetrain with different bodies on top.) When we bought our Prius, it was a hard, hard choice between it & the CMax--we settled on the Prius V because it had more cargo space--and I now wish we'd gotten the CMax. The Prius is absolutely fine, no problems--but I thought the CMax was a joy to drive, and the Prius just isn't as zippy and fun. If you're considering the Prius, I think you owe it to yourself to test drive the Fusion/CMax.

[Anonymous]

We went with the 2014 Prius 3 and have almost 10000 miles on it.

Absolutely love the car and how it drives. It does not have the zip of my Infiniti G35 for sure but OTOH the latter gives me 17 mpg and the Prius gives me over 50 mpg.

Also at the present time the first 25K miles all service and mtce is free.

The only thing I did not like about the Prius when I first test drove it is that the spoiler on the rear window which makes one feel the view is obstructed but now I don't even notice it.

[Anonymous]

We have had two Priuses and a Ford Fusion Hybrid. The Fusion was a nicer, considerably more comfortable car and generally cheaper to maintain. The GPS was much better as well. There may be a plug-in version now too -- I know there's a CMax Energi and I think there's a Fusion Energi.