After owning a gas guzzling Audi A6, I'd like to purchase a Hybrid. I just have a few questions.

I'm a student therefore I am looking for a budget car. During half the year I drive around 60+ miles a day, and I know these are ideal cars for high miles. However, I was wondering if these cars have long lives. I'm looking at one for $8,000 that has 175,000 miles on it. Do high miles matter as much on a Prius as compared to other cars? When problems arise, does it cost a lot to fix them as compared to other cars? Thank you for helping me on my decision!

 

My 2001 Prius has 93,000 miles, and still seems pretty young to me. Used cars are always a concern, unless you have access to the maintenance records. Would want to know what has already been replaced if anything. A Toyota service dept. ought to be able to tell you lots of history, if you provide them with the VIN.

Most of the Prius is just like a conventional front-wheel drive in terms of repair. So far the routine systems seem to be very reliable, but suspension parts (for example) will cost about the same as other cars. It lacks a conventional automatic transmission, which is a good thing because those can be expensive to fix.

Prius has several additional parts that would be expensive to replace, such as the inverters, power split device (often called transmission or CVT), hybrid battery, electric power steering, display screen, and several computers. For these systems it also shows very high reliability.

But to buy used, service history is key. Please tell us what you can find out about it.

DAS

 

Generally when you are purchasing a used car, you are just purchasing other peoples problems. Toyota makes some really great cars, and generally when they break, a short trip to the auto parts store and your problems are over. But the Prius is a little different story.

With a Prius, you are basically driving around a computer system with wheels. And therefore you are more likely to have problems that a trip to a auto parts store can't fix.

Now if I am wrong, please correct me, but the batteries are warrantied for upto 100,000 miles, and the batteries cost $3000 to $4000 to have replaced. You cannot replace them safely.

Also the Prius has a 207 volt electrical system running through it, and that is voltage you cannot mess with.

If you are in a small town or far from nowhere, finding a mechanic to work on your prius will not be easy, or maybe even impossible.

Needless to say, if you can only get your car fixrd at a Toyota dealership, than you can bet that repairs are going to be very costly. The laws of supply and demand clearly state that if you need (need is a very important word) my parts and my service and you cannot get the parts or service from anyone else, I can charge what I want and you have no choice but to pay... Well I guess you could start walking.

 

As much as I think the Prius is a wonderful car and almost purchased one I'd have to say "pass". Since you're a student you probably don't have a lot of money left over for expensive repairs. I'm not saying there will be problems, but with the hybrid system you can't just go to a used autoparts store to buy the components, and 175,000 miles is a lot of miles for any car.

You could probably purchase a decent economy car with much fewer miles for half that price. True, it won't get the Prius's mileage, but you can buy a lot of gas and repairs for the $3000 - $4000 difference in price.

 

The Dept. of Energy ran a fleet experiment and got over 160,000 miles before it ended. There are also Canadian fleet reports and one taxi that are achieving simular performance. IMHO, we do not know the actual vehicle life.

There are two models, NHW11 01-03 Prius, and NHW20 04-current. What year is it? Where is it?


IMHO, no. The ICE is derated to 70 hp using an Atkinson cycle. The motors are free from vibration. The only weak spot appears to be in the NHW11 models, the transaxle oil needs more frequent changing. Otherwise, it is quite ordinary.

If you take it to the dealer, yes. If you can take it to a clueful, independent shop, not so bad. If you do it yourself using salvage part, no worse than any other vehicle.

IMHO, if you buy a used car, buy the maintenance manuals too and make sure you have a metric tool kit. If you don't like working on cars, you better be ready to spend a lot of money BUT that is true with all cars. I find the Prius a lot of fun to work on.

What are your mechanical skills? Do you feel comfortable with a volt-ohm meter and torque wrench?

If you decide to go with the high-mileage vehicle, can you make the sale conditional on an oil test that you pay for? Have a sample of the transaxle oil and engine oil sent to a testing service ($20 for each test and $5 shipping.) Then based upon the results, use it to negotiate a better deal <GRINS>.

Bob Wilson

 

So I'm wondering...

As compared to, say, a 1999 honda civic with automatic transmission, the Prius saves me around $700.00 in gas a year concidering i drive 20,000 miles a year and concidering that gas stays around $3.00 for the entire year. Is the cost in gas savings less than the cost in repairs if i get a Prius with about 80,000 miles in it, or, at least, is the risk very high?

I'm wondering because that Audi A6 i had was cheap to buy but very expensive to maintain.

I was also looking at a Civic Hybrid. Are those better on a tightwad's money? Thank you.

 

There are many other reliable small sedans that may be purchased used for much less than Prius. I would first consider those by Honda and Toyota, but there surely are others. By checking their maintenance history as well, you stand a good chance of avoiding abused ones, so that the total costs of ownership will likely be less than with the used Prius.

This can be a very sensible way to go. The only thing is that you cannot get the very low pollutant emissions of the hybrids in this way. If that is a major factor in the vehicle choice, then the potential repair risks need to be considered as well.

So far, there are very few Prius with such big numbers on their odometers, so it is really not possible to quantify that repair risk yet. It is pretty much an extrapolation (for me) to say that they will continue to be extremely reliable, and quite appropriate to question such extrapolations.

DAS

 

I don't know enough about the Honda Civic to answer a comparision question.

Huh? Was that 80,000 or 180,000 miles?? What model or year?

I can't answer that because I don't know enough about Honda Civics. I understand their owners are very happy with them and they look to be a fine car.

Really the cost of ownership of a used car depends upon how much you can do yourself. If you don't feel comfortable with your mechanical skills, KISS comes to mind. If you do feel comfortable, a Prius can be a really fun project.

Bob Wilson

 

Generally, I can tell you that the older HCHs were much cheaper than the Prius was, so my guess is that they would also be cheaper as used cars. You'd have to find one, though, and you'd have a lot more specific information to go on then. I don't know if there's much of a market out there for used HCHs, just because they're pretty new and still really popular. I think it might be hard to find a deal when there are people willing to line up for new ones.

As for maintenance and reliability, I can't give you any Prius-specific advice, but from what I hear, Hondas last forever. I have no particular reason to expect that a hybrid Honda will be any less reliable down the road. My experience has been uniformly positive so far- only the regular maintenance costs: oil changes, and a 10k tuneup because I'm cautious.

When I was trying to decide between a Prius and the HCH, a friend told me a story. He'd been driving a little red Honda for years, back and forth across the country on business, with a ridiculously long daily commute from a remote area of Washington State, and it was getting close to half a million miles. The car was nicknamed 'Big Red,' and it was old, but still in really great shape.

He told some friends about the approaching milestone and said, 'Well, it looks like I'm going to have to retire Big Red at the half-million mark.'

Weeks later, they were surprised to see Big Red pull up at the meeting in Chicago with my friend inside. 'What happened?' they said, 'Weren't you going to retire Big Red?'

'Why, yes,' he replied, 'See the new tires?'



Anyway, he told me I should get a Honda.

 

180,000 miles is just too many miles to take a $8000 chance on-unless you are adept at DIY.
A used low mileage used Corolla or (Prizm-Chevy badged Corolla) is a much better bet.Civics are great little cars, but used Civics hold their value so well that it is pointless to buy one used.
You can buy a new auto trans Civic for as little as $14500+TTL
Corolla-new-maybe $13500.
Hunt for an under 50000 mile Corolla for $8000 or less(say from 2000 on).
Don't pay $8000 for a high mileage car-you are asking for grief.Luck,Charlie
PS-Normal wear items-CV joints($600 maybe)-brake job($500)-timing belt($400) Valve adj($150)tires-($300) suspension/struts $500- are all likely to be due or long overdue on a high mileage car.If the car is from the NE or midwest there is a fair chance it will have a lot of corrosion on the fasteners-this will make it a bigger pita to work on.If it is from the south then the AC will be ready to punt after 180,000 miles ($1000 repair)-muffler/cat con/exhaust($600+). The battery pack would be a big concern of mine-it isn't that expensive, and you can get a salvaged one pretty cheap-it probably is a lot less likely to be ready to die than the other normal wear items.