Oldest Prius still being driven?

[Snicker]

As soon as I heard about "Gas-Electric Hybrid Vehicles" I started researching both the Insight and the Prius. The Prius won out on all accounts and soon I was the proud owner of a 2001. Now, truth be told, mine has quite a few sad stories to tell (read about them on Everything2.com - just search for "Prius"), but I'm still driving it, happy as a clam, and just about to hit 90,000 miles.

Any other 2001 (or earlier?) owners on here?

[john1701a]

I use to be among the first (purchased 9/9/00), then I upgraded 3 years later. Now I'm approaching 60,000 miles for the second time in a Prius.

Jesse just reported reaching 243,005 miles with his 2002. Follow this link for photos.

[Tideland Prius]

If you can read Japanese, you can check up on the 97-00 owners of the Original Prius.

[c4]

Still driving a 2nd hand 2001 with an 06/00 production date, 09/00 dealer delivery and 10/00 in-service date.. Over 200,000 km on it so far and no major issues at all.. Still the original brake pads, battery is fine, although block #8 is reading about 0.2V lower than the highest block about 70% of the time.. (ie, it's the lowest voltage block 60-70% of the time, and is 0.2V different than the highest voltage block, which is still well within tolerance, but whereas the highest block # varies all the time, the low block is mostly on #8, which is of mild concern, but given the small differential and the fact that the car is still working perfectly otherwise, I'm not going to worry too much about it.).

The only recent annoyance was that the Toyota 6-CD changer jammed and is basically toast.. A disk slipped out of place and the changer mechanism cracked the disk and then the gears slipped a number of teeth, so the whole transport tray is completely out of alignment now.. If anyone knows how to fix these and wants to play with it, PM me, and you can have the unit for the price of shipping.. In the mean time, anyone have any suggestions for a compatible (ie, MFD functions supported) aftermarket player? Preferably with an aux-in and MP3 capability, but that's not critical.

[Rancid13]

The oldest Prius being driven by a Priuschat member that I've heard about is that of gameboy~he has a 1998MY Japanese import that he bought used. He's in New Zealand.

See Thread

[tochatihu]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(c4 @ Jul 20 2006, 07:02 AM) [snapback]289323[/snapback]</div>

...battery is fine, although block #8 is reading about 0.2V lower than the highest block about 70% of the time.. (ie, it's the lowest voltage block 60-70% of the time, and is 0.2V different than the highest voltage block, which is still well within tolerance, but whereas the highest block # varies all the time, the low block is mostly on #8, which is of mild concern, but given the small differential and the fact that the car is still working perfectly otherwise, I'm not going to worry too much about it.).
...
[/b]

Hi c4, I assume you get this info with Graham Davies' miniscanner? As I understand it you are correct 0.2 volt variation is within spec...but just barely. Sometimes I also watch these voltages with the miniscaner, 2001 Prius 92k miles, but the max and min are usually much closer than what you report.

[Snicker]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tochatihu @ Jul 24 2006, 12:43 AM) [snapback]291327[/snapback]</div>

Hi c4, I assume you get this info with Graham Davies' miniscanner? As I understand it you are correct 0.2 volt variation is within spec...but just barely. Sometimes I also watch these voltages with the miniscaner, 2001 Prius 92k miles, but the max and min are usually much closer than what you report.
[/b]

Hrm - since one of the two non-accident related issues with my 2001 was a failed battery, perhaps I should investigate one of these scanners? Is there more information on it somewhere?

Snicker

[Jack Straw]

zzz

[tochatihu]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Snicker @ Jul 23 2006, 11:49 PM) [snapback]291334[/snapback]</div>

Hrm - since one of the two non-accident related issues with my 2001 was a failed battery, perhaps I should investigate one of these scanners? Is there more information on it somewhere?

Snicker
[/b]

http://www.ecrostech.com/Products/MiniScanner/Intro.htm

[nerfer]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jack Straw @ Jul 24 2006, 08:00 AM) [snapback]291359[/snapback]</div>

Now how could that be possible? We all know from reading a seemingly never ending plethora of articles in the MSM that very "reputable" reasearch firms have done extensive studies and have concluded that the life-span of the Prius is 100,000 miles. At which time they need to be taken out of service, dismataled, and recycled.
[/b]

240K miles from Jesse (lives in MA, driven to FL, NM, AL), >120K miles from C4, in Canada there were two taxis, Andrew Grant's 2001 that went 203K miles before being taken back by Toyota for study, and Jatlander Pahar's 2001 (Empress Taxi) that has 250K miles (called the highest mileage hybrid in North America - http://www.hybridexperience.ca/index.html#hybridtaxi).

How many other Prii have gone over 100K miles (or 160,000 kilometers)?

As we know now, a big part of that study claiming Prii used more resources per mile than a Hummer H2 assumes a Prius will have 109K lifetime miles, compared to 260K+ for the large SUVs. Obviously 109K miles seems a little low for average lifespan of a Prius, given that the hybrid components are guaranteed to 96K miles and the rest of it is pretty standard stuff. It's hard to prove wrong at this point, since the oldest Prii in N.Am. are less than 7 years old, and the majority are probably less than 3 years old. At about 135K miles they become more cost-effective than the SUVs, using the numbers produced in the study, but that analysis belongs in another thread.