Finally putting deposit on Prius IV w solar pkg

I'm mostly satisfied and, yes I would probably buy one again. I would be very satisfied if it were not for the rattles from the plastic interior. But I have been working on them and have make some progress. Your car may not have a single rattle, quite a few don't.

The car drives nicely and is quite comfortable even on long (600 mile per day) drives. The fuel economy is nice and I have found I can equal or even beat EPA average in the summer when I drive carefully. Even those who pay little attention to fuel mileage are doing pretty well. Mileage drops in winter, I think I lose about 10% when it gets cold, maybe more, but my previous non-hybrid cars were the same.

This is my second Prius and I think I'm not going to be happy without some kind of hybrid from now on and the Prius is currently the best of the hybrids.

 

Some of them have been fairly easy to find and fix with little pieces of sticky back felt, such as the ones in the center console. The lower glove box is also a common source and I sprayed silicone lube (make sure it's the kind that's safe for plastic) all around the latches and hinges and put more felt across where it closes, that helped. I have one on the right side somewhere I can't seem to find so the head mechanic at the dealership where I bought the car has agreed to try and fix that one. When it gets really cold out a lot of others show up and I just ignore them and wait for warmer weather. So it goes, actually has become a kind of hobby.

If you have a good service department at your dealership they can help a lot. I would suggest talking to them ahead of time and find out what kind of success they have had at finding rattles.

There are at least three long rattle threads on PC and if you read through them you will find what others have found and how they have fixed them. As I said maybe you will get one without so many rattle problems.

This kind of thing is not unique to Toyota, other companies have had similar problems especially with new models. I bought a new Honda Accord some years ago and it was full of interior rattles just like this Prius. I never got all of them completely fixed. In time I learned to ignore them and that Honda ended up being one one of the best most reliable cars I have ever owned.