So should I buy one of these or not?

No.

The Prius is not a gravel road car.

The Prius is not an artic car, and to get 200 miles per tank you must be in very cold weather.

The Prius does not thrive with no maintenance, it is not the car for you.

 

I would get the cheapest Corolla you can get, an Elantra, or a reliable small truck. 200K is about the limit for most modern engines. If you get 200K then you have a winner, winner, chicken dinner.

I am thinking a small cheap truck for you. Oh, too bad everyone bloated the small trucks we bought in the past.

 

prius life expectancy is 150- 180,000 miles. what car(s) have you had with higher?

 

I think the OP might like a low miles gen 3. His profile says Missouri, if he was getting 30 mpg then 200 miles would be around 7 gallons and maybe he is one of those people that fills it up when it reaches 2-3 pips on the gauge, etc. He should at least be able to get 40 mpg in a gen 3 even at fast highway speeds.

However, a couple things to the OP. You mention crappy seats for your current car - I would give a gen 3 Prius a test drive as many people feel the same way about those. I personally like the seats in my 2012, but it is a trim 4 with softex and power seat adjustments. Also, I am a small person at 5'7" and 155 lbs. I think a Prius is a good use case for high mileage per year as time seems to be worse on these than miles. But you'll have to keep up with oil changes and other maintenance. A corolla as others have said may be a little easier on maintenance and would probably go more miles and would be a solid choice but it won't get you much better MPG than you are currently getting. And if your car has 100 hp you may find the Prius a little more powerful than your current car. Mine is similar in power to our 2005 Corolla we had before.

I would look for low miles gen 3s and give a couple a test drive. Good luck!

 

Or maybe the fuel tank bladder was preventing him from filling completely.

 

Yes, this a good point. The gen 3 does not have the bladder and is much more consistent in how much fuel the tank holds at different temperatures.

 

This is a no-brainer.
Putting 50-70K on a new car is like buying a new boat.
There's simply no way to make that make any kind of financial sense.

So.......the question is:
Used conventional or used Hybrid.

Priuses are about 90-percent small, egg-shaped, five-door, front-wheel drive cars.
They tend to be VERY reliable out to about 150,000 miles with even casual maintenance.
After a buck fifty, you're looking at an increased liability from things like the traction battery, the inverter, or the regen brakes.....although the latter two are not especially prone to failure and there are YouTube vids for maintenance and repairs.
The transaxle is a little different because of electrical windings and unlike conventional cars some benefit can be theoretically achieved by replacing this fluid.........correctly.

So......
If you get your hands on about a 5 year old car with.........say 75,000 miles you can expect to knock down another 100,000-150,000 miles of your kinda driving at about 45mpg....again given my perception of your driving patterns.

That means that you can either save a few thou in fuel over those miles or you can actually lose money if you suffer a traction battery failure, or have to replace an inverter/pump.

Not exactly common, but a bit of a gamble......like ANY small, egg-shaped, five-door, front-wheel drive car.

If you do your own maintenance and repairs?
I wouldn't hesitate to get a Prius over a Corolla or a Civic.
They're reliable as heck, but there are a few items that can be expensive, and in my never-to-be-humbled opinion there are some Toyota dealerships that are shameless in exploiting "hybrid fear."

Your call.
Good Luck.

Let us know how it comes out.

 

there are some taxi's in vancouver with 500k+, but who knows how much work has been done? still, it must be cheaper for them than buying newer ones.

i haven't heard a lot about head gasket issues being a common problem, where did you see that?

 

difficult to quantify as a % of total pri. and of course, most people come here for help, or to complain. you won't get many people signing in to tell us that their head gasket is still working.

 

169,000 and my head gasket is still working, did replace the 12v battery and left low beam bulb. Hope I haven't jinxed it.

 

None.

Smokers with lung cancer at 150K and transmissions at 100K. Body parts and electrical dropping off as you drive.

Time for a drink Bisco.

 

My head gasket is still working at 8.5K. does that help?

 

3 hours to vino time.

 

Not sure how many folks drive enough on their Gen 3 models to get up to 300k in 6 (or less) years. Taxi drivers do, but I don't know how many of them are on the forum. Here's the 300k Gen 2 thread: 299,999+ Mile Club | PriusChat

 

Sounds to me like you need to buy a 2001 manual transmission Honda Insight.

Set the car up for battery free operation and just drive.

You will get better than 30mpg highway in the worst of weather and 60+ in fair weather.

If you learn how to use studded tires of the right size the insight is ok in snow.

Insights do great on the highway and poorly in town.
Should fit your drive well 11 months of the year

 

If you want traction on snow then you need snow tires. A 4 wheel drive on regular tires going downhill may as well be on skis.

Invest in some leather seat covers and then put a piece of extra foam on the drivers seat for better comfort.