Is my car done breaking?

As you said, the car should be reliable from now on. That is assuming there were no unusual repairs early on that would denote the car had issues from new, which should be available on the vehicle's history.

With that being said, the question you need to ask yourself is: what can you get with those $6500 that is comparable? If you are getting a new car, then be prepared to make payments and pay for higher insurance premiums...

 

You've gotten through a lot. Certainly the best-known big ticket items.

I'd love to tell you that you're an exceptional case, but on this forum we have a pretty steady stream of visitors who fell for the reputation of a young Prius and hoped to get the same results out of an older one.

Going forward? Find an independent mechanic. Dealer labor rates will bleed you dry, and when you've got one of the most complex cars on the road heading for its 20th birthday, you're going to need help. Probably not as much as you recently needed, but...

Also, anyone offering you $6500 already has a plan to sell it for $10k. If you want out, skip the middleman to recover more of those repair funds.

Good luck!

 

Well I can speak from experience that my 2008 has been very reliable and the car's history showed a lot of repairs done at high mileage, so I am glad I bought it once it was "over the hump".

 

The repairs you've had done are all the primary ones... But the cost of your brake work was outrageous and is way to high compared to cost had you done it by way of DIY or worked with a friend who could do DIY for you.

Odds are your car is good for a while. But advice we always give is Prius are great cars if you or a friend or family member can do the repairs and this website will help you with every detail of that. But if you're dependent on a Toyota Stealership or expensive auto repair shop, it's going to be too expensive to own and you should probably buy something else.

 

Generally you're not going to outclass the Prius repair and money-wise That's just not likely to happen because you're jumping into a vehicle at 150,000 mi and then paying maximum retail and top dollar for everything going on with this car that's got 160,000 miles on it well there you go I'm assuming for the 2000 you got a new Toyota branded battery not a green bean or green tech or any of that nonsense but who knows. $3,000 for the break actuator accumulator whatever even overpaying for the part they certainly baked you on the install seriously that's really poor The rest of it's not too too bad The $1,200 brake jobs even with Toyota pads and what have you at maximum retail they still saw you coming I guess and that's what they say but still if these things bother you get a new car and see how that goes The things they're building now my God even the new Toyotas some of them ain't like they used to be thank God I don't have to worry about cars for two too much longer I spend a lot more time on my motorbikes now.

 

Well...

At some point it will need new tires (due to wear or age).
At some point the suspension is going to need work - struts will eventually wear out and any rubber parts will rot out.
Motor mount rubber inserts will eventually rot out.
If the "transmission" fluid has never been changed it would be a good idea to do so.
If the car ever lived in a "salt on the roads" state it might have structural damage progressing underneath.
At some point the paint will fail.

All of these would also apply for any other car with a transmission though. So nothing special about the Prius in that regard.

You can also expect the A/C evaporator to start leaking at some point. If that isn't dealt with promptly (not running the A/C when it isn't working well, fixing the leak by replacing that component by an A/C shop which knows what it is doing) then the compressor may also fail. The evaporator failure is particularly expensive because of the labor involved - the whole dash needs to be disassembled and reassembled.
Again, given the age of the car, these failures are possible in other vehicles too, and the evaporator is pretty much always (I don't know of an exception, but there could be one) located in the same place, so requires a lot of labor.

 

All repairs you mentioned above could have been done for under 3K if you are a handy person or with a help of a friend. That brake job man oh man, should have been done for under 250. There are plenty of ABS actuators in junkyards.

My story is a bit similar to yours but I did all the labour work, I bought a brand new HV battery from the dealership for $1650, I replaced the inverter & coolant pump, replaced the serpentine belt, replaced the 12v battery, oil change, coolant change and also did the spark plugs. ABS actuator is the only thing I have not done, knock on wood and I hope I wont have to but I’m prepared to do it, will have to learn it.

With that said you should be good to go for a longtime but keep an eye on oil because these things burn some oil. I do a biweekly check, take only couple of minutes.

Good luck!

 

the speedometer ( instrument cluster aka combination meter ) has a capacitor that can fail and during dash removal its common for a/c vents to shatter

the back hatch switch can turn to goo after a while, depends on climate, model year, etc.

"garnish" (plastic by back hatch switch) can crack

back hatch can leak (do you have water in the spare tire well/battery well?)

front can leak (do u have water under your floormats after rain?)

ICE coolant pump can need replacing.

hatchback struts can need replacing

none of these is 1k but add them all up, it can get high.

annnnd of course someone can steal your catalytic converter. depending on your state rules+regulations for emissions, that can be way over 1k.

the forums have lots of threads about every one of these so.. if you need help understanding this is a great resource. best wishes they don't happen to you