Looking at Prius for New Teen Driver - Questions

im 6'1" and i have been driving one for 30,000 miles, the only thing is i have to squat down a little at the stop light so i can see it turn green. because the windshield meets the roof right about below my eye level, if im sitting up straight.

The Prius hybrid takes energy from gasoline and the energy from the battery and together the motors and engine make the wheels go round. This works via a special planetary gearset that links the 2 motors and engine mechanically and can split the power, so sometimes it is using 100% battery, sometimes 100% gasoline . There are tons of videos on youtube , Weber Automotive is one of my favorites. The car automatically recharges the battery during times when it doesn't need energy to go forward, such as going downhill or braking.

its not a awful car for a kid but... really a plain old camry or corolla might be more reliable and easier to find people to work on.
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edit - now that i think about it.... there is a little bit of a weird visibility thing with some people for the prius. I had had a few times where i missed my blind spot due to the big hatchback panels, and also a weird thing where i was coming up to a corner and another car was going at the right exact speed to hide behind my passenger side a-pillar. might want to see how a potential driver feels about the visibility situation before committing. the bar across the back window can take some getting used to for some people. definitely a subjective thing imho

 

How about this for the soon-to-be 16-year-old get a Yaris I'm looking at 2009s in the southeast United States in the 3500 range That's a shy bit less than a Prius will cost of the same year and reasonable to very nice shape It will be quite a bit more than that actually The Yaris gets you know 11 miles to the gallon less on a bad day. Same engine that's in a generation too but it's tuned for gas duty only work that is the 1NZ Very decent motor. For the new driver that's what I would do I'm in the same boat right now with a new driver but who's quite a bit older than your daughter I'm looking at Yaris or Corolla not new either The older the better a 2001 Corolla would be perfect for me as I have a 2002 here that's in use daily I'm going to look at an 01 and almost perfect condition tomorrow for 1600 I may buy it they never break down nobody steals converters off of none of the problems. Be thinking very carefully about the Prius If you do it make it a 2009 generation 2 not the newer model. This Prius business will overwhelm a new driver they drive a bit differently all of that stuff The lights coming on the funny business that goes on maybe not the thing. If you can find a Prius c that essentially is a generation to Prius built to newer standards if you will it's the same engine that's in the generation 2 but the latest iteration thereof but Prius C can be pretty expensive. Oh and good luck.

 

the prius has complicated control systems, and a few expensive hybrid related (electric) systems.

a 14 year old car with 230k is going to need repairs at some point.
the a/c compressor is electric. the braking system is electric. the engines are subject to oil burning, and of course the hybrid battery.

unless you're prepared diagnose and diy these repairs with specialty diagnostic tools and service manual, they can break the bank.

otherwise, i would recommend a standard non hybrid.

 

Crash tests have been updated 3 or 4 times since 2009. That car would fail miserably vs. modern tests, and guess what? The roads are full of plus-sized heavy pickups that are (finally) being modeled in current safety crash tests.

It is still a battle in this used car market. A Prius is not a break from that. If you pick the wrong older Prius, you can spend a fortune saving a little gasoline.

The way a Prius saves you the most money: You're drivin a lot of miles, and you want to purchase less gasoline. If you think your kids are going to drive the wheels off this thing, hot seating it from trip to trip then you have a chance at some real savings here.

If you expect the car to sit around, the kids thinking "maybe... but uber is more convenient" then stay the **** away. Complicated hybrid cars in old age can cost a lot of money to repair or maintain unless you get personally involved. When they are new or young, they need virtually no upkeep on these complicated systems. Later on, they sometimes need help, and the help is harder to find and generally a little dearer to pay than the average mechanic.

If safety is your thing, get a newer car. If frugal is your thing, get a simpler car. If auto repair is your (or your kid's) thing... game on, get the old Prius and you'll be buying a decent education, scheduled or not.

 

A 2001 or two Corolla that will last forever and run till eternity 500,000 mi I own two of them and I'm about to buy a third they're backup vehicles for when Prius or some other vehicle fails the Corolla is always ready to go they're pretty sporty all of mine have tachometers one or two a manuals etc anybody can work on them including the Chevrolet dealer they actually will ACDelco made the ECU for them. Those two models can be had for 16, 1800 bux. And look respectable inside and now

 

You need to make sure you have a good prius knowledgeable mechanic. They are reliable cars but need someone who know them.
This one is tougher, you need to have them drive it and compare with another candidate. In a parking lot and maybe you also driving it on the street.
A gen 2 is safe, for the speeds of a beginner for the price. It holds value and even crashed is worth good money. But there are other options in that vintage and price. A camry is a good starter car, a subaru with no rust and a decent engine. Or if you can find one a volvo 240 but they are tough to find at a decent price by now.

 

Most Volvos even if they've been in a garage the seats in the upholstery will be peeling so bad you need lots of dollars and an upholstery person capable to do the work which is a dying art these days places here in the south that used to do beautiful interior work nice tuck and roll and all that have all closed up they gone there's a few Jesse James types around that do the work still but they are backed up never going to see the light of day going to die in their shops and pretty much That's the story wild but a Camry great stuff 93 on up last forever some parts you can't buy but maybe that doesn't matter You just want to stop at about 2001 anything with the A engine is not for this purpose that would be like buying a generation 3 essentially.

 

It sounds like the OP's family may have enough $$$ to cover Prius repairs, even though the kid may not have two nickels to rub together. As long as mommy and daddy are maintaining the vehicle an expensive repair won't be the same sort of disaster it would be for a college kid on a budget who buys a Prius. The Prius is gutless, but that is a good thing for new drivers since it presents less of an incentive to do stupid speed related things. Doubly so since this will be handed down to a couple of boys, and sexist as this may be, giving a teenage boy a fast car is just begging for trouble. Ignoring possible future expensive maintenance issues, I think the biggest problems with the Prius for a new teenage driver would be the very large right rear blind spot and the "can't see where the hood ends" issue . But most modern cars now have both of those problems.

So as long as the parents are aware of possible expensive repairs, and are able to cover them, then I don't really see a problem with using a Prius for this purpose.

 

A g2 Prius is absolutely the worst car to buy for new driving teen. Its a very old car and has so many big repairs looming it will break you.

Let me ask you a question. Kid calls and says car won't start and the dash is lit up like a Christmas tree. Whats your next move? Cause that christmas tree will be coming fast. Don't even think Dealer there all at $225 an hour and they will start salivating if they see a G2 on the end of a tow truck drive in. Just throw your wallet in the back of the car and go get drunk cause your going to need a drink when you get there estimate lol....

Get him a car with a gas engine. No hybrid at all. Let him beat the shit out of that.

 

Any car that survives three beginner drivers is probably going to have a lot worse cosmetic issues than that at the end of its duty. Assuming it actually does survive such an ordeal!

 

This car is one of the most complex ever made and repairs are expensive.

These hybrids are primarily an underpowered gas engine that uses a very small high voltage battery to capture regen energy to improve mpg. Ev only for 1/2 mile at 30 mpg. Its a party trick, not even a standard feature on a gen2.

Ask your flipper friend if he installed new cells in the battery or simply bought a used refurb battery. Huge difference in reliability. Accept only new.

I would not want my daughter in a 14 year old hybrid.

 

Beg to differ. First off, both my kids are in these cars. One was in an accident, car was totalled and she is fine. Second while they can be called complex they have a track record of lasting a long time, 200K miles is an easy reach. And the price on the market for this car considering age and mileage is higher, so the public has voted on what car they prefer. Regarding new vs used batteries yes new lasts longer than a reconditioned unit. But for many drivers a reconditioned one is good enough. We have these in all 3 of our cars and have had no issues for several years. All see less than 50 miles a day which is probably what this new driver will also have.
I do want to state again, having a good independent shop is critical. A dealer is not a cost effective option neiiher is a shop with minimal experience in the unique systems.

 

something came to mind, the stories on here of the failure mode of high mileage prius 'losing power on the highway' and coming to a stop. can be scary for a new inexperienced driver. more i think about it more i would favor a plain old sedan with lower mileage.

 

Normal ICE vehicles crap out in the same manner (more or less) if the alternator belt breaks and the driver doesn't notice and keeps going until the 12V dies. My daughter did that while in college and since the water pump was on the same belt that car severely overheated and was never very reliable afterwards. A timing belt (common on older Hondas) breaking while driving at highway speeds can be a very dramatic event. If the power steering goes out on a car that can be pretty traumatic too. (We had a very old Accord where the power steering would work intermittently, going in and out ever few seconds, which was very hard to drive since when it kicked back in on a turn the steering wheel would suddenly turn from the now excessive force.)

All cars have some way or another of going wrong. Way back in the day I had a Corvair which snapped the clutch cable at the top of the pedal lever on two separate occasions. If memory serves I was 16 for one and 17 for the other, and I really wouldn't wish that experience on other novice drivers. The first time was pretty terrifying since I had only been driving for a few months, had no idea that this mode of failure even existed, there had been a very loud bang, the clutch pedal was clearly no longer functioning, there were cars on all sides, traffic was slowing, and the car was in too high a gear and was starting to buck. The mechanic who fixed the first one said that if it happened again to just speed shift for as long as needed to keep going. That wasn't a technique they were teaching, or even mentioning, in driver's ed. (At least the high schools still had that, and even auto shop, both of which no longer exist in most schools these days.) My father also had a Corvair, I think a 1960, and his had a tendency to throw the fan belt and instantly overheat when going up steep grades. That was big fun. (Mine was five years newer and they had put on belt guides by that time, to fix this problem.)

 

This issue can be resolved by merely installing a 10 amp fuse in the inverter cooling water pump circuit, so if that pump fails, it blows the 10 amp fuse instead of the 15 amp AM2 fuse (which is what kills the car).

 

The takeaway is an old car is not as reliable. That may be ok for a serious diy'er but my choice would be a more recent conventional car for reliability and safety when cost is a factor.

 

Older is less reliable is generally true. However, even that Corvair (not noted for modern levels of reliability) only stranded me 3 times in 3 years. The first was a failure a couple of days after I bought it (seller fixed it, he had screwed up something when "fixing up" the car for sale and stood by his work), the other two times were the clutch cable failures. So about once a year. My wife's Accord, a very reliable car, has stranded her about once every 4 years lately (it has been eating starters at about that rate, probably because the aftermarket ones are not as good as the original OEM Honda ones were.) Our 2007 Prius never quite stranded us (almost once, when a 12V was going out), and almost twice more on inverter pump failures, and one of those was my fault, for being stupid enough to use a nonOEM pump. It has needed other service, but it wasn't of the "stuck by the side of the road" variety.