Expensive to mantain??

I have heard the opposite- that it is not expensive to maintain. That is one persons opinion. Maybe others here have more experience in this area and can give more info.

 

I feel sorry for her and her mechanic (because they are ignorant). It's not true that the Prius is expensive to maintain.

 

No, sorry to upset your coworker, but everything I have seen has the Prius as a fairly low cost of maintenance vehicle. At the slight chance you need emergency maintenance Toyota has you covered with the warranty. The really bad vehicle include Mercedes, Bmw, Jaguar, Dodge, Audi, and Land Rover.

10 best/worst cars for repair costs

If your interested in how the Prius rates up here is a site for you:
2008 Toyota Prius Ownership Costs | New Toyota Prius Depreciation, Maintenance, & Insurance Costs at Automotive.com

If they think it's expensive I would tell them to take a long walk off a short pier.... I think they are just jealous!! Prius Envy

 

My 4.5 year old Prius has cost me oils, filters, a 12V battery and tyres thus far. I change the oil and filters myself, this has added up to about $200. I had to fix the rear alignment for about $150, and the battery cost $180. Tyres are not Prius specific, but they do wear quicker in my car than some other models. So add to the costs a lifetime alignment I bought for $125 so that I can take advantage of tread warranties on the tyres I buy. I also paid $100 to the dealership recently to correct a dumb mistake of my own doing. I don't count that against my car

Like any car, I avoid the 'dealer recommended' services like the plague.

Addendum: added alignment and 12V battery charges.

 

I've looked at the TCO data of places like automotive.com and Edmunds.com, and always come away thinking the numbers are way more than what I pay. E.g., I gather that the maintenance costs are based on usual Toyota dealer charges for recommended service. There is little justification for incurring many of those charges when it is so easy to do oneself.

Perhaps those sites can be used as a comparison tool, if not for actual charges -- but of that I remain unconvinced.

 

Let's distinguish between "maintenance" and "repair" costs.

Prius is quite inexpensive to maintain if you follow the manufacturer's recommended schedule, especially if you DIY. And it is quite easy to DIY.

If you have an unwarranted failure, say HID headlights, the MFD, a transaxle failure, or the traction battery dies, and you must rely on your friendly Toyota dealer's service dept, then you may pay very big $$$$s to get your car repaired. This would be true with any other vehicle where the dealer's service dept is involved, except that non-hybrids wouldn't have a traction battery to fail.

However there are less-costly alternatives available which generally involve using salvage parts (or aftermarket sources in the case of the HID headlights) and assume the availability of an independent mechanic willing to work on your car.

 

I have 95K miles and my brake pads/shoes still have more than 80% left. I replace my own air filters and cabin filters, ande change my own oil and filters.

On the advice of those here I replaced my tranny fluid at 60K miles instead of waiting until 100K miles.

Other than that I put gas in it and tires on it and drive it!

Doesn't get any cheaper to maintain than that!

 

Not if you belong to this site. You can get instructions on how to replace it yourself: http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-technical-discussion/58920-transaxle-failure.html

 

(Not wanting to go astray on this thread...)
Thank you!

It's always a pet peeve of mine when people mix/combine "maintenance" and "repair". They're not one and the same. It irks me when people say things like "I've had my car x years and drove it y miles and haven't had any maintenance issues..." Err.... are they saying it was reliable?

Changing oil, air filters, etc. all falls under maintenance. When both power window motors and regulators failed on my 350Z, the act of getting them fixed (luckily warranted) falls under repairs.

 

It's very fortunate you got the present Prius. When I got the 2001, all the comments were about how the battery fails after a couple of years. Note that I was NEVER asked what I experienced, just told what would happen to my car. The comments were always along the lines of "Looks interesting, but I don't think I can afford the replace the battery every couple of years."

A couple of years later the comments were like "I need a car that has the ability to climb hills".

It seems that the comment of choice 9 year later is "expensive to maintain".

Welcome to the secret PriusChat society where we only allow the owners to know the key secret of the Prius......of turning critics into the clueless.

 

Like all Toyotas, the parts are expensive but you never need to buy them. Or would you rather the parts were cheap but you were in the dealer buying them every week?

 

Maybe that mechanic friend doesn't work on Prius cars and knows another potential customer is not a potential customer. Sour grapes

 

I had to laugh at the "expensive to maintain" list. Those are the amateurs. The professional is Porsche. Everything else is cheap after you've owned a Porsche--especially a 911.

 

Sounds to me like yet another person ignorant (and yes I do mean ignorant not stupid - you can't fix the latter) to technology and change. The mechanic at home in Vermont that I used for years, as have my parents, is about as familiar with the Prius as my cat, however, I've never once heard any of these types of comments from him (genuine curiosity). When I was considering a new Prius, all of the honest and detailed feedback from PC was invauable. Enjoy your new car and laugh each and everytime you drive by this guy's shop and know you'll likely never need him for ANY major repair.

 

Dirt cheap to maintain.

Expensive to repair. Don't crash it.

 

wow. good to know. here i'd owned it for 4 years and spent more money on tires than anything else. apparently i'm doing it wrong.

 

CLEVER REPLY

So smile at your friend and tell them, 'Oh, you remember those Prius repair costs? It seems they break so seldom they have to charge more and they make their money repairing <your friend's car>.'

FACTS AND DATA

You might see about getting Consumer Reports "Best & Worst for '09" that came out in January. On pp. 3, "Owner Satisfaction Which cars would owners buy again?"

Consumer Reports, April 2009, pp. 18-19, "Most bang for the buck"

The same issue asked the question "Would you buy your car again?" (pp. 12)

Then on page 13, they have "Used-car reliability:"

Bob Wilson