Prospective Prius Buyer with Questions

Welcome aboard Rich!

1. Nope, I enjoy modifying the car and put in it, just want I want. As is though, the II is good enough for me.

2. There is an official Toyota service manual online somewhere. I have downloaded it.

3. Yeah, spendy stuff. There are some diagnosis units like the ScanGauageII and even ODB apps for smartphones. There are limited in there utility.

There is a ton of information in the posts... the search is in the upper right of the page.

Enjoy!

 

Scheduled maintenance is very minimal and easy, you will find illustrated walktroughs for most of it here on Prius Chat. Technical manuals are a subscription service.

http://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/document/omms/T-MMS-11Prius/pdf/MY11%20Toyota%20Prius%20WMG.pdf

Is a maintenance manual for a 2011, starting on page 39 of the PDF, page 38 of the paper manual

I encourage you to consider all brake work dealer repair, bleeding the brakes is nontrivial. Various Priuschatters will encourage you to do some maintenance more often than the manual requires, I would recommend 60,000 mile interval Transaxle fluid replacements and to consider replacing the 12 volt battery every 4 years.

While I like my 2009 Prius a great deal I have been collecting advice for who should NOT own a Prius.

http://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/document/omms/T-MMS-11Prius/pdf/MY11 Toyota Prius WMG.pdf

 

Spiderman and JimboPalmer pretty much covered it.

The only factory items not offered on the Prius II that I wanted was leather and a Good sound system. So I bought a base model and added them the way I wanted. But that's me.

Which ever model you buy, you will love the MPG and it really is a great car. Good luck.

 

1) I guess it's pretty easy to add Blulogic handsfree Bluetooth to a Prius Two. I don't know how well the aftermarket voice recognition works, but in my Three, voice commands work well. Don't have to touch the phone to have a conversation.

Around here, the Two's can be had in any color for $21.6k + taxes. The '12's will get some more goodies like BT, USB and a touchscreen, but the sticker price is going to be about $24.9k and who knows what the discount will be early next year ... $500, $1k?

2) I bought pre-paid maintenance and plan on leaving all scheduled maintenance to Toyota for the foreseable future. I will get a good service manual and ask for earlier service on some items like transaxle fluid. I've done a tons of basic maintenance on my cars and motorcycles at home for too long, but this Prius goes to Toyota for maintenance.

Only thin I plan is to remove wheel covers before checking it in and throwing a cheap seat cover over driver's seat in case they forget to cover it.

 

I'm glad I bought a Prius II. Spiderman, who posted here, wrote up a good post that you can find in the Electronics section. It tells you everything you need to know to replace the stock Prius II radio with a fancy GPS/backup cam/DVD/iPod/XM/Whatever touchscreen unit. Replacing the factory speakers with third party is straightforward and well documented here.

The backup camera install is no picnic, but basically you just remove about twenty plastic trim pieces, run two wires, and that's it. Rear visibility is terrible in Prius, so if you want to keep your bumper looking nice, install that camera.

There are seat covers, like Katskinz, which are custom-fitted and installed just like factory leather, if you want leather seats.

The only thing nobody's figured out how to do yet is to install SKS key sensors on the passenger door and rear hatch.

Maintenance on new cars is really easy these days. I haven't done brakes, but my understanding is that a brake flush is not a DIY job on this car. On the plus side, the brake pads are well-known for lasting 100,000 miles. First spark plug change is at 100,000 miles. Air filter change is at 30,000.It's tool-less.

Oil change is 10,000, but most of us change at 5,000 to 7,500. If you don't accessorize this car, your tools will rust.

One item is that Prius can get squeaky inside. There are a lot of threads here about it. A good do-it-yourselfer like you might want to spend a while removing panels and installing padding at key spots, and maybe install Dynamat or similar sound deadening material inside for a quieter ride.

 

Although I have a 2009 (previous generation & relatively different), I do have a model 2. There is really nothing that I would have wanted in a higher level - perhaps bluetooth but I do my best to stay off the phone and have a Motorola bluetooth speaker that works well and cost about $50.

 

I've got the Base II package (2011) and don't see that the higher prices for more bells and whistles is really worth it. The FM radio reception is pretty bad, but I don't think that changes with the higher end models. Sound using CD or Ipod is adequate IMO, but certainly not great.

Leather seats would certainly be nice, but I've heard good things about Clazzio seats so may go that route for $400-$500.

Good luck!

 

Rich,

From what I've gleaned here and from the FSM (I found a cheap download), I can do everything that I do on my other vehicles except a full brake system bleed.

Depending on your hwy commute, your mileage may not be as high as what a lot of folks here sometimes report (it does better in town/below 60mph).

I've found that the "bells and whistles" on my loaded III are what I most enjoy. Other than the wonderful silent "idle", I find the hybrid drive experience to be somewhat "dull" overall.

YMMV

 

We got a 2010 Gen 3 model IV and like it. We prefer leather so it was a IV or V. They also come with Nav which is a little clumsy in operation but works.

We got it in the Cash for Clunkers program and got $4500 for a Jeep worth less than $2000. It was the only small hybrid available locally (no Camrys anywhere) and happened to be a IV.

The main things we miss are power/memory seats, mirrors, and steering wheel. Our RX400h has those. Some people really like the V (Five) with the Advanced Technology Package and the LED headlights. We would love to have the LED headlights, I wish we could upgrade.

 

I have driven a Five with LED Lights, and I did not notice a drastic difference with the Fours Halogens focused factory beams. They seem pretty bright at night.
My last vehicle did have factory Xenon's which were pretty bright, but maybe it's just me, but the Four's Halogens seem almost equal to the Xenon's.

 

I bought a 2, but wish I had a 3, the difference was 1k, but the blutooth, better radio and satellite radio would have been worth it in retrospect(when I bought the car my inner cheap bas...d was in control).

 

About rearview, backup camera....

I don't find backing up in Prius any more difficult, really, than other cars. Just use both side and rearview mirror, turn head as needed.

If anything, the backup camera can be too much of a crutch, maybe causing one to rely on it too much. It does not show cars driving coming from side behind you. But, if you have to park on curb with tight spacing, or back up to a wall, that's where the backup camera really helps.

Other than above, I don't miss backup camera much.

 

But any do-it-yourselfer (or anyone who hires an installer) can install a super-duper car stereo in a Prius II for $1,000 (or much less) which includes Bluetooth, navigation, backup camera, satellite radio, iPod connectivity, etc.

So I don't think the Prius III is a better value at all; you can easily replace the Prius II radio with something vastly better.

 

I bought the model 3 because of the nicer sound system and the aux cable spot. Sounds really nice and we were able to talk the dealer down to the retailer invoice of a model 2.

 

1) Yes, the radar cruise control would have been nice considering the amount of highway driving I do. Plus the leather seats are likely more comfortable; I already feel that my cloth driver seat has "sunk" after 19k.

2) The factory shop manual is your best bet. Look around on the internet and eBay, you'll be able to find an electronic pdf copy for peanuts. They may still be free ones floating around, that's how I got mine.

3) Mongoose MFC is the official cable that is approved for use with Toyota Techstream Lite. It is $485 from Mongoose. However, I myself and others have found that a knockoff $60 "Mangoose" cable from uobd2 that works just as well. The Techstream software can also be acquired online...just do some searching. *cough*