Looking at purchasing a used Prius and I have some questions.

The normal disc brakes on the Prius are used so little they go very rusty and if the car you tried had not been moved for a while they were probably stuck. Unlock of transmission on a hill is noticeable. The first problem you are likely to hit is the 12volt battery will probably be toast after standing so long, get a new one as part of the deal. Next tyres check the make and type of tyre on the car, they make a big difference to fuel consumption, if need be change them they will pay for themselves. Check fuel economy section on here for tyres to choose.

Good luck John.

 

No problems with cold temps but grill blocking is advisable to help fuel economy. The engine does not start in the normal way with a 12v starter grinding away, but a powerful electric motor/generator spinning the engine up to 1500RPM before injecting fuel and giving ignition.
Not sure about MPG under your conditions but slowing down a little would show dividends. I would also use 0w20 oil for easy cold starts and it also helps MPG.
I should also have welcomed you to PC there is a lot of useful information on hear and some very helpful people too

 

The Prius is a 4 door hatchback, its designed to be your only car since it is so versatile, but you don't want to get rid of the Tundra. Since you still want to drive your Tundra at least once a week (driving any less will be bad for the battery & tires) for fishing expeditions and trips to Home Depot, I would choose something better looking and less practical than a Prius. I would buy a Honda CR-Z as it is a sexy 2 door available with a 6 speed manual.

the Prius is a full hybrid and is extremely thrifty in the city using advanced hybrid technology. Driving on the highway doesn't take nearly advantage of all that technology, which is both expensive to buy and expensive to replace when things eventually go wrong. Take battery failure for example, when the battery fails in a full toyota hybrid, the car has to be towed to a shop and thousands spent on a new or reconditioned battery before the car can be driven again. On the other hand, Honda's less efficient 'mild' hybrids can be driven with a dead or no hybrid battery pack at all.

If the 2-door CR-Z is too expensive or too small you could always go with a VW diesel Jetta or Golf. Although diesel engines don't handle the cold as well as gasoline engines, they have come a long way in the last 20 years. It was always believed that diesels lasted longer because the engines ran cleaner as they released more pollution, but I think diesels are much cleaner and have less rattle nowadays. I'm not sure if hotels/motels in ND allow customers to hook their engine block heaters up, if so I would invest in one as it will increase fuel economy and decrease wear and tear in any car you choose to buy.

I would also invest in a set of dedicated winter tires for any of the cars mentioned above, as they are designed to handle driving in cold temperatures. I love both my Prius and plan to keep them for awhile, but I'm not going to cheerlead for a car that I feel doesn't fit your driving needs.

 

While Cnschult makes some good points driving a VW diesel is not one of them, they come with there own reliability problems but worse still on long runs at 70MPH plus will be a nightmare. Before I retired I used to drive 55,000 miles a year as an industrial robot service engineer, at first the company I worked for supplied Diesel cars changed every year. I drove VW, Ford, Vauxhaul (GM) and Rover, all of them at the end of along run made me deaf when I got out of the car at the end of a journey with my ears ringing! I then persuaded the company to get a Prius and what a difference and at the end of the year the company bought four more as it proved cheaper to run and more reliable than any of the diesels. When I retired I bought the second Prius from the company and now at 80,000 miles and no problems, lifetime MPG 64.8

 

I didn't say buy an old diesel car, I advised him to buy a newer one where those noise and pollution problems have been addressed.

I thought the only people in Europe who don't like diesels were Top Gear presenters.

The Prius is a better car than any VW, I just don't think it suits the driving needs of OP as well as a VW, that's all i was saying. People need to consider their driving style when choosing their car, when the gen II Prius first came out dealerships sold them to their most loyal customers, old people who had been buying Toyotas for many decades, they all put 6K miles a year on them and it was a total waste as the people who needed to drive the Prius, people driving 15K+ miles a year weren't able to buy them.

Case in point is the Prius I'm currently driving, a 2004 fully loaded, I bought it 6 months ago with 41K miles, way underdriven and a complete waste in the old lady I bought it from.

 

The OP's style of driving is at 75MPH for long distances and that was the same driving style as me. I gave a true account of driving diesel cars not just VW under those conditions. If you do not believe me have a look at Grumpy Cabbie's posts another UK high mileage driver with much experience of European diesel cars and his verdict on them. In the UK we have a huge choice of diesel cars but unless you go top end (Jaguar, Merc etc) the results are the same and although these larger vehicles are good on fuel they still come know where near the Prius on economy and servicing costs are very high.
By the way top gear presenters don't like anything that will not do 0 to 60mph in less than 5 seconds, and I am told that some people actually believe what the presenters say, and you obviously did not see Clarkson's verdict on the diesel Jaguar.
One other point did you now the Bugatti Vayron was made by VW

 

It's a little ironic that this is being stated as a reason not to get a Prius to be used for predominantly freeway travel, given the freeway miles give the least likelihood of traction battery failure of just all possible driving conditions for the Prius.

 

I challenge anyone to beat the economics of a used Gen II, when mileage is reimbursed at .445/mile. Okay, a Gen 1 Honda Insight would, but that's about it.

 

The clunk noise does not sound normal unless it was parked on a incline. It could be brakes frozen in place, but I have never experienced this in our Prius.

Regarding cold weather, the Prius starts its engine with a much more powerful traction battery. I've never had trouble starting the Prius, but our temps rarely go below 0F. I use Castrol 0W-30 European Formula year round. It gets rave reviews at Bob is the Oil Guy and has very impressive specs. It offers outstanding protection at all temperatures.

If you weren't keeping your truck, I would warn you that the Prius's hyper vigilant traction control makes it rather easy to get stuck in a few inches of snow. If you get good dedicated winter tires for ice and light snow and have the truck for deep snow, you should do great.

I second the recommendation to carefully try a grille block in the winter. The Prius engine is so efficient that it creates much less waste heat. This means less to warm the cabin. It also means the engine will run unnecessarily just to create heat for the cabin or to keep the engine warm enough to run cleanly. An engine block heater will really help with lower fuel consumption and a warmer cabin.

Of course if most of your driving will be longer highway trips, heat is less of an issue than with short trips. But low speed and city driving is where the Prius and other hybrids especially shine in fuel economy. The Prius hardly uses the hybrid system at steady highway cruising speeds. I don't drive 75mph all that often, but I'd say you can expect around 45mpg after warming up while cruising at those speeds, maybe 40mpg counting cold start-ups. I agree with others that if you will primarily be driving longer highway trips, a fuel efficient diesel or gas non-hybrid might offer you similarly low costs. I like the Golf TDI, new Mazda3 SkyActiv, new Elantra, old Civic, Fusion, Optima, or Sonata. If you like Toyotas, don't forget the Yaris, Corolla, and Camry.

The Prius has been extremely reliable. Still, I might worry about the condition of the very expensive traction battery if a Prius has been sitting for a long time. In states with California emmissions the battery has a nice long warranty, but I'm not sure what it is in Dakota.

Check out the Edmunds TMV of the used Priuses. If the dealer has had it taking up space on the lot for half a year, either they haven't really wanted to sell it or they are starting to realize that they will need to lower the price considerably in order to sell it. That 12V accessory battery that may have degraded from sitting is small but an unusual size, pricey, and much harder than most to change. I agree with asking the dealer to replace it with a brand new one or knock another $300 of the price.

 

ditto on the gen I Insight, I almost bought one years ago to use in tandem with an isuzu rodeo as the two vehicles complement each other very well, but since I decided to have just one vehicle, the prius became the obvious choice.

with gas prices heading the way they are and with the $.445/miles reimbursement its hard to argue against a prius, but if gas were sub $3 a corolla or civic might make more sense, he's going to make money with pretty much any economy car he chooses regardless. I was just thinking OP would have more fun with a manual transmission car to supplement his Tundra which I'm sure is an automatic, obviously driving a stick in stop and go city traffic can be annoying, but he'll be able to throw it into 'top gear' (that's for you BritPrius ) and cruise 75mph all the way to his destination.

as for BritPrius comments on diesel inefficiency at 75mph, I'm going to make up some numbers here: let's say the prius gets 50mpg at 65mph, and 42mpg at 75mph, which is a 16% loss in mileage in order to go 15.4% faster, not an unreasonable tradeoff if you are in a hurry. Whatever that diesel VW gets at 65mph, let's just say 55mpg, are you implying that it will lose significantly more than 16% FE in order to cruise at 75mph??

I've never owned a diesel so if you say that is the case i'll happily take your word for it, but why would that be? Don't they know diesels are popular highway cruisers and wouldn't they put a taller top gear in to allow their diesels to still get good mpg at 75mph?

As for the diesel Jag episode, I thought there were 3: first, JC had to drive one 700 miles to light a xmas tree and he hated every moment of it but was pleasantly surprised by the economy of the jag. second, capt. slow thought the diesel xj was "all the jaguar you need" because it was avail with all the features of the more expensive XJs, you could even the the XJR grilled if you wanted. and third, JC tried and tried and tried to get the diesel jag around the nuremburg ring in under 10 minutes (he finally succeeded) whilst being scolded by the hot german dame. So having one out of three presenters like the diesel jag is not a win for diesels in my book.

 

Sad part is, diesels have potential to be the most efficient hybrid. But the higher maintenance and repair costs, coupled with the extra $1 per gallon for fuel, makes diesel much less compelling nowadays.

 

yea the last auto show I went to VW had a really cool diesel hybrid convertible, I forget what it was called, but that was years ago and it hasn't come to fruition yet.

 

Cnshult the reason they do not install a taller top gear is that all the EU diesels are turbo charged and unless the revs are reasonably high the turbo does not work, and then power drops off dramatically. They are notorious for lack of power when pulling away unless revs are applied before doing so and that also gives rise to clutch wear.

 

My answer to the OP's original question is:

The Prius would offer you an adequate solution to your situation. Miles per gallon is not the only advantage to a Gen II Prius. The traction batteries have proven reliable and the overall maintenance on a Prius is considerably less than a conventional automobile. Here are a few examples:

Brakes: Less wear due to regen braking
Oil: Engine runs less so oil change interval is lengthened (service sked says 10k but if you normally do it at 3k, you can feel comfortable stretching it to 5k)
Engine wear: Since the engine doesn't run all the time, there is less wear on it (for your situation however, it would run most of the time)
Overall reliability: 2009 Prius was recently recognized as the most reliable compact on the road
PriusChat: I have not seen a more comprehensive blog for any car. Its just my opinion but I don't think there's any problem that hasn't been addressed.

The Gen II is very well supported, it has a long model run (04-09) so most parts are available from salvage yards. I honestly don't see a better alternative when it comes to cost per mile (even for mostly highway driving).

 

ahhhh Turbo Lag!!!
BMW solved that with twin turbocharging, as opposed to a porsche twin turbo which has one turbo for 3 cylinders and then another turbo for the other 3 cylinders, the bmw system uses one turbocharger for all 6 cylinders at high revs and then another turbocharger for all 6 cylinders at lower revs, thus eliminating turbo lag. I believe their system applies to both gas and diesel engines.

I have nothing against turbochargers as they seem to be the wave of the future, but it needs to be applied to the right vehicles. I really like the look of the mazda cx-7 but with a turbo 4 instead of 6 cylinders its rated to tow 2000 pounds, the dry weight of my boat & trailer is 2300 pounds so we were forced to buy a forester (No H.I.D.'s ). Even with 4 cylinders the forester, highlander and murano all are rated to tow at least 50% more than the mazda.

 

The snag with all turbo chargers is much the same as wind turbines, no wind no power if the engine is going slow enough there is insufficient exhaust flow to give sufficient inlet boost.

 

This sounds a little like saying the snag with internal combustion engines is that they can't produce their full power unless they are operating at high rpms.

And the problem with high RPM engines is that they don't produce much torque or power until you really spool up the engine. Of course a large displacement engine has neither of these problems but is oversized and inefficient for the load and demands that are usually placed on it. A hybrid system with an electric battery and motor(s) to pitch in immediately under heavy demand is pricey and heavy compared to a forced induction or high redline engines. Pick your poison.

Personally I was impressed to see the fuel economy and performance BMW has drawn out of its 528i with the new turbocharged 2.0L four cylinder. I know it's no Prius, but I'm impressed by any engine that can produce 240HP, 255lb-ft torque, and catapult a heavy 3882 pound car to 60mph in 5.9 seconds while still achieving an EPA 34 mpg highway (with that heavy car).

2012 BMW 528i Test - Review - Car and Driver

The engine technology impresses me even though I have no need for a car that is so expensive, heavy, or fast.

 

I've noticed that more and more cars are having more horsepower and torque avail at lower revs than engines of yesteryear. Idling can be almost as bad as driving near the redline, a mechanic I trust warned me years ago never to get a remote starter as he believes engines need to have a "load" on them to operate properly.

6-speed manual + mid engine with 8750 rpm redline = a frightening good time

 

One more reason I really like the Prius: it nearly never idles without putting at least some load on the engine, to charge the traction battery if nothing else.

Stop. You're making me really miss my old MR2.