Old newbie: out with the old, in with the new

I haven't much followed any Prius forums since spending 6 months languishing on a dealerships list awaiting my turn to purchase my 2004 Prius. It was the most reliable and inexpensive vehicles I have ever owned.

This year I was thinking of and saving up for a new vehicle, specifically a Chevy Volt when disaster struck. My girlfriend had taken the Prius to a remote hot springs with zero cell service for a week and while driving home all of the warning lights lit up, though the car continued to drive mostly normal so she slowly limped the 150 miles home. Hoping perhaps that the fix was easy and obvious, I popped open the hood and learned why my dog was so furiously sniffing around the nose of the car.

I was greeted by a rather large and rather surprised rodent who had built a nest on top of the engine. I'm not 100% sure that type of rodent since in my shock, I dropped the hood, never to see the critter again. While trying to limp to a service center, the car finally relented and had to be towed in. Turns out he had done a fine job of trashing a few rather pricy wiring harnesses (parts alone quoted at $2,000) which would require ripping most of the car apart to replace (total estimate around $9,000).

Considering I had not saved up nearly enough for the Volt, I decided to purchase a 2016 Prius seeing as how they had many sitting on the lot ready for immediate delivery.

Initially I was not fond of the new design, but it has since grown on me. Then again I never particularly liked the design of my 04, but loved the car none the less. Though the 2016 Prius is vastly different, it still has a very familar feel with regard to the layout of the controls. Thankfully I find the handling, road noise and visibility much improved as is the mileage, particularly on short trips.

Though the 16 has far more features than my 04, the out the door price was almost identical, the thanks to features that used to cost extra new being standard. So here's hoping for another 12 years of trouble free driving. I just need to build a dog house large enough to park the Prius in to keep it rodent free.


Thanks for the memories


And here's to many more to come.

 

Yes, I made 12 years and around 180,000 miles on the original battery. For the last few years I was not able to achieve the same mileage, but figured that a fully paid off vehicle that still got around +45 mpg was just fine with me. I do not know if the drop was related to battery age or just the vehicle age.

I asked Toyota about the battery every time I had my oil changed (I sure took a advantage of the lifetime oil change they offered), but they stated if there was something wrong with battery that I would certainly know about it.

The only issue I had for the last few years was that I had to keep an eye on my oil level, since I would have a quart or so disappear every few thousand miles.

SAMSUNG-SM-T337A ?

 

It does not take much to total a car of that age. I had a coworker who had a Honda SUV that was about a year old that was eventually totaled due to mice. The dealer kept tearing the vehicle apart, eventually ripping out the entire interior before the insurance company totaled it.

SAMSUNG-SM-G890A ?

 

I believe it was a rat from the brief glimpse I got of it. It was certainly much bigger than any of the mice I have seen in the Pacific Northwest and I do not think it was a squirrel. My girlfriend left it parked in the woods for 5 days and I think it might have been near the hot springs kitchen or compost pile.

SAMSUNG-SM-G890A ?

 

Yeah, I suspected after a few weeks of driving my last Prius back in '04 that it would ruin all other standard gasoline vehicles for the rest of my life. I often travel for work, driving many rentals and while many are nice cars, I still am shocked at how low the mileage is for those "economy" cars. It annoys me and I'm not even the one paying for all that extra gas.

 

Last followup on the status of my poor 2004 Prius, I finally got my insurance company to settle the case. They agreed to total the car instead of paying for it to be repaired (not a shock to me).

What was shocking is that they valued the car at $6,000, minus the $500 deductible. It might have been more helpful to have that check before I purchased my 2016, but I can always throw it at the loan I guess.

Had they paid to have it fixed, I would have most likely sold it and I doubt I could have gotten that much for a car of that age and wear.

SAMSUNG-SM-G890A ?