May buy Prius...have questions

Hello and welcome!

I'm 6ft 2.5in tall, about 185lbs. Long legs, 35in inseam, long arms.

A word about Prius driver's seating..

I've looked very carefully at the Prius seating vs. a 2009 Corolla and Matrix. There is no 2nd generation Prius that has a driver's seat height adjuster.

Many say the Prius seat needs to slide back a little farther. I mostly agree with that, but when a Corolla or Matrix seat (which slides about far back as Prius) is tilted to the lowest position, it substantially increases legroom, and requires less knee and ankle bending to operate the brake pedal.

If your legs are long, you might find the Prius legroom for working the brake pedal a little lacking as I do. Not horrible, but not great, just fairly good.

You may find the rearview mirror blocking your road-level line of sight since the Prius seat cannot lower to put your eyes at level of a 5ft6in person for example. I solved the electronic Homelink mirror problem by carefully inverting it to not break the wire connected to it.

I'm pretty sure Toyota added the rearview camera and Smart Key system in 2006, both very handy options.

Some percentage of owners had trouble with the multifunction display in 04 and the 05 models due to a circuit board trace failure.

 

I don't find road noise to be excessive in my car. When cruising the highway, I like to play music fairly loud. The JBL system, although not amazing is pretty darn good to me, and certainly better than the base audio system.

Keep in mind road noise is a function of the pavement your on.

Wind noise is very low in my car. No rattles or squeaks. The engine and transmission are very quiet.

The ride in the non-touring Prius is very cushy, sometimes can feel like floating down the road. Very nice.

I've driven the car through the winding mountain roads to Santa Cruz, and it handles and powers up the hills pretty darn well.

In summary, for me, this Prius is a very good car, and just a driver's seat height adjuster away from being an extremely good car.

 

It's tough for me to say if I would have been happier with getting a 2009 Matrix S instead. I fit that car better ergonomically, but it certainly doesn't have the charms of Hybrid Synergy Drive -

less emissions, total silence at any stop light, sometimes 1 mile cruising 40 mph on battery alone, pulling into parking lot or garage, total silence from drivetrain.

 

Here's what I do know about the hybrid battery ...

It came with a 8yr/100k mile warranty. It does not have to be replaced at 100k miles. You'll need to research how far others have gone.

I checked the Toyota parts and labor price for an 09 battery replacement - about $3k

In CA the hybrid batter warranty is 10 years / 150k and I'm pretty sure it's the same battery in the other state's cars. Don't know if the 04/05's had that warranty.

 

I'm also a pretty big guy, albeit not 6ft. 3in. tall. I'm 6ft. 1in., 230 pounds and on average spend about 30 minutes at a time in my car driving to and from downtown SD and in traffic.

Only problem I've encountered is at a light I sometimes have to slouch a little to see the overhead light.

What's your price range? Why go 2004/2005? The 2010 coming out is going to/has brought pricing of 2009's down.

 

There have been complaints about the seats in the prius. You may want to sit in it and see how well you fit.

 

I'm sure Atlanta has some pretty big Toyota dealerships. If you can find a Prius, Corolla and/or Matrix in the same showroom, will make it easier to compare the seats. Crank the forward handle down on left side of Corolla seat, I think you'll see what I mean above.

 

I'm 6'3" and after 55 months find the fit no worse than any other smallish car. On my last 1000 mile trip I used a small cushion to improve lower back support.

I would not hesitate to buy another one. It's most satisfying car I've ever driven.

 

Hi!
Just wanted to give you my experience on the height/size thing.
I am 6'6"(198cm) and 230lbs(105kg). I find the seats quite alright. Sure they could have more support, but they're not all that bad.
Mind you, though, I have a european model with height adjustment on the drivers seat.
The roof is fairly close... good thing I am bald

 

Hi. I'm 5'7", 130 lbs, so i can't comment on the height issue.

I just got a used Prius after a month or so of shopping. I wanted a used one because i'm in Los Angeles, drive a lot for my job all over the county and also commute on freeways, and the last year that has the carpool lane stickers is 2007. Carpool lane stickers were a top priority feature for me, considering the low maintenance needs of compact or small Japanese cars (I've had 4 over the decades, they drive for ever, cheap) a used car is a perfectly fine choice for me.

The years i looked at were 2005, 2006 and 2007. One of the first two i looked at was a 2005, immaculate, 27,000 miles. I loved it, but the first one i saw, a 2006, had a back up camera and this one didn't, nor did it have the smart key/keyless ignition which was very appealing to me, so i continued shopping although i loved the car.

The longer i looked at used Priuses, the more i saw with the higher packages. I started out thinking i didn't need those various features, and ended up really wanting them, particularly hands free bluetooth phone capability and GPS, along with the Smart Key/keyless ignition/entry, and i liked the leather seats a lot, which my previous car also had. The 2005 had fewer features with lower packages.

The important thing that i found was that which year it was, 05, 06 or 07, did not seem to have much effect on the price. Every one i looked at were in the $19,000 to $20,000 range, with the exception of a couple at dealers that were $18,000 but all the ones at dealers i saw had the lower packages, without the luxury features i came to want, for the same price the luxury models were going for from private parties. A couple of private parties were asking $22,000 but negotiable. In other words, there wasn't much if any savings in getting a 2005 over a 2007, so i started just looking for an 07--why not get a newer year, since the prices were the same? Also, i found that i could find cars with the higher packages for the same price as the lower ones.

The other consideration was miles on the car. I wanted to stay under 36,000, in order to still be under factory warranty. I did find that there could be some savings buying a higher miles Prius, but not a lot, and not always. The price range was $17K to $22K for that age range, 05 to 07, but it didn't vary with the year. It depended more on the condition, but not perfectly. It was clear that with enough time to look, i could get a lower miles high package latest year Prius for my price. My time was limited though, and i spent more than what i would've spent if i'd had more time, for the same car.

I got a 2007 with 28K miles, with package 6, from a small dealer of collector cars who had the Prius on a trade in, for $20,000 before tax. The car is near immaculate, it looks and feels new, leather seats, good smell.

The immaculate 2005 i saw in the beginning, option 1, no special features except side airbag curtains (which became standard on later models) was $19,000 with 27K miles.

There are a couple of things i don't like about the car compared to the Honda Accord i have been driving for 10 years. One is the visibility out the back window. It's restricted, which is simply less safe. I'm not sure why the Prius is designed that way. I don't like it and will never like it.

The ride is a little rougher than the Accord, but not bad. The tire noise is a little more than the Accord. I don't notice it with the radio on. The handling is a little less stable, unless it's just that i have to get used to the Prius but again, it's not at all bad.

But the other thing i really don't like and was surprised to find is that it has rattles in and around the dashboard, they are intermittent and weren't there on the test drive. They're especially noticeable to me because my '93 Accord that i got with 80,000 miles on it and drove up to 166,000 miles, has never had a single rattle, true, that's extraordinary, but i appreciate it. I've done some reading on these forums about rattles in the dashboard, there may be fixes, opening up the dashboard and putting insulation or something in the places that are rubbing or loose. The rattles come from both sides of the dashboard, the front corners, and more rarely, from the middle. They are quite obtrusive, though easily masked by the radio. But i think of this is as a new car and would expect it would be tight and quiet. Someone else says theirs is tight as a drum and quiet. I wish mine was. I'm not sure if these rattles are covered under the warranty, or are considered normal wear and tear, but i don't think it should be normal or acceptable for a new car (2 years old) to have such noise of pieces rubbing together. It's not the old car rattle of loose metallic parts. It's plastic rubbing against plastic.

Having said that, i love the car, i love driving it, i love the compactness of moving in traffic, though i am very cautious because of the poor visibility out the back. Though the car looks small to me on the road, from the outside, on the inside i find it very roomy. It looks like it could blow away in the wind. I haven't driven it in strong wind yet, but it does feel heavy and stable so far. I got new tires on it, a lot of PC people recommend that because of shortcomings of the stock tires, and the ones that came on my car were pretty worn, they didn't have a lot of miles left on them, and it's the rainy season, i put larger tires on, highly recommended, i didn't really have a chance to compare because i did this right away.

I'm still learning the car, it's been about 4 weeks or less, much to learn, but i'm very happy with it, i drive in the carpool lanes, sailing by gridlock traffic i would've been sitting in, i pay $15 to fill the tank, i like the display showing feedback on MPG, i'm in the process of learning how to drive in ways that will get higher mileage, but just driving my normal style, i'm getting 42 mpg, which ain't bad.

I was on the fence about whether to get a late model Accord SE, which i would've loved for sure, or a Prius, which was a big change away from what i was already very happy with in my previous car. I decided to get the prius, carpool lane stickers and low gas mileage in a world where i now know the price of gas can rise without limit, with me driving on my job 100s of miles a week, i decided to go with the spirit of change but it was a little scary. I now think it was the best thing i could've done for myself.

 

Heres a few quick thoughts:

1) Most of the changes from '04 to '09 are related to options. There were a few changes made in '06, a different higher res MFD, different color taillights, but they are all very similar. One thing to note is that the side airbags were optional the first few years, as was stability control if these are things you care about. Leather (factory) and some of the other goodies were not available until '06. From the link below, you can download the brochures to see what was available what years:
eBrochures

2) I'm 6'0, 220 and I have no complaints. Its no luxury car, but I don't find it uncomfortable. I've done the 350 miles from Phoenix to LA a number of times, and did 1800 miles in a little over 2 days stopping only to sleep in the car, eat/pee, or refuel. No complaints even after being in the car for all that time. Its again not luxury car quiet, but its probably the quietest car I've owned. Road noise is pretty minimal, unless you boost your tire pressure way up to improve mileage (like most folks here do).

3) The MFD issue was I believe only on the '04s. You can buy rebuilt ones know for ~$300 so its not really that big a concern. In general reliability is turning out to be fantastic. Consumer Reports has a lot of really good data on this, it s probably one of the most reliable cars in their database (particularly the Gen2 '04+). The battery life has pretty much turned out to be a non-issue. The published failure rate for Gen2 batteries is 1:40,000, or about 0.0025%. This compares very favorably with the failure rates on other expensive items like auto-transmissions (which the Prius doesn't have) which can often be in the 1:1000 to 1:100 (0.1-1%) range. Most of the examples we have seen of battery failure have either been what they call "infant mortality" failures, IE a failure soon after buying a new car due to a manufacturing defect, or have been the result of abnormal use (ie running out of gas, driving the car on battery until it shuts itself down, then restarting and running on battery until it dies completely.) Neither of these cases has been common. If buying used you can have a dealer run a computer check that will tell if the battery has ever been run down like that. There are '04s out there being used as Taxis that are up around 300,000 miles with no problems reported ont their original batteries. In general the maintenance is very minimal. Its pretty much just oil & filters for 100k miles, then change some fluids and spark plugs and repeat. Brakes generally last ~100k miles as well since they are not used much (electric motor does most of the braking).

4) We were so happy with our first, that we just bought a second. Even having come from driving SUVs (Land Rover) and sports cars (Saab, WRX), and considering myself a "car guy", I really love the Prius. Its a very different car from what I was used to, but very fun to drive in its own way. Like many, I bought it thinking it would be a big sacrifice but worth it from a national security and environmental standpoint. Now I like it better than any of the other cars I've driven. Thats part of why we finally ended up selling the other cars and buying a second. Even with a family of four, there just wasn't anything else out there that seemed to offer anything that was worth giving up 50mpg, and the enjoyment we get out of the Prius.

Good luck with your hunt, there are plenty of good deals out there at this point so its a good time to shop! For a few examples, when we were shopping we were looking at an '06 package 6 w/24k miles certified preowned for $18k, and ended up buying an '08 package 4 certified preowned with 10k miles for $20,800. There are several threads on here where you can get an idea what others are paying too:
http://priuschat.com/forums/dealers-pricing/25799-how-much-you-paid-your-prius-67.html
Dealers & Pricing

Rob

 

Have had my 09 Prius since November and still love it. I think I love it just a little bit more every time I drive it.

My only complaint: I wish the drivers seat moved back further. I'm only 5'8", my husband is 6' and we both fit, but it could be more comfy. It's a non-issue on long trips b/c I just set the cruise. I'm OK with the actual seat comfort...just wish it moved a bit further back. There's a bit of road noise, but it doesn't bother me.

 

Lee, I'm in Atlanta. Let me know if you want to poke and prod and examine and discuss in a non-dealer setting, we can play with mine.