Bought 2006 Today (first prius).

Bought 2006 Prius with 120K. Leather, JBL, Back Up camera/ Nav , side curtains air bags. I believe it also has stability control as well.

Black Paint , somewhat poor with a lot of surface scratches, clear coat shot on front clip with lots of little dot sized chips etc. couple little dents and 4 inch dinger on the passenger rocker right by the wheel (strictly cosmetic and inconspicuous). Put on a lift and every thing looks good and she drives straight.

It seems to essentially be loaded but does have the 15 inch wheels so Im not exactly sure. I guess it doesn't have the 16 inch wheel performance suspension package but rather a la carte leather/ stereo upgrade.

Leather/ carpeting is mint as well the interior in general with just a little wear on the arm rest center/door.

Car came with set of steelies with virtually new snow tires.

Has new system battery (not big one). And new sub assembly for driver headlight and newish HID bulb ( will probably need the surround or whatever its called as there is condensation in it). One fog is dead as well. Front pads are at about 1/8 inch so will need replace soon but feel REALLY good right now..

PAID 7500.00

Had to act somewhat quickly as my transport was totaled last Wednesday from getting rearended by a pickup at dead stop. The Insurance pay out was 10,400 so after tax I have about 2300.00 buffer for repairs.

I did a "fair" amount of research on values and If there are no hidden major problems I am unaware of I think I got a fair deal (especially with the steelies/snows).

My test drive made me feel it was a bit better then I might I have expected from watching Vids and reading A LOT of reviews.

Despite being the original brakes at 120 and my mechanic telling me they are at the end of their life I felt it stopped well and the modulation was pretty good.

I hope nothing is in fact wrong with the powertrain as I did NOT in fact find it kind of loud or buzzy as some had said when matted. Its essentially a slug (by some standards) but didn't have the sort of kickdown feel of underpowered economy cars that kind of scream but don't seem to be going anywhere.

I also hope the little kind of "bump" with combustion engine when it cycles on and such is normal. My mechanic whos mom has one said you will feel something. This is all new territory to me. As well as CVT tranny.

Seems to have enough power to me for what its intended purpose and goals are as a vehicle. The

Steering is DEFINATELY kind of dead as far as feel BUT seems to corner well enough on back roads and handles crappy roads with out much crashing at lower speeds. OVERALL better then I expected.

All the power windows work very well, cabin is quiet. JBL stereo is OK, not very loud but clear enough if you don't pump the bass to much. Doors close solidly and nicely. Interior material seem to have worn VERY well.

Leather seems to have held up EXCELLENT for 120K.

Will register and Insure on Thursday and give it a real good shakedown run. Hwy cruise, little bit of some mild steeps up here in the Hudson valley/catskill's .

The Vehicle that was totaled was a 2004 Subaru Forester Turbo which got ABYSMAL MPGs. I should get at least 3X the mpgs if I drive carefully plus no need for premium.

My goal is to get as many miles as is possible out of this car and be one of those that gets to 250K or beyond.

So far I am impressed with the vehicle. I have a 02 Corvette for fun as well (30 mpg hwy car believe it or not).

Im sure I will be a regular here as I want to learn as much as possible about extending the functionality of this vehicle and getting the most out of it. So, sorry for the long post and THANK YOU in advance for any help and ALL of the info and resources from all the posts thus far.

Cheers!!

ZF

 

Thanks Tony!!

I see your a "car guy" 69 Austin Mini Van" gonna have to google that. My body shop guy told me about his friend In " the biz" who bought a gen 2 prius as a flip and kept it and bought 2 more for family and his "fun" car is a Buick GNX. So I see the sort of south park fart sniffing meme is BULL%^**(
and I kinda feel that the prius might in fact be a "car guys" car. Just a way to keep everyday stuff economical and earth friendly so you can still enjoy classics and hi po cars. Yeah, Im feelimg REALLY good about my purchase.

Thanks for the response!

Cheers! My real name is Randy, I had a lot of "fun" when travelling in the UK 30 yrs ago with that moniker.

ZF

 

WJ, That is a tremendous little bit of information right there. My preliminary research shows me that a 2006 owner in NY has in fact gotten the free battery replacement under this program. Im going to research what others things may apply and check my warranty book etc.

That would be awesome to have that extra peace of mind knowing I have a year or so and 30k on a major component.

Thanks so much for making me aware of the possibility.

 

Officially On Road this morning. THIS VEHICLE IS AWESOME.

UNSA: You are 100% unequivocally correct with the "high performance" thing. I am already trying to beat my Avg. I took a few trips today and my best so far is 52 mpg's for aprox 25 miles. I went out of my way to take a run up in the mountains with lots of pretty steep long grades and at 85 degrees or so with me at 190 pnds a passenger of 170 pounds, some heavy gear like my pick axe and a 100 pound American bulldog with the AC maxed I still got 36 Mpgs avg over 30 miles.

I played with the engine braking mode (very cool). Im not entirely sure how to use it properly in regards to when to switch it on and off to utilize the best way but I TOTALLY see how this is an awesome feature to extend brake life and therefore save money.

Surprising things. I think in a way its actually pretty easy to 'speed' in this car. It is in fact very smooth and quiet and at below 60-70 MPH Im sometimes surprised how fast Im going as its quiet and smooth. I have to pay attention, more so then my other vehicles in 30 MPH zones.

The concept of it being like a computer and a unique device is true. I see it like a game to be as smooth as possible and trying to beat my "high score" and is in fact like the concept in racing that smooth and consistency equals "fast" and good lap time. Really a parallel and enjoyable in itself.

FOR SURE!! these cars age VERY WELL. I realize for modern cars that are maintained 120K is not a giant # but Ive owned a lot of cars and considering no major or minor components have been replaced its astounding how fresh this car feels.

From my very limited time in this car my intuition along with all I have read I believe this is the ultimate used car for utilitarian purposes for the average driver. It COMPLETELY tickles all my logical instincts. Add in the fun of "beating the system" with the cost of ownership and mpgs and it offers a certain type of unique thrill. I get it right away and feel like a convert .

I also like that I probably appear as an atypical ( non stereo type perhaps) Prius driver in that I am heavily muscled, live in jeans and hanes Ts and baseball caps, a little rough looking with beard and might look more natural riding a motorcycle, classic muscle car or late model mustang or something. So that's a bonus of just f-ing with peoples pre conceptions.

I like the NAV. Only ever used a tom tom previously so I don't have much to compare it to but it seems great to me. The voice activation stuff is kinda slow but recognition has been good and I like it.

I kinda see why some might complain about the seats perhaps. Im 5 8 so Im essentially average height on the shorter size so most things are kind of designed for me. My recent accident that made me buy this car did have my lower back screwed and whiplash and although the seats felt comfortable my lower back felt a bit crappy after driving for a while. The seats and seating position in my forestor was AWESOME and I never had back issues and super comfortable. So I may look for some kind of pillow or lumbar support to mitigate this.

Even with what might seem to be a premium for a used 'economy" or effeciency car, at what I paid I think with in the first year of savings in fuel that will have evaporated and it will be all gravey after that.

Tanglefoot: The front pads are at about 1/8 inch and I guess should be 1/4 or so at optimum and the rear drums appear to have 50% life left in them. I suspect on a regular car the fronts would be getting close to needing replacement but will actually be serviceable for a while the way i will drive it. I do know the car was used for a 4000 mile road trip with 3 men, lots of luggage and gear all through the western US with lots of mountain driving so probably had some pretty severe duty. The owner in fact told me when not using the engine braking and the heavy load on very long downgrades with all the weight you could in fact smell the brakes. Right now the car stops VERY well and I have owned an WRX STi with the brembos and have a c-5 vette so im used to pretty good brakes. These stop authoritatively, have decent pedal feel and modulation (better the my XT had) and better feel then my 2007 V-6 sonata as well which has strong but kinda grabby and not progressive (66k on the clock).

Very interesting about the sort of pseudo CVT set up and direct drive to the electric motor for reverse. I did notice it was strictly electric in R and I probably couldn't pull a fast reverse into a 180 to escape the baddies

I also hope ELIO motors meets their goals as I may purchase on of those as well if they can pull it off.

Thanks for all the great info and greetings from everybody.

Randy

 

I bet your paint is probably better then mine (although that was my least cocern), but I think that contributed to the guy I bought it from accepting 7500. He had just lowered the price from 8500 to 7900 on CL and when I offered 7500 he gave a quick yes with no counter. It does have that dent on the rocker by the front wheel, condensation in the head light and will need brakes which I pointed out to him. So with the new battery you have its probably a similar value. I guess I did get a good optioned car even if the paint is a bit rough (which on a black car looks worse). Good luck with it though, from my research it seems like you got a fair deal.

 

Thank You, when I was coming down the mountain I used it to help keep an appropriate speed while putting less wear on the brakes. But now I have a much better understanding of its purpose. What happens if not in B Mode down a long drop, does the system still have a way to not "overcharge" and bleed off? I liked using it to help control speed and coast without becoming out of control soapbox car. I just want to make sure I explain it properly to others who may drive it. I will look at the energy graphic next time in these situations and see if I can figure it what situations the t bat reaches max.

Lots of interesting stuff to learn about these vehicles and the tech. I had to take a bit of a crash course as it was not a planned purchase. I generally like to research the crap out of stuff. So far I feel it was a really prudent move on my part.

My next bit of research will be into possible Driver seat swap of some sort. The seating position and seat feels comfortable but my back seems to be telling me something different. Could be because it got whacked when the pickup tried to drive through my subie.

THANKS AGAIN for the info and help on specific questions. Im sure all my questions are answered in the forum somewhere but I appreciate your help.

My next little experiment is going to be hooking up my little 110 converter to my 100W Line 6 guitar amp and using the prius as a generator. It tried it with my Subaru and it was a bit weird. The Amp powered up and I played through it, but caused some feedback and the amp shut down once or twice. Im just wondering if for some reason the more advanced electrical system in the Prius will be any better "or worse" for this or perhaps the little converter is the weak link. Or maybe it is just because its a guitar amp and somewhat powerful and a fully digital modeling amp ( I know squat about electrical stuff as well as musical gear). Either way or I will find out. I hope it works, if it was better for this purpose that would be an awesome bonus.

 

I think it may be a function of a psycho pharmacological reaction. My guess would be some type of tryptamine or similar molecule.