Estimated Cost of Ownership

Hello everyone,

Thank you in advance to all who take a look and/or contribute an answer.

I own a 2008 Prius with 126k miles on it. In the past 8 months or so I have spent about $1,000 on maintenance and repair mostly on what I'm sure was overpriced parts and labor to first diagnose an issue and then eventually replace the inverter coolant pump. The shop I go to today told me that I need a new engine water pump and belt, and after doing some shopping around I see that will cost about $550 in parts and labor to replace those along with the engine thermostat.

I have a tiny bit of experience working on my first car, a 2002 Camry, but I live in an apartment with a tiny garage space and absolutely nowhere to work on the vehicle. Even if I was comfortable with my ability to complete the repair, I do not have the tools or space to attempt it. Spending $1,500 in a year on an almost 13 year old vehicle has made me consider alternatives -- at that price, I'm almost in a lease on a much newer, more reliable, safer car, that will also be much less of a headache to drive.

I am hoping that the experienced users here could cobble together a short list of things that I can expect to have to do to the car over the next three years / 30k miles. I'm trying to determine if it's worth it for me to keep dumping money into this vehicle which I figure right now can about cover a lease deposit. Right now the hybrid battery is in acceptable condition as far as I can tell, but at this age and mileage I am increasingly worried about the cost of replacement. I don't really know what else I can expect to replace or should have already replaced.

Thank you!

 

Thanks everyone!

The shop recommended replacing the pump on the basis of hearing a noise that they attributed to the pump, but I don't hear anything. I expect to hear something obviously wrong if the pump were going bad -- is that the case? The belt looks perfectly fine to me, no cracks or visible wear to my eye. There is a bit of white dusty residue around the pump area, but it's definitely not fresh and we haven't had to add coolant.

We have recently had the 12V battery and all four tires replaced and I was capable of putting fresh spark plugs in recently at least. I was hoping that would be the end of it for at least another ~30k miles or so with any luck. We are lucky enough to park in a closed garage so I'm not worried about theft, but that is good to know should that change. The brakes were the next thing I expected to need some attention, but the shops keep saying they are good enough for the time being.