Farewell to a great car

I dropped off my 2010 yesterday, and pick up a new 2016 today.

I purchased my 2010 in Feb. of 2010, and since then put 130,000 miles on it. It was as reliable as reliable gets. The only expenses and repairs were tires, oil and fuel. At 15k miles and 80k, I changed the PSD transaxle fluid. At 100,000 miles, I changed out both coolant loops. At 125k, one of the rear wheel bearings needed to be replaced. That was it.

My original goal was to put twice as many miles on it. I got the idea to replace it when I realized that in CT, I could get the purchase of a Volt subsidized by almost $11k. ($7500 tax credit and $3k CT state rebate). That faltered when I was unable to find one equipped the way I wanted, and generally lost patience with my dealer.

From there, I should have returned to the original plan, but with pending purchasers at $7k for the 2010, I thought it might be a good idea to harvest the remaining value in the Prius.

I was starting to get concerned about the longevity of the power control electronics, the complicated brake system, and the oil fouling of the EGR/Intake systems. (Although mine never gave any signs that those systems were showing any signs of distress).

Mine was not an oil burner. I changed the original oil somewhere around 1500 miles, and from there on followed the 10k OCI. It was always Toyota oil, changed by the dealer (purchase included lifetime oil changes).

I hope his new home is good - there's some maintenance he'll need (brake pads and spark plugs, come quickly to mind).

What I'm most impressed by is 130,000 miles and 6 years of truely trouble free (except for the rear wheel bearing) use. I don't think any other car I've owned has been so darned reliable and operationally-cost effective.

I hope that my 2016 Prius Three is just as reliable.