Is the Prius a BAD purchase...Unless you drive many miles per year?

Is OP's question only about Gen2? After 10 months of COVID-19 restriction, my 2020 PP has been driven on average 10miles/day. I use to drive an average of 40miles/day or 15Kmiles/yr. Prius or not, I am starting to feel it was a bad purchase to have a $20k car and mostly just sitting on the driveway. sigh

 

It's hard to get a perfect vehicle, because situations change.

I used to have a little VW diesel (from before the scam) that got excellent highway mileage, but wasn't the greatest car for around town.

But we hardly ever left town (which is a fairly small town, only a few miles from end to end). So the cheapest practical option was actually to get a used Nissan Leaf: and so I did. I figured we didn't even need the VW anymore because we'd save so much we could rent if we ever needed to.

But then less than a year later we had to start traveling 140 miles (70 miles there and 70 back) over three mountain passes twice, sometimes three times a week. We actually did try to do that in the Leaf, carefully hypermiling and making it to each destination with barely any charge left, leaving it on a free charger all 4 hours there and then coming back. That is, until one particularly cold morning we only made it half way and had to call a tow truck.

So I sold the Leaf and bought a used hybrid Avalon. And then, last December, before COVID, our need to do those trips stopped. Now I'm back to mainly driving a few miles here and there every day. And then COVID hit which has affected that even more.

 

Yap... I was thinking of trading my 2020 PP to 2020 LEAF. But now, I am seriously thinking of just selling the 2020 PP. Fortunately, we have another car (Pathfinder Hybrid) for our needs to do occasional driving. PP would be far more efficient to keep, but for the few occasions to drive, we need to have a large cargo and hauling capacity.

 

Not that this works for everyone, but I also need to move a lot of stuff from time to time. One thing I thought of doing was just renting a moving van for those occasions. But I ended up just adding a tow hitch onto the Avalon and getting a little 4x8 trailer with a 1,000lb capacity for about $500 brand new. Not that that would work for everyone.

 

Yap, it can be done works for me too. Just not very convenient. We pay a large premium for any conveniences.

 

This Pandemic has caused us to rethink just about everything... But I suspect that given the nature of Prius reliability a decade from now you'll still be enjoying your Prius more than right now when so much is shut down.

Make the most of the downtime and clean and polish every nook and cranny of your car and do some mods to improve its look & value so when we really do get out from under this mass death madness you'll be excited to put lots of miles on it again.

 

Thanks, but the Prius is meant to be driven. I made up my mind. I am selling my Prius Prime. When the time comes needing a reliable and super-efficient ride for my daily commute again, I will have excitement of shopping for all new BEV for me. BTW, in our climate car wash is a summer activity. Washing a car in below-freezing temp is not very practical.

 

I kind of wished that I had gotten a plug-in hybrid of some sort like a Prime. That would have solved a lot of my short distance then long distance issues. But right now I'd like to keep the Avalon and if the price is right, trade in the Prius for an EV of whatever sort. But I don't think I'd ever get near enough from the 2006 Prius to get an EV. So I'm stuck with two gas cars getting like 20mpg most of the time.

I think I'm going to go wash my car today. It's warmed up to 26°F! That's about the hottest it will be all week.

 

That’s true. The 2017-2021 Prius Prime sure does have a lot amenities. Sooooo much tech. I haven’t even gotten thru all of it yet actually. There’s still things I’m learning.

 

My advice - unless you have a garage don’t bother with the prime, it’s a PITA to constantly be moving the cord around and making sure it can reach the outlet etc.

Plus, I have aftermarket remote start on mine which will not let the car start if the charge door is open, so it’s more of a pain.

I am one of those guys that try to make it to 0.1 or 0 electrical miles left when I reach my destination, and if my destination is under the 27/30 charged miles I’ve been getting so far in the winter (I would get 33-36 in the summer) I just use it the entire time.

 

Obviously the Gen2 forum is the best place to talk about Prius Prime... We get it... We know we have way more participation than your forums do and we aren't worried about you hijacking this forum because judging from the look of your forums, there's hardly any of you on their these days anyways.

 

What tech? I'm not sure I'm into all this fancy touch screen stuff. (Even though I'm sitting here at my desk with three screens on, all connected to my tablet, and several computer parts I'm sorting through for my next projects.) My experience with "tech" is that it fails. The Bluetooth and GPS have stopped working for at least the second time (maybe the third) on my Avalon since it was brand new. And it's not something I can fix either. I have to take it in and pay a couple hundred dollars at a dealer.

I don't have a garage, but I have a 6kW EVSE just lying around that I had used with my Nissan Leaf. I also plug in all my car's (120V) since I put block heaters on them.

I sure loved how the Leaf would preheat the cabin. I've never had a remote start other than that but will throw a 1500W heater onto the floor board to warm up the car. I never warm up the engine via idling even when it's -30°F, it wastes fuel.

Ooops! Oh well. I guess the Prime is at least still a Prius. I often talk about my hybrid Avalon here since I don't get much response over in the "other hybrid's" section.

 

I worked on a lot of those cars. They will eat up you front end. I have to put steering stoppers most of the cars I did. some of them doesn't have it. its a weld on to the lower arm.
going back to my 07, I'm not gonna complain on the gas mileage. It serves my purpose perfect.

 

Tech, lol. I do not know. Just lots of things and gadgets/settings to mess with.

 

Sorry, I just hit “new posts” to search. Didn’t notice what forum.