Maintenance costs

how many miles are we talking? prius is almost maintenance free for the first 120k. do your oil and filters, tyre rotation.
pay attention to the brake inspection and pin lubrication, and you won't have any maintenance issues. regen brakes is a misnomer. the brakes are the same as other cars, the regen takes place inside the transmission.
some here like to change the tranny oil, which isn't in toyota's maintenance schedule.

 

Answers below drawn from my modest knowledge set:

***My question is this, what are my maintenance costs going to look like in the long run?

>> LOW! Low low low.
There's a thread in which people stated what they had spent thus far.
It was ridiculously low.

Realize that Toyotas hardly break down anyway.
Then you have the Prius - it's a Toyota WITHOUT any belts, without a traditional transmission, hardly uses the mechanical brakes, etc, etc.. the list is pretty long, I think of the stuff it doesn't actually have. ....
My plan is to plan on nothing major on the repair end for 150,000 miles (though i assume it could be longer).
that's not a scientific answer...but I'm good with it.
Realize most here would agree that 250,000 miles before you should kick it out the door is an easy mark to hit with this car, and some go even 600,000 miles before the graveyard.

Oops you asked about maintenance.
there's a maintenance schedule in you owner's manual, I'm sure. You could add up what these items would cost..

***I'm afraid those regenerative brakes are going to cost an arm and a leg, will they?

>>>No.
The car has standard brakes (if there are differences, I've not been told about them)
The difference is, when you brake, the wheels spin the electric engine or something backwards and generate electricity.
I imagine it like the motor in a model plane, except instead of the motor spinning the propellor (i..e. like when you're driving), it's more like the propellor spinning the motor...and generating electricity.
I'm not a Prius technologist - I'm sure other will chime in on the exact mechanism - but the concept is sound - your wheels spin somehting that makes electricity. A better name would be 'regenerative engine braking that also slows down the wheels', something like that.

The brakes are only used when 'really needed", such as
- below 7 mph
- if you brake harder than the regenerative motor can accomodate
- if you brake hard and suddenly, the regular brakes kick in because they react faster than the regenerative version
Prius engineers thought all this stuff through really carefully...they keep you and the care remarkably safe.

You WILL need to replace the brake pads, since they are traditional ones, but my reading around priuschat.com indicates this is an issue like around 200,000 miles, variable of course, so feel free to start watching at 180k.

***First two years of oil changes and tire rotations are free, but after than can I take it to any oil change shop or is it a specialty oil change also?

I am going to a repair shop that specialized in Prius's. In my experience, experts look for other stuff when they are doing routine maintenance.
Also, if I remember, there are little mistakes an in-experienced mechanic could do when working on a Prius, I think there was a thread on here specifically about an oil change that went awry, actually. Also, there are some general mistakes that can be made that an actual Prius mechanic would avoid. For example, they'd be more likely to run down one of your batteries, or taking it on a test drive and screwing something up, such as parking the car but neglecting to put it in Park because none of the cars they've ever driven has a Park BUTTON, and the car idles away from them after they get out of the car. (one Prius car salesman, supposedly the most experience Prius salesman on the lot, told me about a time he did that and had to panic and jump back in when he parked one on the sales lot once..! I had to explain to him what had happened...he just had no idea why the car had kept moving. If that's not enough...the configuration of the joystick/'stick shift' is kinda weird, and newbies sometimes put the car in reverse when they don't mean to...
All this to say....I will never let a non-prius mechanic touch my Prius if avoidable. (same goes for valet parking).

As for maintenance, I'm not sweating it, I'm relying on my Prius guy to manage that well.
But, great questions...I'll stay tuned to the other responses..

One thing is: I've settled on Mobile 1 synthetic, I forget the standard range (it's like 5w30? it's on the site here somewhere) for my oil. I think most use that.
IIRC, you CAN go 10,000 miles between oil changes, BUT that's only under ideal driving conditions (I drive in suburbs a lot on short trips...so THAT'S not ideal!), so I go with 7,500 miles. I've read enough to know that I would NOT go 10,000 miles between changes without heavy reading on priuschat.com. My mechanic suggests 5,000, but I'm happy going with 7,500.

I encourage you to read the first page of:
What every newb should know | PriusChat or whatever corollary there may be on the gen IV board.

and the incomplete, but still useful:
Essential Must Know for New Owners | PriusChat

Good questions !

- PNB

 

I will use an example here. My son had a 2005 Gen 2 Prius. Other than the expected oil, filter, and cabin filter changes, he replaced the HID headlight bulbs. He would have needed to change the engine coolant, but the dealer did that during a recall service. He replaced the 12V battery just for prevention due to age. He now drives a 2015 Prius v.

 

Oh that's right...replace the 12v battery after 4 years.
It only lasts like 4-6 years. But if it dies, you can't start the car.
that costs a tow if you're out when this happens. then you have to make sure front wheels are off the ground or risk terrible dammage to the engine.
Squeezing that last year out of the battery only saves you like $38...but risks a tow that would probably cost more...
so, change it after 4 years, imo.

 

I believe the Prius battery tends to last longer. I think my son changed his after 8 years. It does not turn the starter but just boots the electronics. You can jump start carefully if it is dead. The older models have jump start points under the hood since the battery is in the cargo area. The Gen 4 battery is under the hood.

 

Don't get started on a those Mercedes Benz, Rolls Royce, Audi and BMWs. Those things are absolute endless money pit machines.

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