Miles or years on battery life

I’m definitely not an expert by any means, but based on what I know about batteries, I would say that mileage would be more detrimental due to the cycling of the battery (assuming the lower mileage car was driven enough). Batteries are rated for a certain number of charge/discharge cycles.
Having said that, a low mileage car that left the battery in a low state of charge quite often would be just as detrimental.
Got a coin?

 

As far as the engine is concerned a lot of people these days wait a year to change their oil. On my 2006 Prius I bought with just over 200k miles, it chugs oil and I found out that the cylinders were damaged. As far as I can research it was a result of yearly oil changes.

Because of this, my next car will either have to be low mileage or proof the oil was changed at the more-often oil change interval (at most every 5,000 miles or every 6 months, whichever comes first). If the oil was changed yearly or every 10,000 miles and the engine has more than 50,000 miles on it, I do not want the car and will not buy it.

Also, at just over 200k miles the 2006 Prius is needing an HV battery replacment. I replaced a couple modules a couple years ago to keep it going for now, but as far as I can tell it took over 200k miles and 15 years for it to need a battery, and the previous driver drove it a lot over the mountains, which is supposedly much harder on a hybrid battery as it tends to fully discharge and fully charge at high amperage, over and over and over again. It was also all clogged up with dog hair when I took it apart.

Mind you the oil consumption problem apparently had been going on for quite a while, long before the red triangle of death started indicating the need for a new HV battery.

What can I say? Toyota hybrids are pretty awesome. Just change the oil often and they'll keep going.

 

the general consensus here is that nimh batteries like to be used. sitting makes them age quicker do to chemical reactions.
most of this is based on some canadian gen 2 taxis whos batteries lasted 500,000+ miles.

in the end, the particular battery you wind up with will fail when it's ready

sometimes i think a low mile car, put in a new battery when it needs it, and you've got a creampuff

 

My Prius did fine up until the car sat for several months. Then the battery died. So yes, it seems the NiMH batteries like to be used.

 

2004-2009 Prius have reliable engines good for way more than 300K miles with nothing but oil changes and spark plugs... 2010-2015 have garbage engines that need major rebuilding or replacing by only 200K miles (head gasket failure, clogged EGR, failed piston rings is normal at 200K miles) 2016 or newer is same high quality reliability as 2004-2009.

 

I'd always take a younger one with more miles over an older one with fewer miles.

 

I still hold my ground when I say that they do, as long as the oil changes were every 6 months/5k miles or less.

I need an engine. Mine has barely over 200k miles, and it's an '06. I can't even rebuild it at this point unless I can get it resleeved.

 

Yea, but Prius engine swaps are easy and there's alot of them. The days of rebuilding engines being cheaper and easier than swapping them with low mileage used ones ended a long time ago.

 

Cool! Any suggestions on how to source one and make sure it isn't galled like mine? I do have a battery operated scope and a spark plug socket.

 

Get the low miles, replacing modules and fixing failing batteries is a lot easier than rebuilding an engine.