New Article: The True Cost of owning a Hybrid

There is a post somewhere around about the prius being used as a taxi. The car outlived a conventional transmission. It still worked but they upgraded to 04 sor 05 models.

 

There is a great video on this taxi here at this site:
http://www.hybridexperience.ca/Toyota_Prius.htm

Go to the bottom and click on the windows media player version or the quicktime version, depending on your computer.


You can get some cool pictures of the taxi here:
http://john1701a.com/prius/owners/andrew.htm

 

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sorry that falls under the powertrain warranty, it's not part of the hybrid warranty.

 

The "transmission" is very, very similar to a differential.

Have you ever heard of a differential failing? It's extraordinarily rare. So you have little to be actually be worried about. In fact, the odds of being in an accident that totals the car are probably much higher.

 

Not to mention that it is virtually IMPOSSIBLE to strip the planetary gears. The computer won't allow it. Hmmm HAL is taking over ;-)

 

You mention that the vehicle outlasted the conventional transmission and then they replaced the vehicle with a newer model...

Another taxi driver in Victoria BC has driven his 2001 Prius over 350,000 km. Toyota hasn't replaced his vehicle and his transmission is still going strong.

 

It wasn't a "replacement" as implied.

The Prius that Toyota bought back from the owner was for the sake of research, a hybrid with a ton of real-world data for them to tear apart and study.

 

At least i know my car will last 4 years. Currently i'm going to put about 60,000 miles each year on my car. Unless i get that other job.. then it won't last as long. lol

 

60,000 a year? that is over 150 miles a day... that is a lot

 

yeah.. sometimes more than 150 a day. I should start a taxi company lol i travel about 45 miles to my work. Then i drive around all day for work. It's only part time right now though. On the weekend i travel about 50 miles to go see a friend. if i take any trips.. well.. that's even more mileage. Glad i drive a prius. We'll see how long it last.

Oh.. if i get another part time job, that might be another 20-100 miles a day. I'll see if i get that job though.

I wish i had a stable single job. lol my poor prius