New to Prius looking for Advice

Reliability in a 15 year old car has a lot to do with your maintenance and repair strategy. If you like to learn how to fix cars or have a friend or mechanic who does and the costs of repairs can be kept low then you'll be amazed by how reliable these cars are.

But if you're at the mercy of an auto repair shop that charges a hundred dollars an hour and doesn't have experience repairing hybrid systems inexpensively then you're buying the wrong kind of car.

What's great about repairing Prius is this website has endless threads on how to fix almost anything, so if your repair strategy is solid...

If I were you I'd choose the 2006 because you'll have more money to put into it that way and also the Touring comes with 16" wheels instead of 15", which means they're more expensive as well as slightly less MPG.

 

welcome!

an old prius is unlikely to be reliable compared to a gasser. the biggest difference being that a prius will usually just shut down at highway speed, risk your life at worst and coast safely to the curb at best.

a gasser usually gives more warning as things deteriorate.

that being said, i'd go for the 08. the 3400 bucks amortizes well over 2 years and 60k.

read through some repair threads in the gen 2 forum for clues to reliability.

 

I’d go with the 2008 model. That year was the gen 2 refresh and they tend to be a bit more reliable than the 2004-2007 models.

 

Neither. At 12-14 years old, there might be a hybrid battery failure in the near future.....and maybe other problems too.

IF....price is an important factor, you should be able to get a newer non-hybrid "economy" car for less $$$.
IF.....price is NOT at the top of the list, I'd look for a newer hybrid or an almost new non-hybrid.

 

congrats! all the best

 

Congrats... You'll love this car and if you got a good one you'll go years without any repairs needed.

Just keep it super clean and fix all the little things soon as you notice them so when there's a big thing that needs fixing there aren't any additional little things that may make you lean towards giving up on it.

 

Only two cars in the world I can buy, then its a no brainer, the 2008. If reliability is #1 and I lived in the real world, I would find a Camry in that price range.