Prius Prime--Expected Longevity

The Service Manager here has told me to expect 300,000 miles.

 

i suspect 150-200,000, but there is no way to know. they do like to get a majority of them beyond the 10/150 warranty.

 

Batteries temd to last year's, not miles, so how far do you expect to drive in 12 years?

 

For work, I am driving my prime for RT 62-64 miles a day. Every day I am doing one Level 2 charge cycle at work and one Level 1 charge cycle at home. Rest of the 5 to 10 miles I use gas. 1.8L engine and CVT transmission being the same from PRIUS liftback, we can hope good reliability there. The newer bigger electric motor and Lithium-ion battery is something I don't know about. Lithium-ion is supposedly better. Li-ion battery life is for limited cycles. You might see some decrease in range over time. Even assuming range goes down after 3 to 5 years after ~1000 charging cycles - Hybrid system should likely be left with plenty of life. Given how minimal the 1.8 Motor is being used in those initial miles (or vice versa), I would expect avg life that exceeds the Liftback model.

On the downside, the car now weighs 300 lbs more than old prius that is something to keep in mind, if newer components might have a failure point. Ground clearance being low, You might scrape the bottoms a few, Front fascia being fancy and closer to road, you might hit some stones and debris and puncture some of it (I think nose mask is recommended for long road trips). Leaving the body rattles aside, overall, Toyota's TQM should have it covered mechanically and we can expect good amount of life from all/most its products and this should be no different.

 

Well, something major may not go wrong, but minor repairs or routine maintenance may cost a lot. I don't know about PRIME yet, but I had my previous car Civic Hybrid serviced at a Honda dealer for preventative maintenance when it reached 100K miles. I think it was over $1,000 for everything that needed to be done.

 

I don't know what it would cost at a Toyota dealer but I performed the 100k maintenance on our Prius prior to sale for ~ $83.6

 

Well, I don't know what need to be done on Prius at 100K. I kept my last Prius (Gen3) only for 2.5 years, so I paid none for dealer service. I just know the dealer labor alone is ~$100/hr. Only Toyota vehicle I have kept beyond 100K has been Sienna. It would have cost well over $1,000 for preventive maintenance for 100K service if I let the dealer do everything. I think it included usual oil and lube plus spark plugs, transmission fluid, differential fluid change, coolant change, brake fluid change, timing belt and water pump. I only did timing belt, but the car developed other problems shortly after that, and I had to get rid of it only at 105K miles.

 

The Prius does not have a timing belt and pumps are not a maintenance item, but I changed each coolant, oil, plugs, and ATF fluid in addition to cleaning the MAF sensor. Maintenance costs in the Prius line are dirt cheap ... unless you like lining a dealerships pockets. Since OP appeared to focus on ownership costs I thought he might appreciate knowing just how inexpensive the Prime can be.

 

If I keep my Prime longer than 3 years, I am thinking of doing most maintenance DIY. Still, maintenance is one thing, in our region road salt corrode everything below rocker panel. Keeping a car on a road longer than 10 years is going to be a big challenge.

 

check your manual, other than yearly oil change, you only need to change air/cabin filters every 3 years, and with 10 year schedule you just need to replace coolant and spark plugs. That won't cost a lot.

I am surprised that transmission fluid and brake fluid are not required to be changed in 12 year maintenance schedule.

 

I bought brake fluid strips for testing but I honestly think the fluid will be pristine for the life of the car, at least for my use. I try to remember to use the friction brakes once a month to keep the rotors from rusting.

 

Thanks. Not having garage and tools to work on a car, I have not done much automotive repair/maintenance task DIY, but I now have Prius Chat folks to help me. In fact, I was trying to start working on my own previous Gen 3 Prius when it was out of Toyota Care free maintenance period, then I found our about great deal on PRIME. I always wanted PHEV, so I traded in for a new car. Even though I had all the intention of doing DIY maintenance on my car, I now has two more years of free Toyota Care for my PRIME. I did transmission fluid change on my Gen 3 right before I traded in even though the maintenance schedule did not call for it. It was recommended by many folks here at Prius Chat.

BTW, if I keep PRIME that long, I hope spark plug change is easy to do on PRIME. On the Honda Civic Hybrid, it was like ~$500 for spark plug change, parts and labor, at dealership (stealership?). It has a 4 cylinder engine, but uses 8 spark plugs. 4 in front were easy to access, but the rear ones were semi difficult for a novice like me. A Honda dealer was going to charge $40 each of MSRP on iridium spark plugs plus 2 hours of labor at $110/hr. What a racket! I bought exactly same spark plugs on Amazon for $12 each.

 

No one knows why Toyota pretends that ATF is a lifetime fluid, but they do.

Brake fluid is ruined by moisture, so Phoenix would have a different ideal replacement than Miami. Use the test strips to know when.

 

Yep, but best not to test too often; and do the test quickly. Opening the brake fluid reservoir exposes the fluid to water containing air.

If I knew how to do so without causing problems, I would grab a few drops from the line to the brake.

 

2 hours to change 8 spark plugs? I know 4 are difficult to access, but 4 are easy one with 10-15 minutes at most, and almost 30 minutes for a single spark plug? I cannot imagine that.

 

If I remember correctly, it did include valve adjustment, oil & lube, and drain and fill CVT for that scheduled service.

 

Asking whether it is a good idea to change the ATF in a Prius at regular intervals is guaranteed to generate a lively discussion here. The issue is not whether the fluid ends up full of debris (it certainly does); the argument is over whether the debris causes any harm in the power split device. Noone seems to be neutral about this.

 

If this was a $1000 maintenance item I would give it some thought, but for a few dollars, a few minutes of my time, and a chance to maximize the car's life ? Easy choice.

 

I don't recall any valve adjustment schedule in the Prius. Am I wrong ?