Prospective buyer looking for advice

Congrats on the 2nd baby!

Given the limited budget I would not go with a Prius which would be fine in most cases but would cost a lot of money to repair if you are unlucky. I would go with a fuel efficient conventional car like Civic or Corolla. Just my 2 cents and good luck!

 

The general assumption is that a Prius will give little trouble until 150,000 miles. But a Corolla may have an ultimately lower cost of ownership, if you are looking at 100,000 miles in the next 5 years for example. At best you would be saving 1,000 gallons of gas over that interval, with similar maintenance costs otherwise. The main problem with the Prius is that, if a breakdown occurs, it may be tough to get it serviced by a non-dealer, and that puts you into several thousand in repairs.

 

Wow--the posts so far don't paint a very nice picture.

I view the Pri as a supremely-reliable car with low emissions, low fuel consumption, great features and a first-rate driving experience. If you have to drive a car, a Pri would be my first choice. Also, the hatchback configuration is mighty practical. I like to pile in bicycles, dogs, camping gear, landscaping supplies... I'd never get along well with a sedan.

I am on a very limited budget and don't drive many miles, but the Pri has been very easy to own. I do my own maintenance at home, and it's just been as easy as a car can be.

You might try to find a 2006 or newer if you can. It seems like most of the quirks were worked out by that time. For reliability and ease of ownership, you might try to find one with fewer options. It seems like some of the higher-end features, like the HID headlights and CD-changers have been a little problematic. I usually go for the most basically-equipped products I can find and that strategy has worked really well for me.

Looking at forums may look discouraging because of the trouble posts, but people are most likely to post in a forum when they have a problem. Satisfied folks, unfortunately, stay pretty quiet. From what I've seen and researched, it's hard to beat the reliability of Hybrid Synergy Drive. The engine has an easy life, it has a lifetime timing chain, the brakes last practically forever, and the HV battery usually holds on much longer than rumored and predicted. A Pri taxi in Australia has 340,000 miles on the original drive train.

Toyota Prius taxi tops 340,000mi, dispels battery myth

I highly recommend them. Take your time shopping and find one that feels right. Then check up on the maintenance (this forum's a great resource) and drive the wheels off of it. I hope to keep the '07 at least 25 more years.

 

The links at http://priuschat.com/forums/newbie-forum/100759-buying-first-prius.html#post1427516 might help. I'd definitely go for an 04 or newer (04 was the 1st model year of the 2nd gen).

 

Oh crikey, now I've gone and started another post. My apologies, until I figure out how to delete it. See, this is what happens when they let me use the computer.

 

For the 06-09 Priuses w/HIDs, the http://www.amazon.com/Philips-Xenon-Headlight-Bulb-Pack/dp/B00480J4J6 is currently US $48.06. I bought these from Amazon and it was German made, just like the failing Philips D4R that came out of my 06 Prius.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B00480J4KA?tag=priuschatcom-20 should be right for 04-05 Priuses and are currently $36.23. D2R seems more reliable.

 

Have a look at Toyota Prius Reliability, Price Comparisons, Invoice Comparisons, and Specifications
On the TrueDelta website you can find a lot of information that can assist you in making your decision much easier. You can compare different years of the same make and model.
Enjoy

 

Just a small correction. The 2005 upper models have this feature. It was blinking at me today when I put a heavy bag on the seat. I have a mid level package without leather or NAV but with HIDs.

 

I would do some research in your area if there is a non-dealer garage that have some previous experience in hybrids.

My prius is 2005, we bought it in September 2010 and it's just over year and 3 months now.

When I bought it, Prii (read Prius) had about 120,000km on the odo.

I do about 70 kilometers return trip a day and currently I have about 145,000km on the odo.

Within a year I had it serviced by the main dealer (and during this time I had replaced a pump at dealers expense as part of the Toyota program)

Apart from changing oil (which was the part of the basic services at the dealer) I had added new wipers, and new winter tyres but nothing else extra on the maintenance side.

I have to say that driving automatic car is the best experience from all the cars I had before.

I don't think that prius can be specially more expensive to repair as oppose to conventional cars, where there is more chances that clutch or gearbox can act on it's own and brakes.

Prius has been so far really reliable for us and we hope it stays that way.

Once I pass 8years / 100,000 miles hybrid warranty line (here in wet Ireland) then I will start own oil changes to save some $$$.

I do not race it, I do use it to commute to work.

My friends have Corrolla '03 i think long estate verion (manual) and they had to replace clutch once already.

Think carefully and asses what you can do here.

 

I consider that as warm up for reliable cars Toyota makes. No kidding.

As a matter of fact, I generally buy Toyota used cars having more than 100K miles to lower cost. Bought my 04' Prius in 2010 at 110K, now 151K; my Lexus 98' LS400 in 2007 at 110K, now 175K. No big issues, only follow the general maintenance.

When Toyota developed Lexus LS back in 1990, they paid special attention on quality, because they were building a Lexus brand! In 6 years, they spent 1 Billion dollar on R&D, made 500+ prototypes. That's absolutely a record!
I think they did more than average R&D on Prius too. Lots of people believe that gen 2 Prius (04-09) is more reliable than average Toyota cars, and I think that's the reason.

So go ahead, buy the used Prius. As long as you can find the maintenance history, and conditions are checked by a Toyota engineer, don't worry about it.

 

After this many years you would think I knew better than to try and correct you.

 

On PC (Priuschat)one gets to use a lot of computer I agree totally with Post # 4. My 2005 has been incredibly easy to service or parts replacement, 12V battery, sparkplugs, inverter coolant pump. Overall it has been the most economical in terms of gasoline usage and maintenance. Continue to browse all ares of PC to get a good idea of what to look for. Incidently, I am selling mine for less than 11K with 102,000 miles on it, if you want to cross country. Good Luck with your search. :cheer2: