What is your repair budget?

For me, I inherited our family 2008 Prius with 193k miles bought new. A lot of stealership maintenance over the 14 years. It had several CEL codes when I got it, and several problem layers. If you can do some of the Youtube mechanical stuff yourself then you're likely spending several hundred on repairs vs. thousands (and gaining knowledge too). I think I am still under $1000 or right at it in repair costs.

12V battery $250ish - 4 years with cheap battery, up to 8 years with OEM battery.
Oil changes - every 3k miles
Tires last a long time if rotated
Spark Plugs last a long time
Brakes last a long time due to engine braking
Coolant valve $100ish - once or twice over life of vehicle
Refurbished injectors $50
Cleaning throttle body and MAF $10
Recharge Air Con (has slow leak) - $150

Annual Maintenance is low if it is mechanically sound with no CEL lights.

 

If you or a friend or family member like to work on cars to keep repairs costs low this website will help you fix almost everything that can break down in a Prius... But if you don't, then you'll eventually pay more for repair than you paid for the car. As in Prius are the ultimate low cost car to own if you're DIY. But if you aren't... It's gonna cost more than you want to budget for.

 

Repair budget: roughly $1000/year
Current mileage: 164,500
Owned: 5 & 1/2 years
Self repair: no

Total expenditures since buying the car, including purchase price, repairs, maintenance, insurance, and gasoline: $23,800 or 40 cents per mile

 

Doing DIY certainly helps keep cost down if you are able and have the time but contrary to what some people on this forum routinely say, there are honest Toyota dealers and many independent hybrid mechanics these days that offer cost effective maintenance on your Prius.
Best to establish a relationship with the local mechanic through regular maintenance to judge their capabilities before a crisis hits. Anything short of spending $2,000 in a given year unless it is every year is preferable to spending $15,000 on a newer used car these days. If you can’t afford an occasional $2,000 expense out of the blue, then unfortunately not sure you can afford to own a car these days. Put $200 away each month. I typically spend less than $300 a year but plan on that $2,000 repair coming eventually. Struts, HV battery, A/C compressor etc. are expected. More than that and I’d probably sell the car.

 

Buy a Used Prius to Save Money on Gas?

Prii are the most complicated cars ever made and are expensive past 150,000 miles. The first owner got a good price with a discount, he enjoyed 150,000 miles of good mpg, he had a hybrid warranty up to 150,000 miles in some states, he made good money if he sold this year. The used buyer will significantly overpay for a used Prius, gen2 is too old, any gas savings will be instantly sucked up by the first repair, hardly any normal mechanics will work on a Prius, there are diy solutions for anything but if you are not experienced and willing to accept days or weeks of downtime, don't go there.

On a used Prius, an aftermarket high voltage battery assembly, inverter or brake booster does not exist and low cost diy repairs employ used parts. If you buy a gen2 Prius anyway, you will change the battery and brake booster, perhaps in the first year, each costing over $2k. Don't even think about a 2010-2015 gen3 Prius; they have battery, inverter, brake booster, oil burning, clogged egrs, head gaskets and whole engines to worry about. The 2016 or newer Prii or Rav4 hybrids have much better engineering, excluding the 2016-17 Prius v wagon.

Buy a Corolla or Civic for mpg and affordable reliability. If a Corolla or Civic does need repairs anyone can do them and there are aftermarket parts for everything.

 

Parker's got it correct if you're paying and if you're handing off to offspring go with the Corolla Yaris if you're buying this for yourself and you like to fool around as enjoyment then you could be okay these cars will drive with the minimal amount of things actually working or looking like they're working so if you're not the panic type and you're not one of these people that believes you're going to live to 150 like some space television show then you'll probably be okay I have done all the things stated above I bought a 2008 and a 2004 with barely looking at the cars and I put $30,000 miles on them before I practically lifted the hood so not too shabby then the price gouging started mid pandemic or so and things got stupid. But I already owned my two pre so I got them cheap had them during the pandemic has a lot of time during the pandemic to play around and work so I did that to be honest with you the Prius is one of the cheapest cars you'll ever own to keep on the road like Parker said through at least 150,000 miles so if you can buy a Gen 2 with 120 on it you pretty got 30,000 miles or better until really anything entertaining starts repair wise but of course is different for everybody so if you're one of those people that has poor luck with mechanical things seems like anything that happens will happen to you go to a Corolla or a Yaris save yourself the headache and that type of life like I wouldn't recommend my other half by a Prius she can't manage anything with mechanical things and anything she touches spontaneously internally combusts

 

PriusChat should really add some kind of escrow page for taking bets.

 

How much do you set aside per month or year? Nothing, no separate pool of money.
What is your current mileage? About 60K miles
How long have you had it? Twelve years this fall.
Do you do most of/some of your own wrenching? All basic maintenance, and the easier repairs/mods.

 

How much do you set aside per month or year? Nothing, no separate pool of money.
My wife has her pool of money I have mine. Doesn't matter when its a $2k repair. It still hurts.

What is your current mileage? About 60K miles
About 260k miles. Around 150k miles before things got expensive.

How long have you had it? Twelve years this fall.
This one eleven years in Sept. Probably four years too long. Also had an 08 for nine years. She drove that one 107k miles without issue.

Do you do most of/some of your own wrenching? All basic maintenance, and the easier repairs/mods.
In a pinch when the car strands me. Except that time when Mendel convinced me to clean the egr cooler. When the pool was a kiddie pond, engine rebuilds, electrical, suspension, brakes, etc were fair game. Never opened a tranny.

How many times did a gen3 strand me?
Two and a half. The half was when I risked my life by driving it with compromised brakes.

Would I recommend a 2010-2014 to a friend?
No.

 

From what I hear, the money handling on Priuschat has flaws.

 

Good Therapy for owning a Gen 2 Prius is owning a Range Rover. My Rover I love but if she was a daily driver I would spend $2,000 a YEAR to keep her on the road if I had a mechanic work on her. I have replaced the entire suspension, Fluids, Serpentine belt,Spark Plugs and wires, Heater Core, Repaired the sunroof, door lock actuators, stereo system, tires, brakes, oil and differential fluids, coolant, brake flush, New Ball joints, HEVAC control panel and soldered new LEDS on every switch in the truck.
Future repairs include a head gasket job by a pro. ($1,700) and entire new exhaust system $600 DIY.
Owning her give me patience and pause and even joy when I work on my two Prii. The Prius is simple, smaller, lighter, easier to work on. And filling up with gas with 8.8 gallons a week is priceless.
I get an average of 48-50 MPG on both of our Prii. This makes the gas hungry 12-17 mpg Buick V8 in the Range Rover slightly more tolerable the 10 times a year I fill her up.
The peace of mind of having $2,000K in the bank for a emergency fund for ANY used car worth it. Cars are tools. Tools require care and Maintenance. Heck if you walked everywhere you would still buy 4 pairs of shoes a year. $200 right there.
I owned 2 corollas and they were great and maintenance free for the most part. I was totalled in a wreck and the other we sold and bought a 08 Prius because we needed a hatchback and more room for children/dogs. If you car camp every week I would go with a Prius for sure. The cost savings of 8 nights of hotel rooms every month would MORE than pay for any repair job that you might need in a year.

 

I don't set aside money for repair bills for cars, but my overall average true ownership of a car is ~$500/mo/car which is a good figure to use for a monthly budget for me. This includes everything. The initial purchase price, depreciation, insurance, tax, fees, fuel, maintenance, and accessories. Basically, anything that I paid because I own the car is included in this cost. In very few cases with super-economical cars like HCH and PP, I was able to get the cost to less than this level. When the car is totally paid off, and I have extra money left, I keep money in a separate rainy day fund account. If I need to pay for a major repair bill, I will use that, if not, the money saved will be used toward the purchase of the next car.

 

Lets see... $2,000k is $2,000,000... quite a repair fund. Should be able to handle anything a Range Rover or Prius throws at it.

 

As an ex car racer I take the approach I refuse to keep track for fear my wife will find out

 

You’re $2,000/year figure on the Rover might be generous. I owned a 2003 Rover and that thing ate me up!

 

Yup. Mine is a 2002. Last of the P38A. gotta have money saved to keep her running.
I ordered All new suspension and tie rods for my wife’s Prius and a new coolant pump for mine before it dies on me. 118k original pump.

 

You do indeed need to keep $$$$ saved to keep that Rover on the road. I do know how nice those things are. And it definitely makes Toyota/Lexus ownership seem so cheap and easy in comparison! A good way of “building the muscles” so to speak on saving for maintenance lol.