What killed YOUR 2nd Gen? Approaching 170k miles

The EMTs we're pretty surprised, too. I saw him coming, but too late since it was dark. Just got the car rolling when he hit. He pushed us probably 150 feet. He said he had just reached for his phone and saw the light turning yellow and locked his brakes. The two good samaritan witnesses and the absence of skid marks told a different story. Totally crushed the back of the car and even bent the traction battery. That car performed incredibly.

 

yes they take a good hit and don't kill you. Did you see the young mans Prius that got hit from behind by a tractor trailer? Looked like a guaranteed ambulance ride but he walked away.

 

I'm just coming up toward 300,000 km (290k miles) here, with no major failures and still on the original traction battery.

Yeah, you definitely want to keep an eye on the oil level, as oil consumption is a fairly common issue as they age. My oil consumption isn't massive or anything, but it has very gradually climbed over the years. At the moment I guess it's somewhere about 1L per 8000...10000 km (one quart per 5000...6000 miles), which really doesn't bother me.

Like Ed said though, never let it get real low. As soon as I see mine down to anywhere even close to half way I top it back to near full. I find oil consumption can vary a bit depending on the type of driving you're doing, with slow around town driving giving the least and high speed highway driving somewhat more. Last year while touring in a mountainous region I noticed that the oil consumption was up a bit on normal, which in hindsight I attribute to the huge amounts of high rev engine braking ("B" mode and/or "D" mode when the SOC tops out) that took place on that trip. Note that this wasn't a permanent change though, it was back to normal as soon as I got home and back to my regular driving habits.

Hey it's not like checking the oil is all that difficult. Thirty seconds to take a quick look at the stick could save your engine.