Prius…how much does it REALLY cost?
How much does it cost to operate a Toyota Prius?
Here’s why you can’t seem to find a clear answer: Toyota has changed the Prius (Priai? Priuses? Pack of Prees?) from year to year, improving on some things, not so much on others. Toyota still has to come up with a way to make that tiny car affordable or else people won’t buy it AND Toyota can’t make it bulletproof or else the dealerships won’t make any money in the service dept. But Toyota had to make improvements with the generation 2 Prius or else people won’t buy it because of the bad reputation it would get if it broke down all the time.
Either way, it’s up to you to figure out if it’s the right ride for you, but here’s some info I found on the Toyota Prius:
Valve-driving belts have been (dare we say immortal?) chains on Prius since the beginning. Loss of the water-pump belt may reduce maint, or not. Depends on whether Toyota is using a better electric motor there than they did on the inverter side for yearsEngine coolant thermostat also goes away in 2010. Not that many of those have been replaced in Prius, but the new design is ‘elegant’ and we’ve certainly been asking for it for years.
Engine oil change interval remains 5k miles (US spec). The coolant recirc is gone, and that will reduce maint if the exhaust heat transfer system (that effectively replaced it) proves reliable. We probably expect the new transaxle design to go forever (or near there) but if I had one I’d still change the transaxle fluid at 60k miles.
The NiMH battery got a lot better in 2004 and has remained the same design since AFAIK. You still have to change the brake fluid before it gets to 2% water, or the resulting corrosion will make an expensive repair.
This has been My Car Doc reminding you to sleep well & drive well…..just not at the same time.
