Finally got a car that isn’t from last century and manufactured before I graduated high school.
I bought a 2012 Prius with 84k miles on it for $9500. Paid cash.
To me, the textured plastics inside that make this thing look like it’s a spaceship from the 1970s rock! The fact you can drop the rear seat and sleep in it with the A/C running, driven by the hybrid pack so it barely uses any fuel, rocks! Tried that once, it wasn’t that bad! (I had a carbon monoxide detector in the vehicle with me just in case)
Thing was well detailed, so it smells clean inside, the engine bay looks great, it’s still on the original battery and brake pads. I had a shop check it out, nothing was wrong with it other than it needing new tires. Got the thing pimped with Ecopia 422 Plus, just so I can eke out another few MPG.
And yeah, it really does what a Prius does. On a 50 mile commute trip it will read between 46 and 54 MPG, depending on traffic conditions and how fast I drove it. (it does the best for me at a steady speed around 72 mph. Would get even more mpg at a slower speed but I’m willing to spend a teensy bit more fuel to go faster)
I made sure to change the air filter, the cabin air filter, the wiper blades, checked the oil and fluids, and am about to go flush the transaxle oil.
I think I’ve replaced brake pads on my 2008 Prius (105k miles) once. You don’t use them other than the last 3 or 4 mph. It’s not unusual for them to last a long time.
I have a 2006 model Prius with > 200.000 km on the odometer.
Still has the original brake pads. I have always taken it for maintenance to the Toyota dealer, like clockwork, every 15.000 km.
The Prius, by default, uses engine brake via the regenerator (charging the batteries while braking). The brake pads on the wheels are only used in emergency braking, or to completely stop the car when it is already going very slow. The wear-and-tear in the brake pads in those cars is minimal.
Yep, I’m on my original brake pads at 80K and at my last big maintenance 10K miles or so ago they said that the brakes were fine. I might get them replaced anyway though.
As a lifelong “car guy” I’ve always thought Priuses were for sanctimonious dorks…and always loathed getting stuck behind one on the road, because they always seem to be going 10 under the limit (which is actually 25 under everyone else in prevailing traffic, which goes 15 over the limit) in an effort to maximize their already-high MPG.
Alas, I’m afraid I may soon become everything I’ve hated and join this storied crew and become a Prius owner myself in a month or so. When looking for a good road trip car that can handle us, luggage, and the lively pack of dogs we travel with while still getting good mileage, the Prius topped the list by far.
I hope I don’t have to turn in my “car guy” card along with my convertibles, v8 swaps, and motorcycles after I get it.
That’s not a bad deal! Last year, my wife and I paid about that for a 2009 with about the same mileage.
We’ve owned three Priuses. With our first, a 2005, I religiously recorded and calculated the mileage. The estimate on the on-screen display can be off by quite a bit. Over the course of a year and about 30K miles, I averaged just over 51 MPG. Then the car was totaled in a near head-on crash on the interstate (I walked away pretty much unharmed. Good safety features!). After that, we had a 2006 for close to 200K miles before it, too, was totaled (this time, a pretty minor wreck that still did enough body damage to total the then 10-year-old car). I think we replaced the brake pads once in that car, not long before its untimely demise. The car was still running perfectly and had given us no trouble up to that point. Now we have the 2009, which is great for what it is: a people-hauler and grocery-getter.
They’re great cars. Yeah, they’re not exactly sports sedans, but they’re super practical and get great mileage. The only reason we don’t have two is because our other car is a Bolt. The Bolt is pretty fun to drive
I’ve also noticed it, never want to get stuck behind a Prius driver. I’ve also used it as a legit excuse why I was late a couple of time, I got caught behind a Prius driver - they understood. I often think they waste more fuel overall then what they are saving requiring others to use WOT acceleration to pass them, basically fuel vampires, saving theirs as the expense of everyone elses.
But I have noticed that has changed somewhat, still a issue but not as prevalent as before, possible as Prius are becoming more mainstream and more sensible drivers are getting them and more contemporary designing is de-emphasizing the fuel savings while driving. Also cars like Tesla (perhaps only them), not allowing over the speed limit driving while on autopilot and not on a limited access road as the new potential road hog.
Our pastor got up in the pulpit one Sunday and announced that he had stopped fighting the urge to feel superior to other motorists and bought a used “Toyota Pious”.
Y’know, I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and my memories of great cars (vintage Bimmer, sigh…) were of the places we went. So this summer I’m going to take my Most Boring Car In The World* and do some fun road trips.
Bonus: really boring cars are invisible. Blew past cops while doing 80 three times last cross-country trip. They never even saw me *(or thought “Poor guy’s suffered enough…”).
*
*see, my daughter moved and had to sell her dirt-colored '03 Corolla…
In the heat of the day, yes, you get about 10 minutes of snoozing before work to about 1-2 minutes of car engine noise.
At night, when the outside temperature is lower, the ratio is more like 20:1.
The Prius of course uses a variable speed compressor that also seems to be able to cycle on and off and a variable speed fan. It senses the interior temperature, recirculate is on by default, and it adjusts the fan speed and how hard the compressor works to match the load.
In theory the battery is about 1.2 kWh, and if the compressor is drawing 600 watts (more like the load of a minisplit - got a cite for the several kW?) it could duty cycle with 1 hour : some minutes of engine time.
In practice it doesn’t use that much of the battery capacity, staying within the range that does the least damage to the battery, giving the duty cycles I actually observe.
You’re right, I don’t. The measurements the shop gave me though are about right for a Prius at 84k, with ~60% of the pad life remaining (6/8 mm in the rear, 8/11 mm in the front). But yes, the previous owner could have braked hard all the time and changed the pads.
Normally it regens if you only use light pedal pressure, and if you touch test the rotors after a drive they will be cold.
I do know the 12v battery is the OEM, it’s labeled mainly in japanese and the date code has the year of manufacture, 2012. Am a little concerned about it, it’s a common cause of failure and its a PITA to replace after it fails, though I have heard the OEM battery has a 7 year warranty. Many Prius owners upgrade to a deep cycle SLA battery. (the battery is not used to crank the engine)
What makes it hard to replace after the 12v battery fails is, get this, the rear hatch can only be opened if there is power. That’s where the battery is, in the back. So there’s a couple ways around this - you can actually jump start a Prius from the front fuse box that is under the hood if you know about the jump points. So you just jump start it, then open the rear hatch, then turn it off and replace the 12V.
But if you don’t know this trick, you’re really in for it - there is a way to crawl back there and use a screwdriver to jimmy the hatch open from the inside.
Not me. (I drive a 2007 Prius.) I drive mine like it’s a Maserati. If people on the road have cursed me out, it’s been for passing them with an order of magnitude speed differential.
At 49-52 MPH with no stopping I get 60MPG on average, depending on which way the wind is blowing (for real). At 84 it drops down to less than 40. I don’t go above 84 enough to know beyond that. But I’ve never filled up and had the tank average MPG be less than 35 no matter how fast I’ve gone or how many stops and starts I’ve had.
I do mostly local driving now, and before that when I commuted on very crowded freeways I never got less than 35, usually closer to 40. On trips to LA on I5, going 80 most times, I got closer to 50 mpg.
I have a 2010, original brake pads, still in great shape.
The instantaneous display is not all that useful, but if you set one of your Trip Odometers to zero each time you get gas, you can see the mpg for that tank pretty easily. And average speed, which is interesting especially on long trips.
I have one, and it is a fantastic appliance. It will get you from A to B as quickly as you should be driving in America (I think I averaged 75-80 driving out to San Antonio this last weekend) and not using that much gas to do it. It likes city driving—highway driving like I did will yield about 40-ish MPG. The hybrid system really shines in stop-n-go traffic or city driving around 40 MPH. Then you can realistically expect 50-ish MPG, even with the A/C on. I swapped the Ecopias for tires (Michelins) that weren’t pieces of crap in the rain, and only lost about 5-8 MPG, IIRC, but whatever.
Lots more room than you’d think to look at it. Can carry four, five in a pinch, adults on a lengthy drive without too much bitching. I drive it for hours at a time without the leg cramps I got in the Civic it replaced. Maintenance has been oil changes, filters, wiper blades, and, annoyingly, both headlights. Though there are tricks for DIY and it’s not the complete PITA it seems at first glance. I have about 175k on mine, and I think I need to get the brakes done. Not bad though on the first set of pads.
It is not a ‘driver’s vehicle.’ though The traction control will kick in at the most annoying time. Still, it has surprising get up and go for what it is, especially with the A/C off and from zero to about thirty—it’s not a Smart Car, for example. I agree with you about being annoyed with hypermilers.
