Prius advice needed!

140,000 Kms on a Prius is hardly run in !

The prius with proper maintenance will last north of 400,000 (MILES) with only a gearbox oil change needed every 100,000 miles because the motor and generator are in the gearbox this oil needs to be changed, mine was manky and I'm glad it was done. It's not part of the toyota service scheduled but independent studies on the U.S prius forum suggested it wise to change the oil. It's pretty easy to diy. But always make sure you open the filler plug first because obviously if you drain it and you can't open the filler plug your in a spot of bother ! oh and don't make the mistake and open the coolant plug !

The coolant should be done too at about 100,000 miles, I have not done this yet. It's not diy ! you do not want air locks !

The gear box is pretty simple with a single fixed gear there is nothing much to go wrong despite having the traction motor and generator in there too.

If that prius has a full Toyota service history with all the recalls done after the usual checks it should be bullet proof.

Recalls include the water pumps, steering, and accelerator.

If the battery is low on a test drive it will have a notable reduction in power, don't worry because it will charge as you drive and slow down.

The idea is not to press ev mode and use up the battery, ev mode is for when you're stopped at lights and the engine decides it wants to stay on, ev mode will shut it off provided certain requirements are met such as a certain coolant temp, cat temp etc.

My 2007 MK II prius has almost 200,000 miles and apart from recalls I have had to do nothing other than oil and spark changes. It has not failed once.

Fantasy_Suicide wrote: »

Thank you!

1.5 is the biggest I've ever driven so I'm a little worried. It's on the other side of the country so it's hard to know if it's worth the travel.

Is 4500 a good price?

4500-5000 would be what I'd expect to pay if buying private, dealers are selling them up to 8500.

The Prius is more like a 2.0l with the extra shove of the motor, provided your traction battery isn't run down.

What I would check is the service book for a full service history, it needs an oil & filter change ever 10,000 miles or roughly every 16,000 Kms.

I'm sure one or two missing services are not going to be a huge issue. Provided the oil is changed at least diy.

Spark plugs around 100 Kms ( though that depends on the plugs used)

I would get the gearbox oil changed also by 160,000 Kms. This is not part of the service schedule.

Recalls include, water pumps, accelerator, steering and can't rem if that included the brakes.

If the information is not written in the service book there should at least be a computer print out of work carried out which I'm sure can be verified by Toyota. I don't think they ever stamped my book but I've the printouts.

It is possible if you give the reg to the local Toyota where the car was serviced that they can verify the work carried out.

Do the normal on a test run, turn off ac and radio and check for suspension knocks and squeaks, bushings have been known to go. Check for correct oil level, coolant , check the car is within service schedule and not well beyond the due service mileage or date.

The traction battery needs no maintenance and usually lasts the life of the car.

It might be handy if you can get the car on the diagnostics to check if there are fault codes. I'd call the local garage though, but because you're not the owner they might not be willing to give any info unless you get the owner to clear it.

Could be genuine but you can't be too careful. If he has a receipt for the parts sometimes the reg is on the receipt or it will say prius for the parts.

If he's selling for his sister her signature will need to be on the cert when he hands over the car. I always get a receipt signed when I buy a car so if they report it stolen you have something. I don't trust anyone. You can print out a receipt before you look at the car.

But Personally I wouldn't buy a car unless it was directly from the person who owns it, so if she wants to sell it she'll be there. Me being awkward ? I'd ask to see the drivers license so it's not his girlfriend there.

I wouldn't buy a car in someone else's name at a different house unless it was from the owner .

Anyone else with advice or think I'm overly cautious ?

Fair play well wear.

5.0l to me is about the worst I can get. It will take a bit of practice.

One other thing, don't be resetting the trip computer after or before every trip as this will not give an accurate reading.

It's the per tank reading that matters.

Best to reset after every fill up.

Fantasy_Suicide wrote: »

What size a tank does the Prius have? I'm guessing about 44ltrs? I usually fill my tank half way, so I guessed at 20ltrs.

I think it's roughly 45 litres.

What I would do is reset it after every 2 half fills then.

Fantasy_Suicide wrote: »

So yesterday I drove 200kms home with the car and got 4.9/100kms. Majority of the ride home I noticed the highest it would go is about 12ltrs while accelerating etc.

So today I did my normal commute and at one stage while accelerating it was saying current fuel consumption would go as high as 25.5/100kms and would slowly come down.

Is that normal?

Yes it's perfectly normal, on most cars with a trip computer if you turn on the current consumption and accelerate it will show a much higher consumption than cruising speed because it takes more energy to accelerate than to cruise once you've built up speed.

The One Doctor wrote: »

I got an 05 Prius Gen 2 about 6 weeks ago and it's great. My girlfriend drives it so she doesn't do the hypermiling stuff, but she still gets 58mpg. I've changed the oil and transmission fluid - both were black. I got a great bargain at but took a risk as the car doesn't have a Toyota service history, but I've confirmed that it has had the recalls done. I know that the battery is in good condition.

There are only a couple of niggles. The rear window is crap as the wipers don't clean nearly enough of the window and the visibility is poor anyway. The car is fairly long and a bit of a challenge to park well. The engine is surprisingly loud during acceleration, although apparently that's a drawback of the Atkinson cycle engines, they sound more like diesels.

Apart from those niggles it's smooth, comfortable, cheap to run and most importantly, automatic.

The engine is noisy under hard acceleration but that is because it's only 75 hp and about 85 lbs of torque.

The motor kicks in instantly when needed for an extra 300 lbs of torque. And you can feel when it kicks in when you hit the throttle and the torque kicks in without any increase of engine revs.

One good idea is not to let the main traction battery run too low because acceleration power comes from the engine generator, engine, and motor and power also comes from the battery and if the main battery is too low you will notice a loss of torque for acceleration.

I wouldn't call it diesel noisy, and 99% of the time it's a very smooth and quiet car far smoother than most diesels.

The MK III is a lot better though with more power, and a lot less engine noise. I certainly wouldn't hesitate to buy another.

Replacing the transmission oil was a very good idea and will no doubt help prolong the life of the motors, the gearbox or cvt is virtually indestructible and I have not heard of one failing yet. The box in the MK III is even simpler again as it does away with the chain.

Some people don't like the cvt but you can't beat it for smoothness. They are much better with higher powered engines.

The rear window isn't great for visibility but for someone who drove vans for years, it's something that doesn't bother me in the slightest.

It's a decent size car and one of the reasons I'm still amazed by it's fuel economy especially being a petrol automatic. A lot of manual diesel drivers of modern smaller cars struggle to get 55 mpg and the MK II prius can get 64 mpg using 10 year old hybrid tech.

The One Doctor wrote: »

Size is halfway between a Yaris and a Prius. I should know, I have a Yaris too. Yeah it's been discontinued but so has the Mk2 and 3. It was a bargain, it's a great car and it has all the normal Toyota parts. The Aqua is built from off the shelf components - the Mk2 engine, Mk3 hybrid system and infotainment with a few Yaris bits for good measure.

No I didn't consider an EV as the EV fanboy clique puts me off and I don't want to have to put my car on life support every fecking time I need to get somewhere. It's like buying an extra toddler for green enviro-penance. I need to refuel in 2 mins or less.

Plus these EV types seem to have infinite money, whereas mine is finite and I don't see to need to piss it away on envirocoolness. The world is going to get warmer and it'll be nice to have the warmer weather until a hypercane kills us all.

I'll buy one when I get a comb-over.

That was entertaining reading !

Ah us EV drivers aren't that bad, I'm in no clique either, hate cliques especially at work, I just drive EV because it suits me and having free work charging means I have around 200-220 a month more to put towards the car repayments which with the new id.3 will be 530 pm so if I had to pay the same for a diesel that would add another 200 odd to my monthly costs. I got mostly free work charging and with the new much larger battery car I can benefit even more from work charging as I have much more storage.

I don't drive EV because I think it's going to help reduce the effects of climate change, in fact I think anthropogenic climate change is a load of nonsense. Anything we do on this small Island will always have no effect, the real issues I see around me are pollution form plastics and rubbish tipping but I do favour the reduction of actual harmful emissions from car exhaust and an all out ban on smoky coal, this is real harmful, Co2 is a harmless gas essential for life.

There's no convincing the inconvincible either and I don't try, at least I don't any more, if someone asks me about how I find driving an ev I tell them it suits me fine. But when I have the range of the id.3 with much larger battery it will be a game changer, how I find it on trips to the South West, West and North West of the Island with a poor charging infrastructure is another matter because currently with the i3 if I need more range or there's a charging queue I just turn on the generator and drive off so how will I find having 140-170 kms with generator to having 400-500 Kms and no generator is anyone's guess.

There's no convincing you if you need to refuel in 2 mins or less then you need to refuel in 2 mins or less, then pay, another 5 mins at least, but I think I can stop for 20-30 mins for a rest and some food after 400-500 kms the question is how fast the infrastructure will get installed, I mean a network of proper high power charging hubs ?