longevity in miles

[Dirk Diggler]

Trust me, Toyota knows this. But they will also break their necks to make the CVT crap as reliable as possible. But Toyota is smart. Selling cars is a business after all. Just think of how Toyota competitors would berate Toyota if given the chance based on the following. The below is hypothetical, but just imagine the song and dance the idiot salesdolts would do with the below info:

• Nissan Sentra sports a CVT with virtually an infinitly geared transmission.
• Honda Civic comes equipped with a 23 speed automatic.
• Toyota Corolla is sold with a 4 speed automatic with lock-up torque converter.

Even though that old school 4 speed is likely to trounce the others in reliability, and be only 0.3155547238 mpg less fuel economy, customers are all about the bling bling and 'more is better' mentality.

I'm thinking about a used Prius with 100k miles. I'd get an independent inspection, especially the battery but I'd feel good about getting another 150k miles out of it.

[Pryme]

I'm thinking about a used Prius with 100k miles. I'd get an independent inspection, especially the battery but I'd feel good about getting another 150k miles out of it.

Do it. My coworker bought a 2005 with over 170k on it two years ago and has had no issues even though upper midwest cold winters.

[7milesout]

Dirk - I don't know a whole lot about the Prius, and the battery expectations. But the way it runs ... the electrical system and the gas system more or less run together. So even if the batteries were weak, I would imagine it would just put more load on the gas system.

I remember in my days at Toyota, I seem to recall them calling it a "hybrid assist" system. I wonder if the batteries were mostly dead, maybe the car would still run (but probably with warning lights / messages on the dash).


MetroMPG - On my 2020, one day I fired it up and started to back out the driveway, when one of my sons came along. I wanted to say something to him and I thought it might be a long conversation so I turned off the engine. The conversation didn't take as long as I thought and when I went to re-fire the engine, it wasn't too happy about it. It took much more crankover than normal. I know this was the cold start, shut-off, refire issue. Any thought they might have figured it out on the 2020 is out the window, it still does it. It is an interesting quirk. And yes ... it does act like a flooded engine. My wife's Matrix, when the purge solenoid went bad, would not want to fire up after getting gas (the purge valve would stay open and filling the tank pushed vapors into the intake). The Mirage acted very similar to that Matrix flooded engine scenario.

[MetroMPG]

7milesout - thanks for confirming it's still an issue. That's disappointing though.

[Dirk Diggler]

Dirk - I don't know a whole lot about the Prius, and the battery expectations. But the way it runs ... the electrical system and the gas system more or less run together. So even if the batteries were weak, I would imagine it would just put more load on the gas system.

I remember in my days at Toyota, I seem to recall them calling it a "hybrid assist" system. I wonder if the batteries were mostly dead, maybe the car would still run (but probably with warning lights / messages on the dash).


MetroMPG - On my 2020, one day I fired it up and started to back out the driveway, when one of my sons came along. I wanted to say something to him and I thought it might be a long conversation so I turned off the engine. The conversation didn't take as long as I thought and when I went to re-fire the engine, it wasn't too happy about it. It took much more crankover than normal. I know this was the cold start, shut-off, refire issue. Any thought they might have figured it out on the 2020 is out the window, it still does it. It is an interesting quirk. And yes ... it does act like a flooded engine. My wife's Matrix, when the purge solenoid went bad, would not want to fire up after getting gas (the purge valve would stay open and filling the tank pushed vapors into the intake). The Mirage acted very similar to that Matrix flooded engine scenario.

I'd hope a Prius with 100k miles would still have solid battery integrity but I wouldn't no for sure until I had it inspected. I read Toyota service centers are a good place to get a reading on a used unit?

[Pryme]

I'd hope a Prius with 100k miles would still have solid battery integrity but I wouldn't no for sure until I had it inspected. I read Toyota service centers are a good place to get a reading on a used unit?

Lots of people with over 200k on the original battery. And they have new batteries now with ten year warranties now for a decent price. It's a non issue with the prius.

[7milesout]

On the Prius forum (a long time ago), they had figured out how to replace the batteries themselves for 1/10th the price of the stealer. That was the original Prius, maybe the 2nd gen. So by now, it should be even better.

[wanna beco]

Chris Fix on YouTube has a video on how to replace the prius battery, I think even I could do it.... I would invent new swear words but I could do it. This forum has so many helpful people!

[Dodge Aries K]

Dirk, I have 237,000 miles on a 2012 Prius C that still rocks the original battery, engine, trans, etc. Usually it's time that kills the battery, not mileage. I expect the battery to last another year or two before going bad and then I'll replace the battery pack with a used one from a later wrecked C to keep it going until it's usefulness for the purpose I bought it for expires.