Toyota Prius owners - How do you feel about the car?

[ukrkoz]

Originally Posted by RomaniGypsy

Let's keep this short and sweet. I'm looking at a 2014 Prius V. This "looking" just started today. I have reservations about the newfangled gadgetry found within, including but not limited to the CVT, hybrid powertrain, etc. I've heard that the cost of a hybrid battery pack can run into the several thousands when it has to be replaced. I want to know:

1) What year is your Prius? (And what model is it, if it's not the standard version that was the only Prius you could get until recently?)

2) How many miles are on it?

3) What major repairs have you had to do to it so far?

4) What regular maintenance can I expect to do to a Prius which a normal car would not require? (Figure that a "normal car" doesn't have a CVT nor a hybrid powertrain, among perhaps other things.)

5) How likely are you to replace your current Prius with another Prius when the time comes to replace it? And why?

Let's rock.

Go to toyotanation>Prius and ask there.
Prius does not have a CVT. Toyota decided to call it CVT for lack of better term, as PSD, or Power Split Device is rather hard to explain. I can only tell you that it's the smoothest ever transmission and, technically, having no lags or dronning, so much relevant to true CVTs.
Google Prius long term reliability study. They did very substantial number of Prii taxi cabs to find that even after 300 000 miles, traction battery performance drops only by 10%.
The only unusual maintenance you will experience with Prius is brakes bleeding. It can NOT be done the usual way and involves Techstream scanner and special software.
Batteries normally last very long time. 12V battery lasts easy 6-8 yrs as it's not used for starting. Several options available to rebuild traction battery if so needed.
CARB state has all hybrid components under warranty for 150 000 miles or 10 years and Toyota is continuosly extending warranties for this or that.
Overall prius is a very solid reliable vehicle with tendency to be lame to drive. It's a high mpg car, not a racer. If you want much more whoomp, get Camry Hybrid or Avalon. 0 to 60 in less than 8 seconds is quite respectful.

[Tominftl]

Anyone with a Prius V? How are the seats? Power drivers seat?

[Bureaucat]

I bought a 2015 Prius V a couple of weeks ago, so I'm still adapting to it. Mine is a Prius V three without a power seat, but I'm not certain if a power drivers seat is even available on a four or five. The seat seems comfortable to me, but so far I'm limited to in town driving.

EDIT: Just checked; power seat for driver is an option, but doesn't come standard. You'd have to get a four or five level model to have it.

[blisterpeanuts]

Originally Posted by Tominftl

Anyone with a Prius V? How are the seats? Power drivers seat?

I have a 2013 Prius V (model 2). It's been perfect so far. The driver's seat is manual and has four adjustments:

1. slide forward and back
2. seatback angle

A higher trim model would also have electrical controls for:
3. vertical height
4. lumbar

See the manual for a picture and more information.

I got this car nearly two and a half years ago, as a replacement for a '99 Forester which I loved. That Subaru was great: 6 cyl, decent acceleration and handling, AWD, great visibility, lots of cargo capacity, OK fuel efficiency (25-28), comfortable and all the trimmings including heated seats, electric seat adjustments, good stereo.

Unfortunately after 140K miles the Subaru had developed several major problems -- engine block oil leak, transmission shaft leak, and power steering problem. If it was one of these, I'd just have it fixed. But all three... not worth it, so I traded the thing in.

The Prius V was a compromise. Less cargo area, less acceleration, less visibility, and less traction in the Massachusetts winter (front wheel drive).

On the plus side: cool modern drive system, incredible gas mileage, modern stereo with bluetooth phone hands-free system.

The visibility took me a while to get used to. The Subaru Forester was, and recent models seem to still be, all glass, all around. You feel like you're in touch with your surroundings. But when you climb in the Prius V, you feel like you're in a big eggshell with a few little portals to see out of. They could have given it more glass; maybe it's a weight or streamlining thing, I don't know.

I don't like the multi-function screen. It's just a stupid, unfriendly kind of design that makes you tap the touch screen too many times to see basic things like what radio station you're listening to, or what mode your hybrid engine is in, or which phone is connected. A better design would have a little window for each of those things so you don't have to dick around with the screen when your eyes should be on the road. I wish the screen also had a permanent display of the two trip meters plus the odometer (and why not give me 10 trip meters if it's just software???) instead of making me press a button to toggle through those items. They send Toyota owners all sorts of polls and questionnaires, if you let them, and I've ripped them a new one on that touch screen.

The stereo is OK, not fantastic. It will stream your phone's music using Bluetooth which is OK except that once you've paired the phone, it will automatically start streaming every time you get in the car (using an Android phone, at least) and you have to screw around with the phone settings to turn off auto-play -- which then turns on again inexplicably.

The stereo has a USB port, and when I got the car I ordered a 64 gig thumb drive, copied all my MP3 music, and plugged it in. But it was really hard to navigate through the folders; whoever programmed the stereo software didn't know what they were doing, and the shuffle mode seems to bounce between two folders while ignoring all your other music. A stupid bug. Also it's really hard to see what the folder names are because it only shows the first 20 or so characters (been a while since I've used it). Basically it's crap. I would recommend plugging an iPod or similar device into the AUX jack and just using that. That's what I do.

The cool part of the Prius family of course is the gasoline mileage and the fact that it drives solely in electric mode at low speeds. Except for a (much more expensive) plug-in Prius, that electric mode doesn't last very long, though, just 2-3 miles max and if you suddenly accelerate, the gasoline motor kicks in right away. But if you're gliding or coasting on a level or downhill stretch at a moderate 25-30 MPH, you can stay at "99%" efficiency mode which is to say electric mode, for quite a while.

I've found that the heater takes down the miles per gallon big time. The first winter we had it, we left the heater off and got around 48-49 miles per gallon. Come the spring, we were getting 49-52 miles per gallon easily. This past winter was pretty harsh, and we had the heater on a lot, and the car was getting 42-44 MPG. Note that the "miles per gallon" display on the console lies, and consistently exaggerates your mileage by about 2 mpg. The real mpg is what you calculate when you top off the tank!

You can just drive the car like any other car and not worry about the mileage, and it will do very well. But to hyper-mile, you have to be careful and try to let the electric mode kick in as often as possible -- takes a bit of practice. They say to accelerate quickly to cruising speed, say 35 mph, then ease off on the accelerator and let the hybrid motor kick in, and you will see the gas mileage creeping up. It gets to be an obsession after a while.

The hybrid battery warranty is 8 years or 100,000 miles in most states, but it's 10 years/150K miles in California and a handful of other states that follow the California system (Connecticut, Maine,
Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington).

I've heard on the chatboards that some people's batteries last well after the 100K mark, and others give out well before 100K. So, your mileage may vary, so to speak. We've already put 41,000 miles on the car in the past 2.5 years and it's given us zero problems. The first year or so of Toyota regular service is free, then it's about $260 if you extend the service contract for another year or so, which I did.

Get your car from a good Toyota dealer. There's such a thing as a bad Toyota dealer; the one in our own town has bad ratings on Yelp and other sites, so we went about 15 miles west to a better one and have been very satisfied so far.

[Tominftl]

I had a 2008 Prius for 5 years. It was great for around town but the seats were the problem for me. ( no power seat or lumbar support.) I put a new 12 volt battery in and regular scheduled oil changes. I thought the Corolla had much better seats and was a cheaper car.
Doubt if I will return to a Prius now. Currently driving an Avalon Hybrid limited and love it.
Couldn't deal with a small car after the Avalon. Still get over 40 mpg (by figuring it myself, those on board mpgs are always wrong.)

[WyoNewk]

Originally Posted by RomaniGypsy

... I want to know:

1) What year is your Prius? (And what model is it, if it's not the standard version that was the only Prius you could get until recently?)

2) How many miles are on it?

3) What major repairs have you had to do to it so far?

4) What regular maintenance can I expect to do to a Prius which a normal car would not require? (Figure that a "normal car" doesn't have a CVT nor a hybrid powertrain, among perhaps other things.)

5) How likely are you to replace your current Prius with another Prius when the time comes to replace it? And why?

Let's rock.

1) 2015 Prius 3.
2) 22,000
3) None
4) Not much. "Toyota Care" covers normal maintenance for 24/24,000 (or something like that).
5) 50/50 maybe. I got the car for cheap mileage, and it does provide that. (I drive 30-35K per year.) It's far from luxurious -- stiff ride, so-so seats, noisy, poor visibility and really sucks in snow deeper than 5-7 inches. Otherwise, it does what it's supposed to do. I'll drive this one for another year or two and then decide what's next. It might be an SUV for Wyoming's winter roads.

I don't think I've ever hand-calculated a tank of gas at 50 mpg, but it's usually a little over 45 in the summer and a little over 40 in the winter. I drive mostly at 80 mph (interstate speed limit). It does MUCH better at 65 mph and below, but I prefer to drive with the traffic flow. Plus, at almost 70 years old, I've gotta hurry to get as many miles behind me as possible in the short life left ahead.