New Prius owner here

Hi all, I find myself the new owner of a 2024 Prius Prime XSE(non premium) with just 4500 miles when I picked it up, this is my first Prius and first Toyota in general. This will be my main driver to work and back, which is about 30 miles each way and today I made it there and back on mostly electric with just kicking it into hybrid mode on a 5 mile stretch of straight road each way, so I’m happy with that. I found this on eBay at auction for a screaming deal (won it for $21,600) because it has been in an accident and repaired and has a rebuilt title. And before anyone starts giving me life advice on buying a rebuilt vehicle with no warranty, I know what I got into, I own two other rebuilt vehicles, one of which I fixed from salvage condition myself. This car so far has been great and there are no signs of any previous damage on any visible part of the car (including frame and suspension components) and I flew to Tampa to pick it up and drive it 1300 miles straight home to Michigan with no issues, so I’m pretty confident it has no hidden mechanical issues. I do have all the manuals that came with it new as well as the window sticker, so that’s nice, so I figured I would say hi and ask for any owner advice that may apply to these new models. I’m posting a few pictures just to show it off, I also de-badged everything except the toyota logos and now anybody that asks what model it is can’t believe it’s a Prius lol.

 

Thanks for asking, I was thinking I should have put a couple pics of the damage that I got after I got the car. The seller definitely should have put them in the auction because the unknown is probably what kept the sale from going higher. I believe driver airbag went off inside and that’s it inside, but bumper cover was mangled and hood and fender crinkles was it, possibly an ac recharge, but at the price I got it the guy that fixed it still made money.

 

Thanks for the advice, I know this car has a ton more electrical systems than the average car that's just a few years older so I made sure to ask very plainly if everything is working as it should, and the 1300 mile drive home confirmed that the seller was truthful, at least by way of him not messing anything up fixing up the mostly cosmetic damage to the car(likely had no electronic issues to begin with), and everything electronic still seems to be calibrated properly, adaptive cruise works great and keeps you away from vehicles 3 to 4 car lengths and aggressively brakes if someone brakes in front of you, lane centering is dead on(used both adaptive cruise and lane centering most of my way home, car dang near drives itself), cross traffic alerts, etc, all are working great. The only options this has added to the prime xse package is PPF and all weather mats, which is exactly what I was looking for(prime with almost no options). I loathe sunroofs/glass roofs, and the solar roof, while neat from a stat/numbers standpoint, adds effectively one hour of range(on a good very sunny day) on the standard 120 plug and is not worth the added complexity that it adds to a very dent/damage prone part of a vehicle.

As far as changing the oil more than every 10k miles, we will see. That's one that you need to weigh how many electric miles you are putting on vs how many ice miles you are putting on between oil changes. If 3/4 or more of my miles are electric then the average oil change is going to happen with less than 3k actual engine miles on the oil. It's definitely something to be cognisant of based on how you are using your vehicle and should shorten if you do a lot of ice driving on something like a vacation or if your ice driving miles increase because of some change in your daily routine.

I am also in love with the look of this generation of Prius, and if not for that I probably wouldn't have even considered a Prius, Toyota has managed to make a practical, relatively slow and almost ugly(no offense to older gen owners) car look quite striking, dare I say almost beautiful, with handling and acceleration of almost a hot hatch to match it's new design. The windshield rake alone is ridiculously impractical and I love it!

 

Yes, the temps do swing all over in spring and fall in Michigan, in all likelihood I will probably change it twice a year like my truck, driving something year round and doing one oil change some years just feels weird and pretty much all vehicles with ice engines recommend x amount of miles or 6 months for oil changes(whichever comes first) anyway. Now my bike, I only change in the spring and that's it because I only get a few thousand miles on it if I'm lucky in the 6 months or so that I have decent weather to ride it, after that it sits in the back of my garage on a battery tender until I change the oil again in the spring before I start riding again. And as Mike Gundy would say "I'm a MAN, I'm 40!"(actually 43) and a former heavy duty truck and trailer mechanic (my certs actually just expired this year), so yes, I know all about the various advantages and pitfalls of trying to balance oil change frequency and trying to extend mileage between them. I hit 5k miles on my drive home from buying it and my maintenance required light has come on, indicating at least a check of fluids and tire rotation(oh I can't forget the most important step, check installation of drivers floor mat), and being crashed at just over 1k miles, I have no idea if this had an initial break in oil change or not, so I will definitely be doing an oil change this weekend. I was hoping to just take it in to my closest Toyota dealer for an oil change, but I wanted to couple that wil the 2nd key Delivery Program, but my local dealer said they have to get in contact with their Toyota rep and see if they will still pay for the 2nd key since it's been rebuilt and voids any warranties, which is ridiculous since a key is a key and should still be covered just like it doesn't matter what happened to the car if there is a recall, if it's on the road and in use they have to do recalls.

 

I am also thoroughly enjoying my Prime, I filled it up when I got home from the long trip home from Florida when I bought it and still have just over half a tank and my round trip for work each day is 62 miles, so I'd say I'm doing pretty good, unfortunately it wouldn't go over very well if I asked to plug my car in at work to top it back off since I work at an ethanol plant lol, so I burn a quarter to half gallon of fuel a day going to and from work by kicking hybrid mode on for about 5 miles of highway cruising to and from work, and I usually have 3-6 miles of ev range when I get home.