Hello all! I am not only a newbie to the Prius, but I'm new to the world of driving, period. After being a cab/train/subway girl my whole life, I'm finally in a place where is car is necessary. I'm bumming a ride for my hour-long commute each way right now, but hopefully by the end of the month I'll be ready to pull the trigger and buy a car. I've been doing a lot a research, and it looks like Gen 2 or Gen 4 have the best reputations. Now, Gen 4 would require me to finance and I realllly don't want a car payment right now (applying for grad school, ugh). Instead, I figure paying cash for a Gen 2 or 3 are my only options. Are the Gen 3s really that bad? Is it worth the risk of an older car/higher mileage to get a Gen 2? I keep reading about reading about blown head gaskets due to ERG problems in the Gen 3 and failing batteries in the Gen 2, and I guess I'm asking: which is more expensive to fix? I know next to nothing about cars except for what I've learned through this forum, so any help would be appreciated.
welcome! 1) you should not buy a hybrid 2) if you insist, a gen 2 is old enough to potentially cost you a lot of repair money. 3) a gen 3 closing on 100,000 miles is a potential oil burner and at risk for head gasket failure. 4) at a minimum, it will need an egr cleaning: close to $1,000 5) all these cars will need a new hybrid battery sooner than later 6) buy a corolla or civic 7) all the best!
If my wife's knee hadn't given out, she'd still be driving the '98 Civic HX 5-speed. Honest 45 mpg (I checked), very simple and reliable. I don't, however, recommend the automatic version. The CVT in those cars was not what it should have been.
I still drive my 4 Runner to work in Sacramento sometimes. But I always take the river road in. Sitting in traffic on I-5 and non stop shifting sucks. (Yes it’s a 5 speed stick)
The Garden Highway? It may not be faster than I-5, but it sure is prettier and more relaxing. In my CRX I've learned to wait 'til there's some space in front of me, then let it idle in first. It's amazing how often that ends up being the right speed.
Yes the garden highway, you know sac I see. They lowered the speed limit to 45 but they never have anyone to enforce the speed limit. Pretty much get on I-5 at garden hwy and exit at Richards. That’s the next exit.
