I have my 2004 Prius with 115,000 miles on it. Although I haven't had many problems with it, I am a bit weary for what the future may hold for this car, being that it is getting so many miles put on it. so my other option is to get rid of it and buy a honda civic, or another prius with less miles. whatever the choice may be, does it make sense to get rid of this car? my main worry is the maintenance of course, and the battery (even though its warrant to 150xxx here) does it make sense to just keep this thing until it dies? or just trade it in for a newer car that isn't worth much more. If you have over 100000 miles on your prius, what problems have you encountered? I also have the carpool stickers which i can still get a little bit of $ out before they expire. thanks!
Keep it! It's just barely broken in at 115k. I'm at 178k and have never had it serviced. I just change the oil and filters. Recently, I just checked opened up the traction battery and all of the readings look great. I'll have another look at 350k. You have a great car. No reason to worry. :rockon:
several thoughts in favor of keeping the car: 1. no car payment, no sales tax, no new title and registration, no hassle of selling or lowball trade-in offers if you keep it. 2. the cost of proper maintenance and occasional repair is far less than replacing a car, in the vast majority of circumstances 3. depreciation is nonexistent if you drive the car into the ground 4. finding a newer car that isn't worth much more than a prius with 115k miles might not get you what you're looking for 5. with a little up front investment to take care of it (like you would with ANY car that had 115k miles on it), the car should keep on going for a very long time. save yourself the time and hassle. keep the car.
Sometimes the true cost of maintaining an older car gets blown out of proportion in comparison to what it costs to trade it. Let's say you sell the 115k Prius (what's that, 20k per year?) and buy a used '09 with low miles (call it 25k). KBB thinks you will get about $8k selling private party, and you will need to spend about $17k to get the newer one (again from a private party to keep the math fair). So that's $9k in the hole tomorrow. What can go wrong on a 115k mile Prius? Anything. What's likely to go wrong? Not much. You will want to install fresh transaxle fluid and coolants, probably have the brake fluid replaced, maybe install a set of brake pads on general principle. $500 or so? The inverter pump will probably die soon, which is another couple hundred. And what if the battery actually goes? The maximum on that is in the $3k range from the dealer or you could install a good used battery for under a grand. What I'm trying to point out is that keeping the car involves some risk of having to shell out as much as a few thousand dollars sometime in the next hundred thousand miles. Or you could have a car like Dans which has been healthy. If you trade you are immediately in the hole for much more money and then you will be right back here again in another 5 or 6 years.
If you just want to buy a new car and have money to burn, gopher it. But there is no economic justification for that: one can buy a whole lot of car repair for less than a new car, and that Prius is ages away from major upkeep territory.
115k miles on a toyota is nothing. there're so many people with their prius over 120k miles. keep it unless ur getting bored with the car.
