Hey guys, My dad is considering buying a Prius later this year but has a few questions. First, how have the reliability been on the Prius' so far? He's also worried that nobody can work on the car besides Toyota, and is worried about what happens after the warranty runs out. Also how big is the car on the inside, is it like the size of a Civic, or is it somewhere in between a Civic and an Accord? Thanks. Sean
While it's still on the stands, have him check out the April Consumer Reports -- the have a complete maintenance history for the Classic Prius. It was good enough that CR rated the '04 Prius one of the top ten best buys for 2004. Somebody asked that on Car Talk; Tom & Ray said that they think that it's OK to take a '04 Prius to an independent mechanic. However, I'd think software updates or non-run-of-the-mill stuff would take a Toyota person.
If that was their newspaper column, they thought an indy could work on non-hybrid features like brake shoes and rotors. Seems reasonable, but IMHO there isn't much else that isn't tied to new features in the electronics or drive. Heck, if you have to hand the shop a valet card so that they'll know how to move the car... Mine will be serviced only by a dealer for the first few years.
Also - with this completely different system in the car, some things have changed. For example, since the steering is electronic driven, there's never a need to worry about power steering fluid, since this car has none. Transmission fluid needs to be changed less regularly than normal cars as well (I believe the 'features' manual says 80k compaired to a regular car's 36k). Brakes get less wear because of the regenative system, and one of the nicest things is getting gasoline half as often. So, while there are expenses to this car, mainly right now the biggest expense is the wait. However, I'm certain he'd probably love this car and most everything about it. Have him check out a local dealer for a test drive, although even those can be hard to find sometimes. -m.
