I just bought an 08 Prius to use for work. I drive over 1000 miles a week, so the fuel mileage, even over my 93 Toyota Pickup w/280K, is substantially better. I am wondering how long can I, or should I, keep the Prius, from both a resale value and practicality standpoint. I am an auto mechanic, so I expect to do most of my own maintenance. Thanks for your opinions.
Agree, I see no reason to get rid of it before 250-300k miles at the rate you drive. If you drive 1000 miles/wk that must be mostly highway miles which are very easy on the battery as the SOC hardly fluctuates at all. 5 years is 250k, you'll really do well fuel economy wise over that time period compared to anything else out there. If you still love the car keep going another 2 or 3 years.
I'd say keep it and show all the naysayers that Priuses can easily rack up 250,000+ miles with little repairs.
I have a GenII Prius (first model year, 2004), bought it in October of 2003, I only have 54,000 miles on it, but I have never had a single problem with it. All I have done is have the oil changed at 3-5K intervals. I see no reason to sell the car until the GenIII plug in Prius is out (PHEV), the only new "features" on the 2008 Prius over my 2004 are the AUX audio in, and the rear view camera, and the optional leather seats. While those are all nice to have, it's not worth selling a working Prius for. I figure I won't get much for a 2004 Prius in 2009 or 2010, so its drive it into the ground... I am even considering converting mine to a PHEV, there are a number of companies developing plug in kits for the Prius these days, such as HyMotion, Hymotion - Tomorrow's Technology for Today's Vehicles mitch
Jesse made it to 349k before another driver ran into him and totalled his 2002 Prius. See if you can beat him. BTW, I also replaced a 93 Toyota Pickup with the Prius. I was getting about 22 mpg on my commute. I now get 45 -49 mpg on the same commute. The Prius is a light year ahead of the Toyota Pickup in terms of safety.
The only ones I'm aware of that have that many miles are a few Canadian Taxis Though Jesse went almost 350k miles in his first gen Prius-older and inferior battery technology. There's no reason to think yours won't go 350k.
Keep it until you find another vehicle that (credibly) offers lower total operating costs and will accomplish your transportation missions. For the "true believers", pure EV cars may be there already. Anyway, battery technology will be the thing to watch If gasoline prices ever go down to $1/gallon again, you will have a hard time unloading the heap. However...
Resale value standpoint: "run it into the ground" or wait until gas prices skyrocket. Practicality standpoint: I'm not sure what you mean. OK, you asked for it: Reliability standpoint: in your case, probably "run it into the ground" (from my personal experience, cars that are owned and driven by people who do their own maintenance are most reliable) Environmental standpoint: As long as there are cars like some of these for sale, then sell it as soon as you can afford a new Prius. Flood the market with more environmentally friendly cars and bump those dirty old gas guzzlers off the lots and into the shredders (to be recycled of course).
