Just got the "official" your loan is paid off, you own it letter from the bank today for the prius. 170k+ miles, 40 something oil changes, 1 set of brake pads, 1 set of tires, 3864 gallons of fuel later and 8 somewhat regular services later it's still running at 43mpg. I did the math recently and the total savings I got from driving this when compared to a 25mpg car or small truck was $200 more than what I paid for the car.
[UPDATE]: Of course I should never write this sort of thing because my luck is a fickle beast. Two days after my original post I went down to Southern RI for work. When I got out at around 4pm I started my car and got about 100 yds. when my dashboard lit up like the Vegas Strip. The car still ran OK still so I kept on my way listening intently and feeling every bump in the road with paranoid interest. It was a very windy day and my little car was blowing all over the place so I was sure every lurch was the last dying effort before it finally bit the dust.
I did detect an ominous humming sound from the front end as a constant amid the barrage of false positives. The pitch was changing with my speed not the engine RPM so I was encouraged by that but still thoroughly distracted when the speed limit changed from 55 to 40. I went by the State Trooped in the median at about 60. He was a nice enough guy but not nice enough to give me a break. This was turning out to be a very expensive day. Thankfully the rest of the ride home was uneventful. I grabbed the mail on the way into the house and enjoyed the coincidence of a letter from the Massachusetts DMV arriving that day. Must be the title, or as it turned out a letter saying they were not going to issue me a title because I never turned in my NH title when I moved to MA. As you might recall from the beginning of this post I just payed off my car so I've never even seen a title fro this vehicle. It has been locked away in the finance companies title vault or something since I bought the car. There's my three I hope. We'll see what the shop has to say. Stay tuned!
[UPDATED UPDATE]: I brought the Prius in to Toyota and they confirmed my worst fears. The big $4000 battery pack needed to be replaced. ($4000-$1400 core charge so more like a $2600 part. I told the sales manager I thought it would not be worth it to dump that kind of money into a car with 170k miles and I might have to start looking at a new car. He said that they'd like to hold on to the car for another day or two so they could confirm that I was indeed screwed. No problem, I rented a car from them and between working a crazy winter schedule and the kids activities I started looking at cars. The Service Manager calls me a couple of days later and lets me know that Toyota decided to cover the battery itself and I would only have to pay for the labor! It was like winning the lottery! Well, not exactly but I really didn't like any of the cars I looked at the thought of going right back into a car payment was pretty sucky so being able to milk more time out of this car was pretty cool. I figure it frees up about $500/month for other endeavors. Not too shabby. It's been almost 4 months now and everything's running smooth (and hopefully I didn't just jinx it by posting this like the last time!) I think my next ride might just have to be a Toyota.
[UPDATE]: Of course I should never write this sort of thing because my luck is a fickle beast. Two days after my original post I went down to Southern RI for work. When I got out at around 4pm I started my car and got about 100 yds. when my dashboard lit up like the Vegas Strip. The car still ran OK still so I kept on my way listening intently and feeling every bump in the road with paranoid interest. It was a very windy day and my little car was blowing all over the place so I was sure every lurch was the last dying effort before it finally bit the dust.
[UPDATED UPDATE]: I brought the Prius in to Toyota and they confirmed my worst fears. The big $4000 battery pack needed to be replaced. ($4000-$1400 core charge so more like a $2600 part. I told the sales manager I thought it would not be worth it to dump that kind of money into a car with 170k miles and I might have to start looking at a new car. He said that they'd like to hold on to the car for another day or two so they could confirm that I was indeed screwed. No problem, I rented a car from them and between working a crazy winter schedule and the kids activities I started looking at cars. The Service Manager calls me a couple of days later and lets me know that Toyota decided to cover the battery itself and I would only have to pay for the labor! It was like winning the lottery! Well, not exactly but I really didn't like any of the cars I looked at the thought of going right back into a car payment was pretty sucky so being able to milk more time out of this car was pretty cool. I figure it frees up about $500/month for other endeavors. Not too shabby. It's been almost 4 months now and everything's running smooth (and hopefully I didn't just jinx it by posting this like the last time!) I think my next ride might just have to be a Toyota.
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