Considering a Prius: Advice Wanted

[shbcjb]

We'd welcome your thoughts on whether we should purchase a Prius.

Our situation: We're moving to Western Massachussets (i.e., lots of snow and ice in winter), where the our new car would be my commuter car (i.e. about 40 miles daily on a mix of highway and local roads) rather than our family car (we have two kids and a Subaru outback). We're interested in the Prius mainly because we want to reduce our fuel consumption, emissions, and cost.

Our questions:

1. What are your thoughts on safety?
-has the Prius received an IIHS safety rating yet?
-how does the Prius handle in snow and ice?
-how important is the lack of AWD/4WD?
-how important are the additions of the vehicle stability control and air bag curtain features?
-is there really a stalling problem?
-has anyone heard about increased risk of fire/explosions in collisions due to the electrical wiring throughout the car?

2. How does the overall financial cost of the Prius compare to a less expensive non-hybrid that nonetheless has decent gas mileage (say, the Corolla?).
--will the battery likely have to be replaced, and if so at what expected cost?

3. Is there any way to guarantee early delivery of the Prius to perserve the full tax credit?

Thanks for your thoughts!

[Tideland Prius]

1)

The Prius, as small as it may be (3 inches shorter than a Corolla) has very good crash protection. I'd definitely get the VSC and extra airbags just for layering the protection. VSC for active safety and avoiding an accident in the first place, and side/side curtains for that idiot that runs the red light should you be so unfortunate to cross paths (knock on wood it doesn't happen).

NHTSA's rating for a 2004/2005 Prius is 5-star driver frontal, 4-star for front passenger frontal, side impact and rollover.

For 2006, it's 4-stars across the board. 4-stars = 11-20% chance of serious injury in NHTSA's rating.

Also for 2006, a new advanced airbag system and tyre pressure monitoring system has been made standard.

The Prius handles okay on snow on stock tyres. If you're stuck with snow for 6 months a year, invest in a good set of snow tyres. TRAC + VSC + winter tyres should help you get along nicely. Worse come to worse, use the Outback if only for the higher ground clearance although if conditions are that bad, why would you go out anyway?

I don't know about AWD/4WD since I've never owned a vehicle with that drivetrain. The Prius has ~62% weight bias towards the front so a good set of winter tyres on a small contact patch (stock tyres are 185 width) with all that weight should be enough to give decent grip.


As for the stalling problem, here are a couple of pointers. Toyota already issued a letter to owners to have their cars updated well before the first media-reported case of stalling. Now if the owner's too lazy to take it into the dealership, then it's their problem if this stalling thing occurs. Don't be blaming Toyota or the car for your own laziness. Toyota already warned them.

Secondly, the "stalling" problem is probably exaggerated by the fact that people panic when things go wrong. Probably the same reason in the Firestone/Bridgestone case. People panicked, they swerve, they rollover. Simple as that. I've never experienced the problem myself but my car's already updated.

As for increased risk of fire, I doubt it. The 500V lines are shut off when a collision occurs. All those reports about firefighters getting electrocuted and stuff is bs. Why? Well, what about the first time airbags were introduced to cars? Did they complain about airbags that didn't deploy when the accident occurred, suddenly deploying when firefighters tried to free the driver and/or passengers and in the process killing them?

Besides, they should've had training like they did when airbags came out (esp. side impact airbags). The HV battery is well secured but if it so happens that the collision is soo bad that the battery casing is punctured, stay well away from the acid. I'd post a pic but the site's gone. There was this site with pictures of a totally smashed Prius. It was used as a delivery vehicle for some company. To give you a sense, it crashed and somehow also rolled over (wonder how fast the guy was going.. maybe he got t-boned). The battery was still intact.


2)

Cost. Well, that's up to you to decide, really. The Prius is a midsize so it's comparable to the Camry, not the Corolla. In terms of maintenance, it's no different from other Toyotas - regular oil changes at every 5,000 mi as well as the full maintenance at every 10k mi. Also, because of regenerative braking (and it also depends on your style of driving), your brakes could last you a very long time. A guy over at PriusOnline has a 2001 Prius with 102,000 miles. He has 70% brake pad life left all around. Most of it is highway driving though. On mine which is 99% city driving, after 16,000kms (10,000 miles) I have 90% front left, 95% left in the rear. So if driven properly, you probably can sell your car with original brake pads!

Also, there's no power steering fluid to replace cause it's electric.

The battery is meant to last 12+ years. Prius taxis have gone up to 330,000kms (200k+ miles) with no degraded performance from the battery. Toyota has yet to replace a battery under warranty (Honda already has replaced a few on the Civic Hybrid). There are a few 2001 owners who have reached 220,000+ miles and needing a new battery. They've found a few at salvage yards for ~US$1,000 plus labour/installation. A new battery should be about $3,000-$4,000 USD. Li-Ion batteries are expected to debut on the next generation Prius so replacements for the current NiMH batteries should be much cheaper by then (~2009).

The hybrid components are warranted for 8 years, 100,000 miles. Up to 15 years, 160,000 miles in certain states.

3) The best way is to shop around and I mean really shop around. Check out of district or even out of state. Somebody, somewhere has a Prius sitting on their lot even though your local dealer tells you 3 months (or however long it is) and a waiting list.


Hope this helps!