Prius Service questions

[ConchDiesel]

Do Prius' have to be serviced at the Toyota Dealership? I would assume most mechanics are not certified to work on them unless they are at a dealership.

How often do they need to be serviced? Is it just the usual oil change like other Toyotas?

Are they expensive to have work done on them? Some of this would be a moot point since they have the 36,000-mile warranty.

[kjb516]

According to the Scheduled Maintenance Guide that came with my Prius, the first maintenance item (with the exception of oil changes, filter changes and basic inspections) is to replace the engine and inverter coolant at 100,000 miles. The second (and only other scheduled item) is to replace the spark plugs at 120,000 miles.

I am not sure if they are more expensive to work on than their conventional counterparts as I have not required any work so far. Personally, I prefer to have mine serviced by Toyota itself, but I imagine many items (such as brakes) could easily be handled by others as most maintenance items on the Prius would have nothing to do with the hybrid system itself.

In addition, I extended my total warranty out to 100,000 miles (the hybrid system is already under warranty until 8 years / 100,000 miles) simply because I intend to own it at least that long. Many could argue successfully that paying for such an extension is a waste of money, but the piece of mind of complete coverage is worth every penny for me.

[Tideland Prius]

Nope. You can have the oil changed at jiffy, Midas etc etc. Just make sure they don't overfill the oil. For whatever reason, there have been plenty of reports of people saying that technicians (even Toyota ones!) that have overfilled the engine oil.

The service interval is the same as any other Toyota - 6 month/5,000 miles. No need for the 1000 or 3000 mile break-in oil change crap.

I'm not clear on your last question.

[Neal]

I have a question for you that have already gotten your Prius and have driven it in winter conditions such as occur in Canada and the northern US. I presently own a 2001 Solara and have had problems here in Ithaca New York driving up a steep drive that has been snowpacked. There are days that I can't make it up the drive. Is a 2006 Prius (the future apple of my eye) going to handle similarly or does it have good traction in snow and ice?

[ea8631]

^ I own my prius for almost 5 years and I didn't have any problem for winter driving (my prius did equipped a set of michlin arctic alpine during winter though). I need to travel between windsor and toronto (380 km each way) almost every weekend. I even drove several times during the snow storms and freezing rain, my prius is still handle fine.

For the service, my 2001 prius currently have 185000km on the odo. I did oil change in my friends garage for every 5000km and all other major maintance job (every 10000km - 15000km) at toyota dealership. They aren't expensive to maintance but it cost alot for repair.

For the 5 years of ownership, the only problem that I have is the "convertor and invertor unit" malfunction at 180000km. Dealer quote me that I need CAD$4500 (just for parts) to repair it.....but I found a used one from internet for USD$900 and it work with mine.

[Tideland Prius]

Neal, buy a good set of winter tyres e.g. Nokian, Blizzaks or that Arctic Alpine (though I think it's out of production now. I don't know the name of the newest Michelin winter tyre). The Prius has a super sensitive traction control. This is need to protect the electric motor from going kablemo. As such, the Prius will not make it up that steep drive on its regular all season tyres. A good set of winter tyres will definitely make a huge difference in traction and stability through snow and ice. I would recommend going for the package with the active safety features such as the HIDs and Vehicle Stability Control (VSC).