1. Home
  2. Toyota Prius
  3. '04 Prius after 3.5 years

'04 Prius after 3.5 years

We bought this loaded car in Oct '03 with no price premium, installed leather, tinting, XM-radio, and upgraded speakers, and not long thereafter bought quieter tires. We also added about

66# of strategic silencing materials, which really made a difference. I've never been happier with a car purchase.

We're right at 40,000 miles. Our fuel consumption since purchase has been about 44mpg. Unscheduled maintenance has been zero, but we paid $950 for the Toyota extended warranty anyway.

I plan to keep the car until 2011, because the CA HOV stickers are good until then - and frankly, that one feature by itself adds immense satisfaction to owning the car. Yesterday I drove

250 miles in S California freeway traffic, and saved at least an hour thanks to the HOV lanes and ramps.

It took more than 18 months for the car to depreciate to a price below that which we paid for it...

Wow!

Reply to
nunamus
Loading thread data ...

Congratulaions!

Ya gotta love it...

Reply to
Bream Rockmetteller

How can that be? I recall when we bought our 2002 new that depreciation was expected to be more than average! And that it would take 200K miles to pay off the hybrid cost at $1.50 per gallon. ;-)

FWIW, after 5 years it is still my favorite car of all time. The Lotus was more fun to drive, but the maintenance was a real damper on the fun.

Mike

Reply to
Michael Pardee

Hah! I understand perfectly - one predecessor to my Prius was a Porsche (incredibly fast, lots of fun, 15mpg downhill). For the first year, that Prius had more prestige...

I am reluctant to give up those HOV-lane privileges, which run until 2011, for the sake of the 2010 model. Does anyone know if CA is considering a further issue?

anon

Reply to
nunamus

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.