Lifetime of a Toyota Prius

Phil · 2007-01-19T04:37:21+00:00

I am looking at purchasing a Prius and as I was researching I found anarticle that quoted an Australian manager from Toyota on the lifetimeof the battery and the car. I have pasted the paragraph belowToyota's manager of alternative fuels and specialized vehicles, VicJohnstone, concedes the batteries, like the car itself, are built tolastless than a decade. "The life of the car and the battery aresupposed to be the same... around 8 to 10 years," he said. "We'renot expecting to replace them [the batteries]. In fact we only holdone [replacement] battery in stock nationally."This seemed a very short lifetime for a car to me so I researched thematter further.Other sites quoted toyota as saying the lifetime of the car is about109,000 miles (174,400 km). Travelling about 9400 miles (15000 km peryear) this makes the lifetime of the Prius around 9 years.If this is indeed the case it makes the lifetime cost of the Prius veryhigh compared to the average vehicle which should last at least 16years (travelling 15,000 km annually).Can anyone give me any more information on the accuracy of thisinformation or add to the discussion.