US maintenance schedules can be viewed at:
The interval on the same car outside of the US is typically longer. For example, in the UK it is every 10,000 miles/1 year.
Are you sure that is not 10,000 km or 1 year?
Jeff
no, UK still uses miles. 10,000 miles/1 year in the UK for the service schedule.
I was having a starter put in my 93 Corolla the other day and Burt Toyota was about 3/4 mile from there, so I took a walk in 102 degree heat, JUST so I could test drive a Prius. THAT's how much you guys made me curious. :)
I tried a 2005, which was all they had on the lot that day. The 2007's are sold out 6 weeks in advance and must be ordered.
It was sure interesting. A very unconventional car. Awesome they way they designed it to have such integrated energy systems like that. It's like the engine pours just enough energy into the battery and the battery pours just enough energy into the motor to run the thing, and it maintains the loop and allows you to monitor it all. As Spock would say; "Fascinating".
But I'm hearing, even from the salesman, that the MPG estimates are to be downgraded soon. He said from 55 to maybe 50 MPG in the city, but it could be even less. I mean we have a lot of hills here in the Denver area, so I'm not sure if that could really drop the city MPG on it.
Also the big giant fact that our 93 Corolla may only get 22 MPG for my work like this, BUT IT'S PAID FOR, and a Prius would wind up adding about $20k of debt for us. That's a LOT of gas savings eaten up by the cost of the new car.
So for now, we may as well keep the Corolla, but it sure got my interest with how cool that Prius is. Definitely something that will be in my mind, if we wind up making a lot more money and would like a big monthly tax write-off for the business.
But for tooling around town, it doesn't seem real zippy, unless you trash the MPG ratings. In my work, I can't go really slow or not accelerate much, just to save gas.
And what's with Toyota that they can't offer it to you in deep shiny purple? :)
It does for us, it looks like a little Batmobile or something, we like it. :)
If I had the money, I'd build a circular driveway with a Bat Cave looking garage in the middle for it. :)
Yeah, I guess it's only worth about $2500 now.
If someone wanted to pay me a lot more, I've got a couple of acres of land in Miami that my dad wants $2,000,000 for. :)
'93 Dx Wagon. 150k miles on it, and it usually gets 25-30 MPG, but has been getting about 22 for work because of idling time at each stop. It still far exceeds all the emissions test standards and we've changed the oil every 3000 miles for the entire life of the car so far.
I just put a new starter in it and had to get brakes a couple of months ago, but that's routine stuff.
Exactly. That 2005 Prius I looked at, was going for around $20k, with the new ones about $23k. It hardly fits the old common wisdom that "a car depreciates 50% in the first couple of years, so buy one with $25k miles on it".
You're nearly right. I may have to wait until I earn more money consistently. I'm working on that though. If things work out for me, I could be making $50-60k a year from now.
What does the word Prius mean anyway? Was it named after Priapus?
:)
Check back with the April issue of Consumer Reports re: the Prius (library, maybe even on-line). Depreciation has been minimal - nothing like how cars usually depreciate.
Cathy
>
The EPA estimates for ALL cars are being changed starting with 2008 models, because they've changed the testing better to simulate real-world driving.
The EPA estimates were never intended to be real world numbers; rather, they were simply a method to compare one car to another. As long as ALL cars were tested the same way, it was a valid comparison. But everyone knew that those sticker numbers were somewhat fantasy.
So people bitched and moaned, and now the numbers will better reflect reality--for EVERY car, not just the Prius. So?
From what I've heard, the Prius estimates will pretty much match what I've been getting in my 07--45 city, 48-50 highway. I got 53 on one highway trip recently.
It's plenty zippy--in fact, it gets better mileage if you accelerate moderately from a stop and get yourself up to speed, instead of accelerating very gently.
It will be nice to see more realistic numbers.
I thought they were worse on the hwy than in city. How'd you do that?
Hmm, interesting.
By the way, what's the deal with the cruise control?
I couldn't get it to work, and the salesman said something about it not being supposed to work at only 35 MPH?
Don't quote me, but I don't think any cruise control works at relatively low speeds. (I never switch mine on until I hit around 50 mph - have never tried it at lower speeds.) If you're going only 35mph, it's likely to be stop & go traffic, or else around lots of curves, and cruise would constantly get cancelled out every time you stepped on the brake pedal.
Cathy
I have no idea. I just get in the car and go. I drove 6 hours at around 72-75mph, on cruise control, with climate control on. There were a few construction spots where I had to slow down.
At the end of the trip, I had done 53mpg. To be fair, it wasn't really very hot, so the AC didn't have to work that hard.
45 in the city, 48-50 or so on the highway. And that's what the Prius will be rated at for 2008. Yeah, the old EPA cycle had it doing better in city. Well, the real world was obviously different.
CC works at, what, 42mph and up? Maybe it is 35mph and up.
I do know that if you're on CC and you slow down (construction, or a toll both) and go below 24mph, it erases the programming. So you can't be going at 70mph on cruise, slow down for a toll booth, speed back up, and hit the resume button. It won't get you back up to your 70mph. You have to hit "set" again at whatever speed you want.
How annoying.
You have to hit something to get the car back up to speed: the gas pedal or the "resume" button. This will work well say in the country where the speed limit is 25 mph, but in stop and go traffic, it won't work well, because the effective speed limit is not set by the law, but by the guy in front of you.
My car cruise works just fine at lower speeds like 35 or 45 mph, but it is not effective in city driving (only country driving and highway driving).
Jeff
Toll booths are annoying. NYC is planning on eliminating them with cameras that read license plates and EZ Pass transponders.
My cruise goes back to the set speed after stop (as long as the ignition is not shut off - it will even get back to speed if the engine stops).
Jeff
yeah, my Hondas do too--but none of my Toyotas do. And that goes back to 1994 at least.
"prius" is a Latin adjective/adverb, whose Latin root is "prior." "prius" translates to before, prior, formerly, forerunner (but Toyota already has a version of that last name in use! ;-) )
However, if you ask Toyota, they'll say that "prius" is Latin for "to go before," but in reality it is not an infinitive verb...
Go to Toyota's FAQ site,
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