the 2010 Prius....the most amazing vehicle I have ever seen

We are going on 110k miles, and the only maintenance to this vehicle has been oil changes and a new set of tires at 60k. We just received a recall on a brake cylinder, and I began investigating what maintenance should be done, because no product has ever been created which does not need maintenance forever. Well at 120k it should get new spark plugs, so I figure when it is in we will get the same. We have gone nearly five years without a problem with the auxillary battery(this would be the normal 12 volt battery in most cars) but I do not want that battery to die and have difficulty jumping the auxillary because you cannot open the hatch to get to the auxillary, so we will change the same. The coolant has not been changed in five years, and the transaxle has not been drained and exchanged. We will have them put new brake pads on as they will be replacing the brake cylinder anyway.

It just blows my mind that a vehicle just traveled 110k miles getting 46 miles per gallon combined, but as high as 53 on some of our trips, and the car we traded in got 17 miles per gallon. The savings to date is about 8k in gas, and if we drive it for another 110k the savings will be 16k when combined with maintenance savings this car is getting close to a 20k savings over keeping our old car. It is no wonder America is beginning to balance our payments. All those many years ago working on car lots and having seen thousands of models, I have never seen anything like the 2010 Prius. Simply the most comfortable and efficient car I have ever been in let alone owned.

That's high mileage for a four year old car.

That's high mileage for a four year old car.


The last five cars we have owned have had 240k, 210k, 190k, 180k, and 155k. I must drive with my business. The Prius in Canada taxi fleets are getting 400k major maintenance free miles. When I am in Chicago, almost 40% of the cabs are now prius vehicles. I cannot spread the word to enough people who are foolishly wasting money and time not getting a Prius, when there are few alternatives which can meet its reliability and economy.

Hope u get rid of it before it needs the battery pack replaced.

Hope u get rid of it before it needs the battery pack replaced.


Interesting you bring this subject up.....first few have needed replacement, and the new thing is modular removal of the smaller battery units, This means instead of $3,500 for a new battery at 10 years, they are replacing three modules for hundreds of dollars and the battery pack is fine. The fricking technology is mind boggling. Almost in every town now they have hybrid battery testing and modular replacement. As few as three modules can cause a traditional replacement, but now those modules are replaced for about a quarter of the cost for the new pack.

I don't like paying that much for a car. I did that once and it didn't work out for me as far as a investment goes. I take that back, I did that twice and neither worked out. Both ended up in wrecks not of my own fault and I lost my ass and investment.

If you take the $50,000 I spent on the two cars I lost to accidents of no fault out of the 30 years I have owned cars, that would be about 7 years for that $50,000. The other 23 years of car ownership has cost me less than half of that.

I wont drive any further than Jacksonville, further than that I fly.

The 12 volt battery on my 2007 didn't want to hold a charge starting at about 50k miles.
I bought a replacement battery.  But it's damn near impossiblle to get a wrench on the bolt that holds down the battery.  So I dropped the new battery in the spare tire compartment and ran jumper cables from it to the old battery.  It's a jury rig but it works.

The only other problem I've experienced with now 80k miles on it is that goddamn handle to electrically unlock the tailgate.  The rubber pad on that handle turns into something that looks like molten tar and it when it gets on you and your clothing you have to remove it with tar remover.  And as it gets in worse shape it requires you to use a lot more pressure to activate the switch in the handle.  That caused the plastic trim piece which holds the handle to break off from the back of the tailgate.  I taped it back on with clear package wrapping tape.  Another jury rig but it works.
Yours may not have that problem because 2010 was the next generation and hopefully they corrected that.

Other than that it's performed flawlessly.

p.s. one thing about it still puzzles me but I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth.  When I got it with 46k on it,  I didn't have cold air.
I put most of one can of refrigerant in the system and that gave me ice cold air.  And it's still ice cold with another two years and another 35k miles on it.

I always thought that when you add refrigerant that's only a temporary fix because the refrigerant had to leak out to begin with.  And leaks don't fix themselves and over time the added refrigerant will leak out again.  
Are there any mechanics out here?  Can you tell me how refrigerant can leak out and all it needs is to add refrigerant to permanently fix the problem?

Bob,
You need a 10" socket extension to remove the auxillary battery. We are discussing getting the fourth generation Prius due out in October with the 2015 model. We have heard that it gets 55 miles per gallon. I am simply blown away with their technology and reliability.

The one change which I would make to the battery is to put two external covered terminals under the rear bumper. This would allow the Prius to be jumped without opening the vehicle. If a Prius is entirely dead, it is a hassle to jump the car. If you removed threaded and insulated caps on the exterior terminals, you could simply attach jumper cables and the doors could operate and then start the car. I would like to write Toyota on the same, but it would probably add 25 bucks to the cost and few would see the utility.

Bob wrote:The 12 volt battery on my 2007 didn't want to hold a charge starting at about 50k miles.
I bought a replacement battery.  But it's damn near impossiblle to get a wrench on the bolt that holds down the battery.  So I dropped the new battery in the spare tire compartment and ran jumper cables from it to the old battery.  It's a jury rig but it works.

The only other problem I've experienced with now 80k miles on it is that goddamn handle to electrically unlock the tailgate.  The rubber pad on that handle turns into something that looks like molten tar and it when it gets on you and your clothing you have to remove it with tar remover.  And as it gets in worse shape it requires you to use a lot more pressure to activate the switch in the handle.  That caused the plastic trim piece which holds the handle to break off from the back of the tailgate.  I taped it back on with clear package wrapping tape.  Another jury rig but it works.
Yours may not have that problem because 2010 was the next generation and hopefully they corrected that.

Other than that it's performed flawlessly.

Good way to have an electrical fire Bob..they are designed by engineers for safety in all modes of operation including a wreck, you are not supposed to Americano engineer them for ease of use...I have seen cars caught on fire by just such things...

Good way to have an electrical fire Bob..they are designed by engineers for safety in all modes of operation including a wreck, you are not supposed to Americano engineer them for ease of use...I have seen cars caught on fire by just such things...

Agreed, and it is not being properly vented when you bring the battery into the passenger compartment.







Pretty cool way to test your battery

I've looked at a lot of prius 12 volt battery installation youtubes,  seaoat.
But I never knew a thing about putting the display in diagnostics mode.
That's a really good find and thanks for sharing it.  It eliminates me having
to put my meter on the battery to measure voltage and I REALLY like that.

p.s. have you tried to do that with your 2010 and does it work on that too?

I am and my niece is still very pleased with the one I have her for her sixteenth bday... they're nice cars.

The newest car I have is a '94... I've almost finished the drive train I'm dropping in it if it'll ever stop running dammit.

Mr Ichi wrote:@Bob

Being this is on line I will only charge you 1/2 of a service call

Refrigerant can "leak" from a good system from various places.  Some are very very small and it takes years for a sufficient amount to leak that it affects the system.  The high pressure hoses, the seal on the Compressor clutch,. seals and the various fittings on the system can cause a loss.  That is why you can sometimes add a can of "Refrigerant" and "fix" the system.  Many issues are in the receiver/dryer.  It should always be replace it when you open a system.  Also pulling a strong vacuum in mandatory in repairing any AC unit

Thanks for clearing that up for me,  Ichi.
Question.  Is the fact that a can of refrigerant made it go from hot to cold and kept it cold for two years and 35,000 miles,  a good sign that the leak is tiny and eventually all it will need is another can of freon or am I dreaming?
It's still puzzling to me that after all that time and mileage it's still ice cold.
I've had prior vehicles that had small leaks in the system and got cold air from only adding refrigerant, but with time those always started to get less cold before this.

I think I'm gonna replace the 07 with a newer one as it nears 100k. I'm already starting to look for a deal on one. So I'm wishing and hoping it stays cold until I do. lol

You have a PM

Bob,

somebody could have intentionally let off refrigerant to be a dick if the car was a repo, and your adding the same fixed the system. No, I have not done any diagnostics, and want to make sure the third generation can use the same display. I will try it this weekend.

I think I'm gonna replace the 07 with a newer one as it nears 100k. I'm already starting to look for a deal on one. So I'm wishing and hoping it stays cold until I do. lol


I would never think about getting rid of a Prius until it has over 250k....the taxi cab companies are not jumping on these vehicles for cabs without the ability to get them to 400k without major repair.

No was not a repo, one owner before Bob bought it.

Bob, seaoat may have a point about someone tinkering with it though, I had a complete service 2 months before she passed away. It also sat practically the whole time she lived with us and that was 6 months.

2seaoat wrote:

I would never think about getting rid of a Prius until it has over 250k....the taxi cab companies are not jumping on these vehicles for cabs without the ability to get them to 400k without major repair.

I drove high mileage vehicles for most of my life. But I've skimped and saved so much by being so cheap all these years (most all my belongings are bought second hand with low money) that at this stage of life I just want to treat myself to lower mileage vehicles. Not new (god forbid I don't even know how to buy anything new) but later model and lower mileage.
But it will all depend on finding a suitable deal. It took me two years to come across a deal on my last buy (pickup) so it will probably take that long to replace my Prius. And by that time the mileage will be at 100k.

ppaca wrote:No was not a repo, one owner before Bob bought it.

Bob, seaoat may have a point about someone tinkering with it though, I had a complete service 2 months before she passed away. It also sat practically the whole time she lived with us and that was 6 months.

It's been a great car for me,  ppaca.  If you hadn't offered it to me,  I wouldn't have discovered just how well engineered and reliable it is.
I'm now sold on Prius.  
Thanks for selling it to me.

You're welcome, glad it has worked out.