Does anyone own a Prius?

Bill D

I want to buy a high mileage Prius. I'm concerned with the high miles though. How long does the battery last in your Prius? Does your high mileage Prius have a lot of maintenance?

Stupid Flanders

I have a 2007 Prius.















Since the Prius was introduced into the USA in 2000, there have been zero mechanical failures of the Prius battery that were not covered under warranty.































The battery is designed to last the life of the car.















The factory warranty on the battery is 8 years, 100K miles and in states that require lower emissions, the warranty is 10 years, 150K miles.































In other words, you have nothing to worry about.

JerryJ

How high is high? My 2004 has 96,000 miles on it now. My 2001 has 70,000 miles.































The life of the traction battery ( MTBF ) isn't known because there just aren't enough out there with 300,000+ miles on them. The Prius takes very good care of it's battery never letting it get much below 40% and never letting it get much above 80%.































The Prius doesn't have any additional maintenance as it accumulates miles except that the coolant is changed every 50,000 miles after the first change at 100,000 miles. Of course, there are some things that you might want to do as preventative maintenance just like in any car such as replacing the water pumps.































The Prius also doesn't allow the engine to be lugged or over-revved and it never experiences a cold start because there is no starter motor. Instead the Prius starts the engine by spinning it up with the smaller motor/generator to about 1000 rpm without fuel or spark so that it's ready to run. Then fuel and spark are added to the first two cylinders. Shortly thereafter fuel and spark are added to the second two cylinders.































When purchasing a used car, Prius or not, it's always important to get the maintenance records from the previous owner. This is often easier to do if you purchase directly from the owner rather than off a used car lot. In addition, the extended warranty can be transfered from the previous owner--assuming that he purchased one and that there is still life left on it.