I bought two. The first one I purchased for my wife and it was so good I bought one for myself. The one I drive now has over 100,000 trouble-free miles on it. My wife's has 80,000 trouble-free miles.
So let's dispense with the FUD:
1. Car XYZ gets the same, more, or about the same mpg. According to the logbook I keep, my average over the 100,000 miles is 56 mpg. (Many "I got this much" anecdotes are based on a vacation tank or two.) It's actually gone up over time, this year's vacation trip (about 2,000 miles) had the following: 51, 51, 54, 55, 59 mpg. The last four commuting fills were: 70, 64, 68, 66 mpg. So while the Prius does get lower mpg on the highway compared, it still gets really good numbers compared to old fashioned cars.
For an old fashioned car to get anywhere near these kind of numbers they have to be very small (The Prius is a mid-sized car with room for four full sized adults or you can put a bicycle or two in the back without removing the front wheels), or use an expensive to maintain and polluting diesel. (Note: I did try a modern lightweight diesel before I purchased the Prius--engine blew at 80,000 miles and even before that it cost a small fortune to maintain--never again. Lightweight and 22:1 compression just don't go together).
2. The tires wear out quickly. This is only true for the OE tires if you don't keep them inflated. Put some air in them, get the alignment done properly by a reputable frame shop, and they will last just fine. My current set of tires was put on at 83,688 miles. At 103,287 they are less than half worn--and they're aggressive all-season tires.
3. The maintenance cost is too high. Actually, the Prius' maintenance cost is very low compared to an old fashioned car. Toyota has replaced many traditional parts with more reliable electronics or has simplified them greatly. The Prius has no starter motor, no alternator, no belts (2010 model), no clutch or fluid coupling (a fluid coupling is the automatic equivalent of a clutch), and the transmission has been replaced by a simple planetary gear system similar to a differential. Most regular maintenance consists of an oil and filter change every 5,000 miles. In addition, the Prius' engine never experiences a cold start, instead the smaller motor/generator (MG) spins the engine up without fuel or spark, then adds fuel and spark to the first two cylinders and later to the second two cylinders. This gives the Prius' engine a very easy life.
4. The battery needs replacing frequently. No it doesn't. The Prius takes exceptional care of it's battery. In fact, the MTBF (mean time between failures) of the battery isn't known because there just aren't enough Prius out there with 300,000 to 400,000 miles on them.
5. The technology is too new. The Prius has been produced since model year 1997 (real year 1996) and is now in it's third generation. It's hardly new technology anymore.
6. Styling. If aerodynamic styling is your idea of ugly, then it's ugly. To me there's nothing uglier than the three-box design that every look-alike car and SUV has. I'd rather have a vehicle where the styling was based on functionality.
Some thoughts: The Prius is the thinking person's car. It's the first car in a very long time that has had some originality and thought put into it rather than just repeating the same old technology and styling with different colours and new marketing jargon to make people think they're getting something new.
The Prius' detractors have the same things to say about the Prius as the detractors of radial tires had to say thirty years ago: "Don't get the fuel economy improvement", "Don't work well on highways", "Don't work well in cities" (these last two depended on who you asked), "Too expensive", etc. Just try to find a bias-ply or bias-belted tire these days. There's always going to be Luddites carping about anything new. Just don't let it bother you.
You can always tell when the detractors don't have anything real to say because they have to fall back on "Only [minority group] will drive one".
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