Toyota Prius Hatchback (2004 - 2009) 1.5 VVTi T4 Hybrid 5d CVT Auto Owner Review

People might be bored reading about the Prius but a review on four Priuses (2004, 2005, two 2006s) that my family owns that ran a total of 913k kms (570k miles) should be interesting right? And how does a family end up with four Priuses to start with? Used Priuses, especially the Generation 2 that were made from 2004 to 2009 are becoming a bargain to buy, especially for the MPG and features you get in return. How did it all start? We need to go back to November 2017, to the start of the ‘Prius Revolution’ in the family. Due to a sudden company relocation, my wife had no other choice but to drive to her office. It was time to buy our first car. I knew I wanted something for her that was cheap to maintain, had a reliable automatic transmission, came with cruise control, AC. This criteria only left the Prius in play. It was interesting that there was no other options for the budget we had to work with (~$6,000). I started to read up on the Prius and started looking at cars to buy in a week’s time, so the paperwork would be ready for my wife to use the car from the following week. I found a a 2004 with 247k km ( 154k miles) on the clock. When I spoke with the owner on the phone to schedule the test drive, he mentioned he had time until 5 PM after which he had to attend his birthday party on the day of the test drive. On the way there, I made a pit stop at a gas station to buy a bottle of champagne as a gift, hoping to start out a conversation with a stranger on the right foot. I was nervous as this was the first time that I was buying a car, so the experience was new to me. The meet could not have gone better with such an ice-breaker. He was surprised! The drive went well, there were some minor things the car needed but it had a full service history and when I asked for a 500 dollar lower asking price than list price, the seller accepted. I guess the champagne worked. Fast forward 5 months, my brother and sister-in-law also had their eye on the Prius. They knew about hybrids and after a couple of times riding in our Prius, they decided to pull the trigger on two 2006s with 180k kms (112k miles). The fourth one, a 2005 I bought for myself last year with 222k kms (128k miles) with a full service history. The 2004 has now 293k kms (183k miles), the 2005 242k kms (151k miles) and the two 2006s around 200k kms (125k miles) each. The official fuel consumption is 5 l /100 km (47 mpg) and that is bang on for us as well. In our commute, that consists of 60% highway, 40% city, we get around 4.6 l/100 km (51 mpg) in the summer, and 5.3 l/100 km (44 mpg) in winter. On the highway at around 130 km/h (80 mph) , we get by with about 5.3 l /100 km (44 mpg), a figure that some diesel cars might be jealous of. There is no need for a starter motor nor clutch in Toyota’s hybrid system. That’s two costly things less to service. Power steering is electric and as a result we don’t need to check the power steering oil level as there isn’t any. It’s transmission is sort of a CVT, on which a gear is always engaged so there is no shifting. The Atkinson cycle petrol engine was made for regular stop-starts and is very reliable. It needs the regular service but we won’t need to worry about any expensive part braking. But there is one thing in hybrids we need to keep in mind. Priuses can burn oil. Even though it is normal (for all cars), hybrids can develop a thirst for oil after a few hundred thousand kilometres, miles. Two out of our four Priuses burn oil. My 2005 burns about 0.3-0.4 l (0.3-0.4 quarts) of oil every 11k kms (~7k miles). The car has 242k kms (151k miles). That is normal. Basically I don't need to top up between oil changes. My wife's 2004 burns about 1 litre (1.05 quarts) of oil every oil change cycle. That car has 293k kms (183k miles). I top up the 2004 once between oil changes just to be on the safe side, but that oil consumption is also acceptable. I know Gen II Priuses however that burn 1l (1.05 quarts) of oil every 3k kms (~1800 miles)! That is not acceptable and in this case the engine needs a major service to fix it. That service can be costly. Before buying a Prius, ask an independent shop that specialises on Priuses or hybrids in your area for how much would they fix such a problem. It is always good to know what to expect if you would buy a Prius. There is one strange fault with the Gen2 Priuses, and that is water finding its way inside the trunk area, leaking into the two side pockets and the spare wheel. The cause of it can be fixed in a few minutes and few dollars. Water can leak through tiny hairline cracks on the top side of the trunk - hinge area where the black plastic cover ends on top of the car. We used silicone to seal it on ours' and the cabin is 100% water tight ever since. One really easy thing to see if it needs changing or not is the front strut boots. If we take a look at the suspension without taking anything apart, we will see a rubber boot on top of the struts. The car does not need to be lifted. Check if those are not torn. If yes, they need changing, because debris that finds its way inside the strut can make it worn out more quickly. It was changed on our 2004 and one of the 2006's. We replaced the strut boots only. There is no need to replace the strut itself. Even if it means taking out the strut to change the rubber boot, it costs less this way then to change the struts. There is the bulletproof transmission that in order to keep bulletproof, the transmission fluid needs changing every 90k kms (56k miles). This is only written in the Japanese service manuals for some reason. Even though it is not written in other service manuals, it can be recommended to change it. The odometer can stop at 299,999 on 2004 and 2005 models, that a dealership can reset of the owner prefers. Our 2004 is approaching that figure. I'm not sure yet if we would have it reset or keep track of oil changes using the Trip A or B option. Will see. I guess the engineers did not really think these cars will be driven a lot. The brake light LED can wear out on the 2004, 2005 models. The only way to fix it is buying the tail light assembly. One LED from the six (on each side) might not light up, affecting the brightness of the other five and from a distance, it will seem that they are not lighting up at all but in reality their light is just very low. The LEDs are inside the assembly and they are not changeable like a bulb. This is also something that can come up on a car with 16 years of age. We had to buy an aftermarket assembly for the left side of our 2004 costing $100, so no biggie. What needed changing on the 2004 on top of regular oil changes: 2x 12 volt battery front left wheel bearing inverter coolant pump Front-rear brakes Front strut boot Spark plugs Transmission fluid Left tail light due to LED brake light fault There is always risk in buying used cars. Even though the above problems can seem to be a lot of things going wrong on a Prius, in reality, they never all occur in one car as the examples show. Maybe one or two things need servicing but on 16 year old cars with the mentioned mileages, that's remarkable, especially for the MPG and features we get in return. Check out the story of Jesse who has put ~1.4 million kms (865k miles) on his Priuses on PriusPodcast.com