I've recently had a brand new Prius on loan for the week end from which I ordered a new car as I was delighted with the performance.

Due to the fact that the ordering time is about 4 months in Holland, my own car was going to be losing its value. So my local very friendly and trusting Toyota dealer has bought my Renault Clio from me and has allowed me to have a 4 year old second hand Prius on loan until my sparkly new one arrives in March.

Judging the difference in performance I now notice that the new car seems to run on battery power much more than the 4 year old version. I can get up to 58 kph on the battery with the latest model than the old one I have on loan which uses 25 - 30 KPH. Also when reversing I can reverse on battery all the way down my drive, but with the older car the engine starts up half way down the drive.

My question is, after 4 years and 50 000km am I likely to lose the value of the battery power or is the performance of the old Prius not as good as the latest model?

Dutchgirl

My Prius is just reaching four years old and has done almost 70,000 miles.

I haven't noticed any drop off in performance and I can still manage around 55 - 60 mpg.

As for running on battery, I think Its supposed to run up to about 15 - 20 mph before the petrol engine kicks in. I can't say I have noticed any difference as the car got older.

Are you sure both displays are set to kph as it is switchable between mph / kph

[quote name='SilverT4' post='697990' date='Nov 29 2007, 01:36 PM']My Prius is just reaching four years old and has done almost 70,000 miles.

I haven't noticed any drop off in performance and I can still manage around 55 - 60 mpg.

As for running on battery, I think Its supposed to run up to about 15 - 20 mph before the petrol engine kicks in. I can't say I have noticed any difference as the car got older.

Are you sure both displays are set to kph as it is switchable between mph / kph[/quote]

I can only say that the new Prius is really much better on performance than the older version. It was very noticeable after driving the latest model. I was on battery power at much higher speeds with the new one. So maybe it just gets better with time!!

Dutchgirl