New Member - Looking To Buy A Genii Prius

[Darren Griffin]

Hi all, I am at long last preparing to embrace Prius ownership. Looking now for a good 05/06 car with 60k miles but the budget is £8k max so I may consider a higher mileage car that has a full service history and in good nick etc.

The price range and mileages vary wildly even between cars of apparently similar age, mileage and spec so we're planning to go and visit as many as needed next week.

Are there any Prius specific issues I should be wary of and look out for when looking at cars. I'm particularly after the Spirit, preferably with Leather although these are very thin on the ground so I may have to forgo leather.

This will eventually be used to test all the GPS units we get through so Brodit ProClips will be on order as soon as I've got the car! I'm after a Spirit just so I can use the factory fit GPS as comparison with the PNDs we test.

Any advice gratefully received.

[blue verso 56]

Hello Darren I am sure they will make you a lifetime member if you buy one ( sorry for the pun)

Just to say the generation 2 models do have a warranty on the hybrid system of 8 years /100,000 miles the new prius generation 3 just have 5 years /60,000 miles

[Darren Griffin]

Hello Darren I am sure they will make you a lifetime member if you buy one ( sorry for the pun)

Just to say the generation 2 models do have a warranty on the hybrid system of 8 years /100,000 miles the new prius generation 3 just have 5 years /60,000 miles

Ah, a PGPS Member??

I'd read about the 8yr warranty, but are there any other gotcha's such as suspension or any electrics that are prone to problems?

[Sagitar]

Ah, a PGPS Member??

Yeh - me too, but mainly these days for the Satmap that I use when walking.

Now that Toyota have improved their system to include full postcode search, I've taken my backup TomTom out of the car . . . . . :)

My mind has been wandering lately to thoughts of being able to add the PGPS camera data base to the Toyota info, now that it is on hard drive?

[Darren Griffin]

I hope to examine the possibility of modding the Toyota DVD with POIs. As for the GEN3 SatNav, I'm still amazed that so many manufacturers don't offer custom POI support. Hats off to Nissan who have on their latest system but they are one of the few.

Would have loved the latest Prius but I couldn't justify the losses involved in a new car even if I had the wonga available to buy one! Lovely car though, so maybe I'll be able to pick one up in a year or two!

Currently juggling the decision of higher miles/T-Spirit or lower miles T3/T4. Lots about now but I guess the fear of the 100,000 mile mark and loss of Battery warranty is why so many are appearing as they reach 70k miles?

[Sagitar]

Would have loved the latest Prius but I couldn't justify the losses involved in a new car even if I had the wonga available to buy one! Lovely car though, so maybe I'll be able to pick one up in a year or two!

I understand, but I'm 77 and I can't take it with me, so hanging around waiting for things to get cheaper is not much of an option for me . . . . .

[The Traveller]

I hope to examine the possibility of modding the Toyota DVD with POIs. As for the GEN3 SatNav, I'm still amazed that so many manufacturers don't offer custom POI support. Hats off to Nissan who have on their latest system but they are one of the few.

Would have loved the latest Prius but I couldn't justify the losses involved in a new car even if I had the wonga available to buy one! Lovely car though, so maybe I'll be able to pick one up in a year or two!

Currently juggling the decision of higher miles/T-Spirit or lower miles T3/T4. Lots about now but I guess the fear of the 100,000 mile mark and loss of battery warranty is why so many are appearing as they reach 70k miles?

Hi Darren,

The Gen3 SatNav is a Denso system. The TSpirit holds all its map data on a hard drive partition that is not available to the end-user, only to Toyota engineers. Data is not accessed from a DVD. Updates are applied, according to who you listen to, either by inserting a DVD-ROM into the stereo CD/DVD slot and uploading from there, or via the Firewire port next to the CD/DVD slot.

There is aparently a built-in set of PoI, perhaps an owner can comment (mine doesn't arrive until Jan 25th) There is only limited ability to store your own PoI in the system (99 points anyone?) and no facility to add in PoI databases, like Safety cameras from a 3rd party, or other PoI collections of personal interest.

Unlike Sagitar my Garmin is staying firmly in the car when it's delivered. Or maybe I'll by myself a new model and my other half can take permanent charge of the old one.

[Darren Griffin]

My DVD reference was with regards to the GEN2 system which is what I <hopefully> will end up with.

Having said that, I have still not found a factory fit system that is as good as a decent PND. I've had Jaguar, Mercedes Command, Range Rover and Renault and all are technically inferior. The only benefit is the in-dash fit, larger screens and hook-up to speed-sensor and gyro.

Features such as lane-assist, reality-view, full custom POI support, POI alerts, ease of use etc are all lacking. So for me it will be used as a comparison only and I'll stick to my PND's for nav :)

[mrhappy]

I hope to examine the possibility of modding the Toyota DVD with POIs. As for the GEN3 SatNav, I'm still amazed that so many manufacturers don't offer custom POI support. Hats off to Nissan who have on their latest system but they are one of the few.

Would have loved the latest Prius but I couldn't justify the losses involved in a new car even if I had the wonga available to buy one! Lovely car though, so maybe I'll be able to pick one up in a year or two!

Currently juggling the decision of higher miles/T-Spirit or lower miles T3/T4. Lots about now but I guess the fear of the 100,000 mile mark and loss of battery warranty is why so many are appearing as they reach 70k miles?

Hi darren, a little something more for your consideration [juggling the desiscion of...T-Spirit/T3/T4]

I have a T3 with less than 22,000 miles, toyota service history, will be ready in 3 weeks [body work being repaired] going for £8750. can be contacted at... hadlum@hotmail.com

might give you a guage to possible deals avaliable, all the best in you search :)

[Darren Griffin]

Hi darren, a little something more for your consideration [juggling the desiscion of...T-Spirit/T3/T4]

I have a T3 with less than 22,000 miles, toyota service history, will be ready in 3 weeks [body work being repaired] going for £8750. can be contacted at... hadlum@hotmail.com

might give you a guage to possible deals avaliable, all the best in you search :)

22k miles? What year and colour?

[The Traveller]

There's an interesting paradox here.

The vehicle manufacturers are all for embedding a SatNav into the car. Then they can charge us a mighty sum for annual upgrades that can't be obtained anywhere else. But the flip-side is that the things are SO tied-down that they are not that useful to many motorists.

After-market units may cost extra up-front, dependent on the model. Even that is debatable, when you see the cost of adding a SatNav into a car as an optional extra, four-figures vs. a couple of hundred quid for a top of the range TomTom or Garmin. And the afer-market models are far cheaper to keep updated, with lifetime map updates typically for under £100. There are oodles of things like PoI databases available for free, or a small charge. And they are easy for Joe Public to install and upgrade through his home PC.

It seems to me that the manufacturers policies are rendering their own preferred product pointless to anyone who wants more than basic functionality. So those of us who want a powerful navigation tool with bells and whistles will never go back for the annual 'Toyota' (or whoever else) £150 map upgrade. What they should be doing is identifying the after-market manufacturers they want to work with, acknowledging that their product is often superior to their current built-in hardware and adopting TomTom/Garmin/the rest into their vehicles. AND making superior functions like add-able PoI easily installed and offering the easy and low-cost upgrades that we all now expect from our SatNav's.

The more they tie it down inside the vehicle the less useful it becomes to us.

[Darren Griffin]

What they should be doing is identifying the after-market manufacturers they want to work with, acknowledging that their product is often superior to their current built-in hardware and adopting TomTom/Garmin/the rest into their vehicles. AND making superior functions like add-able PoI easily installed and offering the easy and low-cost upgrades that we all now expect from our SatNav's.

As Renault are now doing with TomTom. An integrated device running TomTom but with all the normal features, updatable via USB and with an iDrive like remote in the armrest.

[BoutrosBoutros]

I've just acquired a 56 Gen2 TSpirit with leather but it was over your budget at 9.5k. I must say though that I'm very pleased with it so far. The satnav performs well and having an integrated system is good.

[blue verso 56]

Are there any Prius specific issues I should be wary of and look out for when looking at cars

I think this is the information Darren is looking for !! a insider guide what to look for when buying a used one and what type of problems may show up .

As I do not own a Prius Darren I cannot really help you!! maybe some more members will contribute with the information you are looking for !!

The only thing I can add is that the Hybrid system is best left to Toyota dealers who have the expertise!! generally Toyota dealers are very good and many offer discounted parts and servicing for vehicles over 3 years old

[timberwolf]

When I became interested in the Prius last year, I hunted around for what faults might occur on the car after some years of ownership. I am writing this from memory so I could be writing utter rubbish. I've listed quite a few faults but I got the impression that most owners didn't suffer from the breakdown faults but obviously the wear & tear .

Wheel hubs and CV joints, not really Prius specific, but we had all those floods two or three years ago, and forcing a car through water up to it's wheels tends to force some of the grease out of those parts resulting in premature failure.

Prius brake discs are apparently more prone to rust. Note: Prius brake discs and brake pads are thinner (from new) than most cars because much of the braking is done regeneratively and friction is used most at speeds less than about 8 mph. I recall reading claims that brake pads could last a very long time (depending on driving style) maybe 60K miles or more.

A popular subject is a dead Aux 12v Battery after leaving the car parked for x days.

Tyre wear. Prius has a reputation for wearing out the OEM Toyota supplied tyres more quickly than owners expect.

Radio volume control knob failure - there seemed to be cluster of failures being posted about the 2007 model, but it could have been a coincidence of when I happened to be reading those forum

Alloy Wheel corrosion.

Faults that I think I can recall from American Priuschat forum.

The odd posts about water collecting in the spare tire bay or around the bottom of the Aux 12v Battery area.

Earth lead point for Aux 12v Battery can get loose or "dirty", making poor contact.

Some water pump failures at 60K.

Some Squeaking Brake pump.

Ignition coil failure

Premature shock absorber failure, symptoms were excessive oil leaking down the shock.

Inverter coolant pump failures.

[Parts-King]

Somehow I dont think Toyota will be racing to put any other manufacturers SatNav systems in their cars, look at the disaster of Tom Tom they had in Aygo Too small an SD card, freezing, just not working, the list goes on

Kingo

[Darren Griffin]

Somehow I dont think Toyota will be racing to put any other manufacturers SatNav systems in their cars, look at the disaster of Tom Tom they had in Aygo Too small an SD card, freezing, just not working, the list goes on

That was a dog-s dinner of a device, made for the US Market and was dire when previewed. And it was an after thought install in a 2-DIn slot rather than a proper OEM factory fit system.

However, regardless it was handled poorly with TomTom saying support lay with Toyota and vice versa.

The Carminat TomToms are a much better integrated design but it does remain to be seen if support and updates are maintained. As this is a joint Carminat/TT design it should be better but who knows!

The best solutions perhaps are OEM cradles to accommodate Garmin and TomTom PNDs as VW and Fiat have offered. Best of both worlds then.

[blue verso 56]

Somehow I dont think Toyota will be racing to put any other manufacturers SatNav systems in their cars, look at the disaster of Tom Tom they had in Aygo Too small an SD card, freezing, just not working, the list goes on

Kingo

To be honest if more and more manufacturers are either providing docking points or the ability to integrate a Tomtom or Garmin within the dash board Toyota will have to follow suit as it is a very good selling point to a potential customer and may be the difference to some people between buying a new Toyota and another make of car which provides this option .

I was not surprised with the difficulties encountered with the Aygo !! Tomtom do not know what they are at the best of times Toyota should have foreseen the the problems which would have occurred

[Darren Griffin]

To be fair, that system was manufactured by Eclipse who were bought out by Fujitsu. Even when the standalone unit was launched at CES in Vegas, TT were not keen to be overtly associated with it.

Although the pop-out nav unit is manufactured by TT, everything else was Eclipse. I rather suspect it was an idea that TT had lost enthusiasm for long before it got picked up by Toyota. Perhaps Fujitsu were off-loading stock at rock bottom prices and Toyota bought in.

That would explain TT's reluctance to get involved in support but I fully understand why Aygo customers were so aggrieved. The politics are not their problem and at the end of the day, Toyota supplied it and so it's there responsibility to fix any issues.

[fuel miser]

When I was conducting my research around 18 months ago, I remember reading that there were some modifications for the 06 model year (55 plate onwards), with revised lights and seats, but most importantly, an upgraded information screen. I'd read that on older models the screen can fail and is very expensive to replace (about £2000 if I recall), so I made sure I bought a revised model. The revised ones are easy to identify, they have 'hybrid' badges above the indicator repeaters on the front wings (the earlier ones didn't).

[timberwolf]

When I was conducting my research around 18 months ago, I remember reading that there were some modifications for the 06 model year (55 plate onwards), with revised lights and seats, but most importantly, an upgraded information screen. I'd read that on older models the screen can fail and is very expensive to replace (about £2000 if I recall), so I made sure I bought a revised model. The revised ones are easy to identify, they have 'hybrid' badges above the indicator repeaters on the front wings (the earlier ones didn't).

And there was a steering related recall on those early Prius Gen 2s. I remember reading about owners comparing or commenting on the forum about their Toyota was sorry for the recall gifts.

[mrhappy]

Hi darren, a little something more for your consideration [juggling the desiscion of...T-Spirit/T3/T4]

I have a T3 with less than 22,000 miles, toyota service history, will be ready in 3 weeks [body work being repaired] going for £8750. can be contacted at... hadlum@hotmail.com

might give you a guage to possible deals avaliable, all the best in you search :)

22k miles? What year and colour?

56 plate [dec 19th 2006]

Grey

[Darren Griffin]

Thanks, that's an astonishingly low mileage! It's outside my budget though which is stretched as is. Have a lifelong hatred of finance so have bought with savings.

Next week is car hunting week, my father-in-law who spent his life in the trade is coming down to go hunting with my wife. He's the best haggler there is and knows a good 'un when he sees one. I on the other hand am rubbish at negotiation and as I'm laid up with leg in a metal frame for 6mths can't get out anyway!

[Darren Griffin]

Well I am now a Prius owner and delighted with the car. In the end I got a 2006 T-Spirit in Met Blue. No leather but it's in fantastic condition, almost as new and looks superb.

I can't drive it yet as I'm half-way through a procedure to cure a problem with my leg. I'm in a frame with my femur pinned for 6mths, if you're interested, read about it here.

And so currently my experience of it has been as a passenger only. I am able to get in though which is one thing I was concerned about. Our last car was a Mercedes CLK which had wide opening doors and lots of leg room with the seat moved as far back as possible.

The Prius is tighter but I can get in just! It's a very smooth ride and my wife is delighted with it. Am now awaiting the Brodit ProClips for the Nav's and need to fit a 12v accessory socket on the dash. I'd assumed there was one fitted as per the US cars but now know different!

I've also ordered some carpet mats and a Hood for the MFD.

So I'll be haunting these forums off and on now when I'm not over at PocketGPSWorld