Ownership Verified: The First, The Prius

samulis

Active Member
Joined
May 10, 2014
Messages
409
Location
Helsinki, Finland
Our old animal bus didn't pass MOT. Queue the drum roll...

Time for the first or Prius in latin.

I had been secretly looking for Prius's. Not spoken of these feelings, just been keeping them to myself, well ok, I spoke about with wife, but she was ok with it.
Now I had to face the truth, no more Berlingo and it was time for new thing for a petrolhead.

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Some small company, one man band, had had 2010 Prius with 260k km for sale since April and it had not sold, so to cut he's losses and make it move he promised 2.5k for any part ex car you could drive to the yard. Day later we found it, had a chat, made a reservation and following saturday we drove a 600km, farewell roadtrip with Berlingo from Joensuu to Raisio via Helsinki (pick up winters) to make a deal.

It drove ok, few extra noises from interior plastics and broken windshield that the seller had not told when asked is there anything worth mention.
Car came with winter tyres, it has black leather seats, auto AC, rain sensing wipers, cruise, keyless go, HUD, tilting steering wheel with remote buttons for displays, radio, phone and weirdly for heater. Size was suprise, it has lots of leg room in front and back, not so much in trunk as battries take part of it, but I guess it will do. Drivers seat has lumbar support and height adjust. Finally a car where can I fit with my long legs and have a great driving position,

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First impressions were just plain weird. Gas pedal seemed to have nothing to do with engine, well as all hybrids do or dont in this case. Took a while to get used to it. Then the gear joystick, why does it have to have D and R backwards? Soundtrack was weird at first.

Range on EV mode was a bit of a disapointment, 1 mile or 1.6km but it really works on the road, even on higher speeds it works, keeping MPG high. First tank was 5.1 to 100km or 46mpg and I really wasn't hyper miling it, far from it, just set cruise to 120km/h or max speed limit and enjoyed the quiet and effortless traveling (not like Berlingo and 90km/h). Low yearly roadtax and insurance are nice. It's like having diesel without local diesel road tax, instead 1.8 with an autobox.

HUD is really nice. Electric power steering in other hand isn't something I would praise with its vague feel, but it goes with its ethos, electric water and AC pump (really nice, specially when parked), no alternator, no timing or auxiliary belt, it should be easy to maintain.
Car came with small notebook as servicebook and receipts, one stating that hybrid batteries have been changed at 180k km in main dealer for 1800€, wonder why.

Don't know why the first owner didnt opt auto lights, must be because it's not Finnish car, it was imported 3 years old. And no lane change blinkers, just basic toyota stalk for lights and blinkers. Luckily it does have heated seats that are must in winter, specially with leathers. Screen will tell if someone isn't wearing seatbelt in rearseat, which is nice with kids. Today younger son put he's water bottle on an empty seat and we learned that it starts the warning beeping even from the rearseats. I had to ask him to klick the seatbelt in as otherwise you have to make fullstop to stop it beeping...

Not all sunshine, rear radars dont do a thing, there is scuffs and dings, something in front needs attention, light shake comes and goes and few annoying rattles that also seem to come and go. And would've liked to have radar cruise and those line change blinkers, but can't have all when buying cheap used.
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I have to say this generation of Prius is perhaps the best looking one. Looking forward to seeing sheep / bees in this one :D
 
Congrats.
 
matyas said:
I have to say this generation of Prius is perhaps the best looking one.
Yeah, I think the same, second is bit bland and new/last looks too much star wars/modern. Modern Toyota and Honda have sharp angles and lots of happening for my taste.

Looking forward to seeing sheep / bees in this one :D


Don't think sheep's fit. Wont be a problem with beehives :)
 
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These things make a fine commuter box and city car. I'm not a Toyota fan but I can't fault the Prius for what it is. Congrats :)
Then the gear joystick, why does it have to have D and R backwards?
It's not backwards :p Down for D and up for R is the standard. "Conventional" automatic selectors all have D under R as well, with neutral in the middle.

Also, you might want to drive by a battery shop (or a Toyota dealer, even) and have them put the 12V battery on the tester to make sure it's ok. I've heard of people getting stranded when the tiny 12V battery suddenly craps out, and not only Prius owners. Funny how that happens considering the entire car is a rolling battery.
 
These things make a fine commuter box and city car. I'm not a Toyota fan but I can't fault the Prius for what it is. Congrats :)

It's not backwards :p Down for D and up for R is the standard. "Conventional" automatic selectors all have D under R as well, with neutral in the middle.

Also, you might want to drive by a battery shop (or a Toyota dealer, even) and have them put the 12V battery on the tester to make sure it's ok. I've heard of people getting stranded when the tiny 12V battery suddenly craps out, and not only Prius owners. Funny how that happens considering the entire car is a rolling battery.
I have no strong feelings for a Toyota (exept AW11 or AE86) or an hybrid, but now it would feel stupid to go back to using more fuel on daily driver and I did find my inner nerd waking for a Hybrid's call on first drive on the way to home. Wife said it well, Prius feels like poor man's Tesla. I agree, exept I think Toyota pull's longer straw on build quality.
Had not thought about traditional automatic, just common sense would say to use pull for up and push for down on tiptronics (and usually those are bakwards). But it only bothered first few times, now it doesn't make a difference, just press brake while pressing start, flick gear joystick and off you go, easy and simples.
Does the battery tester offer something that common multimeter doesn't, some special stress test? Hybrid side of batteries run out fast if you stand still, engine off and AC on, kind a would've expected them to last longer, but then again, whole AC is electric.
 
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Yes, you can never test a battery by just measuring the voltage. Load testing is what you need to do. Everyone that sells car batteries should have a tester but i don’t have any clue if you need to do anything special when it’s installed in a Prius.
 
I have to agree with Perc. My Mini and my buddy's BMW are up for R and down for D.

That said, congrats on being better to the environment than I am! Please also keep your bees away from my car :( I hope you have many happy, gasoline-friendly miles in your Prius!
 
Time to clean the under side plastic covers and the rocker panels.
Found the sand right after buying the car, but could do nothing until the car returned to home from the mother inlaw's use.

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All that was from the four under side covers.
Yeah, lots of it, yeah, I don't know either why or wtf...
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There was more of it as sills were no different.
Good news was that theres no serious rust.
Next was cleaning and adding cavity oil.
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Don't think Colin Chapman thought this when he said "add lightness"
 
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Changed oil, filter and airfilter to Prius. Forgot to buy the cabin airfilter but luckily for me, friend had bought charcoal one for he's IS200 that didn't fit the Lexus but did fit the Prius. Both air filters looked like they haven't been changed for eons and in turn MPG got a bit better and interior less smelly, which was nice.

As a daily it is just darn easy to live with, the small turning radius after Berlingo makes driving to common places less hassle. I shift it on P everytime I have to stand on red lights, gear joystick makes it so easy. Had a long ride on new hybrid Corolla stw and compared to that, Prius drives less crashy, longer wheelbase makes it nicer and it's quietness gives nerves a rest, fuel consumption was similar on both, that on these fuel prices is really nice.

Ah, almost forgot, got the broken windshield changed two days ago, feels like 4K all of suddently.
 
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I've heard good things about these in terms of long-term reliability, they seem pretty awesome.
 
I've heard good things about these in terms of long-term reliability, they seem pretty awesome.
Awesome in the most boring way. But somehow I enjoy driving it quite alot, it is so effortless. Build quality and overall quality pleases after French plastic. Fact that their are used alot as TAXIs speaks volumes for their quality
 
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But somehow I enjoy driving it quite alot, it is so effortless
Huh, you mean for you as the driver it’s effortless? Because a former colleague had a Prius that would sound the exact opposite of effortless when just driven around regularly :p no it was not broken or anything, no idea, just felt like the engine had to work rather hard…

lots of Prius (plus?) taxis around here, too. So yeah, probably pretty bulletproof.
 
Huh, you mean for you as the driver it’s effortless? Because a former colleague had a Prius that would sound the exact opposite of effortless when just driven around regularly :p no it was not broken or anything, no idea, just felt like the engine had to work rather hard…

Yes, had to re-learn whole concept of how to see driving (took all of a one trip), that loud pedal is really there to ask something, like a captain on steam ship way and let the drivetrain do it's thing. At first it did feel stupid that there is no connection between accelerator, engine and gearbox, but anyone who's riden variator scooters know how it feels, there's no one home but still things seem to happen. Top it with the regenerating braking and the numb electric power steering there isn't really anything traditional feel of driving left. So after i stopped worrying and learned to love the whole experience it has turned to moving sofa kind way to enjoy motoring. Takes me back to Volvo 850 sluchbox feeling where you just sit back, let the world happen around you and relax, Prius being better on almost everything exept on the feel side.

Greatest downside of it is that others (specially Audi, BMW and RS Skoda drivers) seem to hate it and want to pass it, no matter what the speed I'm traveling, it just seems to be a huge red flag.
 
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Co-worker got a ride innit and said that the reversing scared him, he sat down and didn't realize it would use electric engine for backing and how differently it would move. It can be pretty tricky to regulate the power after used of clutch and old school slushboxes, first time I tried to reverse it on to ramps was weird, it doesn't want to go and then kind a jumps up.
 
It looks like you're learning something new about this car. Are you planning to modify it?
 
Co-worker got a ride innit and said that the reversing scared him, he sat down and didn't realize it would use electric engine for backing and how differently it would move. It can be pretty tricky to regulate the power after used of clutch and old school slushboxes, first time I tried to reverse it on to ramps was weird, it doesn't want to go and then kind a jumps up.
Oh that took some getting used to in the EV as well… gotta be really careful with the accelerator when navigating tight spaces :D I turned off creep so I could take my foot off the brake at three lights (also because I just don’t like that), but the foot adapted fairly quickly.
 
Prius is waiting gasget's for intake manifold and EGR, so I get to clean the intake manifold, EGR valve and EGR cooler with help of a friend.
It threw "check engine" light and bogged down, second later started sounding like it wanted to explode or it was trying to commit harakiri.
I already cursed that it must be rod bearings, that did the same happen what happened to a friends 156 years ago, we swapped it's timing belt and oils, it died 4km later, ofcourse first tought was that we had messed up with timing belt but no, all the gunk from oil pan had started to float and had killed the poor 1.8 twin spark.
Called a friend with OBD2 bt dongle and meanwhile check'd new used engine prices (1250€). Luckily it wasn't all "that" serious, code we got was for clogged EGR.

That sounds scary.
 
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Prius is waiting gasget's for intake manifold and EGR, so I get to clean the intake manifold, EGR valve and EGR cooler with help of a friend.
It threw "check engine" light and bogged down, second later started sounding like it wanted to explode or it was trying to commit harakiri.
I already cursed that threw rod bearings, that did the same happen what happened to a friends 156 years ago, we swapped it's timing belt and oils, it died 4km later, ofcourse first tought was that we had messed up with timing belt but no, all the gunk from oil pan had started to float and had killed the poor 1.8 twin spark.
Called a friend with OBD2 bt dongle and meanwhile check'd new used engine prices (1250€). Luckily it wasn't all "that" serious, code we got was for clogged EGR.

Those sounds scary.
You should get together with @thomas and share your egr woes. :)
 
Prius is waiting gasget's for intake manifold and EGR, so I get to clean the intake manifold, EGR valve and EGR cooler with help of a friend.
It threw "check engine" light and bogged down, second later started sounding like it wanted to explode or it was trying to commit harakiri.
I already cursed that threw rod bearings, that did the same happen what happened to a friends 156 years ago, we swapped it's timing belt and oils, it died 4km later, ofcourse first tought was that we had messed up with timing belt but no, all the gunk from oil pan had started to float and had killed the poor 1.8 twin spark.
Called a friend with OBD2 bt dongle and meanwhile check'd new used engine prices (1250€). Luckily it wasn't all "that" serious, code we got was for clogged EGR.

That sounds scary.

Wow that video sounds bad. Is this something you need to mentally prepare for when getting a Prius?
 
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