Annual report on 5w-20

[Lonnie]

Just thought I'd pass on some info on an 05 Toyota Prius from fleet service. This vehicle was used in the city of Los Angles for document pickup and delivery, and lab samples too, with the same four drivers for 11 months and 2 weeks with one driver doing a little over 50 percent of the mileage. The mileage at the end of this period was 87,551 miles. The car averaged 52 mpg of mixed driving and used Motorcraft 5w-20 oil changed at 5k intervals, which averaged about once every 3 weeks. The car was on it's third set of tires and lived a hard life. No used oil analysis, but there was no unscheduled maintenance, and the brakes had a front pad change and still had some life. This may have been because of the re-gen system. The coolant and brake fluid were not changed. It looks like 5w-20 oil did a good job. I drove the car the week it was sold off, and it ran like brand new.

 

[sw99]

MC is fine oil. Just look at the police crown vic's that use 5w20. 100k on a 2 year old car and they are driven by people that usually don't give a #@$%! how they treat them. When we are sleeping, the cops are trying to just stay awake at 3am by racing eachother

 

[The Critic]

Why was 5w-20 used anyway?

 

[Lonnie]

I think they were after the last bit of mileage. For those that think hybrids are not reliable, this one might be one of the most reliable cars on the road. There was lots of stop and go driving in some of the worst traffic around and everything works. You don't have to know anything about how a hybrid works to drive this car.

 

[Pablo]

Seems like this would be a great opportunity for extended drains. Sold it off? Why?

 

[JTK]

Lonnie, good report on the prius! Thing is, I would hope a small car in that price range would have no problems in that short of a time span. In reality, a vehicle of any price range, make/model would hold up to that type of mileage in that time frame on 0w-20 - 15w40.

Joel

 

[Lonnie]

Pablo, why sold off, one of the drivers bought the car. This car was really liked by the drivers. They are buying a bunch of them, now that there is no waiting time and the subject of reliability has been satisfied. And JTK, you are right about holding up, but the maintenance expenses on this car has been lower than anything in the fleet, by a bunch. You don't change fluids much, other than oil, the brakes are handled mostly by the electric motor/generator and did not show much wear in this car, the transmission has one forward gear, not clutchs, no belts, torque converter or any of that kind of stuff. The mileage on this vehicle would have been better but there was a lot of freeway driving. Because of this experience they are buying some Camry Hybrids, too. I've driven the CH and I like it. Anyhow, it turns out that besides playing the accounting game of trying to drive off the miles to break even there is not the added benefit of lower maintanance and good reliability. I'm only talking about my experience with 11 of these vehicles, but not one has had a problem of any kind, and after forcing drivers into these vehicles you can't get them back. They like these hybrid Toyota's.