Originally Posted By: fdcg27
I am a little envious, since a cheap Prius is every fuel economy loving cheapskate's dream.
These are among the top five best cars Toyota ever built. Others might be the original V-8 Lexus cars, the old Land Crushers and the nineties Camrys.
They also remain a must-have fetish item among academics and other nerdy types.
Around here, nerds are buying Subarus. Uber and Lyft drivers are snapping up Prii, but not to the same degree as Altimas and Elantras.
Prii/Echos/Scions and anything with a Toyota NZ/ZZ/AZ engine do develop a nasty tendency to burn oil - the rings either get coked up or in the case of the Prius and Camry, low friction piston rings. Timing chain rattle is common. I'm starting to see oil consumption at 1qt/3K, even with the use of PP/M1.
As dull as a Prius is dynamically(I was gifted my parent's old one), they're not that bad. If anything, while the interiors don't age with grace(but the dash melting/cracking that affected the mid-2000s Camry/Avalon/Sienna/Lexus IS doesn't affect these) the Prius is actually a fairly durable car, probably as durable as a Ford Panther seeing how many Prii are serving as taxis/Ubers after their first/second owners.