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Posted by Phil on January 24, 2007, 5:32 am
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My real concern was not so much the battery life as the vehicle life.
If the battery last 7-10 years thats quite reasonable. But for toyota
to say the car itself has a life of less than 10 years concerns me. I
am very much a buy and drive till it dies sort of car owner. I have
previously had a manual Mazda 626 which lasted 21 years (1 engine
recondition) and a Mitsubishi Nimbus which is still going strong after
14 years (one replacement automatic transmission and another not so far
away).
For the price of a Prius I would expect a lifetime of at least 16 years
(if not 20). When I calculate the total purchase and lifetime running
costs (petrol, insurance, maintainence, tyres, etc) for a Prius
(assuming lifespan of 10 years) and compare it to a V6 Camry (assuming
lifespan of 16 years) I get an annualised cost for the Prius of
AUD$7500 per annum and for the V6 Camry of AUD$6800 per annum.
That means that even with the much lower petrol costs, the shorter life
makes the Prius a more expensive option. The calculation would be
completely different if the Prius was made to last 16 years (the
annualised cost for the Prius would drop to AUD$6100 per annum).
So is Toyota saying you pay a premium to be environmentally
responsible?
1810@a75g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
>
> >>The article was dated october 2003<<-----------------------------------=
---------
>
> Thanks for the links. I read both articles.
> I can relate to your pre-purchase concern about the batteries. In 2002 our
> local Toyota dealer finally had a Prius we could actually touch instead of
> just reading about. We spoke with their service department and found out =
if
> the battery pack failed after the warrantee a replacement would cost $4800
> (US). It didn't scare me away because I just plunked down almost that amo=
unt
> on a new computer and accessories. And what for? A marginally faster
> processor?
> Anyway, 2003 rolls around and the battery is now $3400, the color we want=
ed
> was immediately at hand, and factory cruise control was added.
> Here we are 4 years later and the car has just a little bit over 87,000
> miles, 50,000 miles on the second set of tires, and no major or minor
> electrical or mechanical problems. Last I heard, $2000 for a battery.
> We have plans to buy another Prius but we don't know when. I can't think =
of
> any reason not to unless there isn't a Toyota service department that's
> trustworthy. If gasoline was free we still would want a Prius. If critics
> managed to somehow drive the retail cost down, that's good too. I do fear
> Toyota will sacrifice fuel efficiency to level the playing field amongst
> their line-up of hybrids.
>=20
> mark_
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