Why You Should Not Buy A Toyota Prius

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I do not want you to buy a Toyota Prius, and here are my reasons for it.

According to some popular YouTube guys, the Toyota Prius is the worst car you can buy. Well, are they right or not? I will tell you my opinion on why I think you should not buy one.

The Toyota Prius Is Terrible Because It Has Great Fuel Economy
I want people to spend hundreds of dollars at the pump... said no one ever. The Toyota Prius is one of the most popular vehicles because it keeps your hard-earned money in your pocket.

I hate it that my Prius gets 57 miles per gallon; it is so frustrating. Saving all that money makes me just want to get rid of it. The fact that Toyota could even conceive of a car that gets such good gas mileage is beyond me. Please do not buy a Prius so you can save on gas.

The Toyota Prius Is Unreliable
According to Scotty Kilmer, the Prius is a bad car because you cannot change the alternator due to high voltage. How dare Toyota design a vehicle that has fewer moving parts that could fail and have someone stranded. Terrible.

Prius is so unreliable that owners are reporting hundreds of thousands of miles without any significant issues. Even those crazy hybrid battery packs have become better over time and kept people on the road longer.

Toyota wanted to push customers away so badly that they made it 10 years 150,000 miles with their battery warranty. Tragic.

Conclusion
This article is satire if you did not catch on to that. It is refuting claims that the Prius is not a great car to own and operate. Prius is reliable and very economical. They are beautiful cars, and I can attest to that after owning 14 of them myself.

I hope this sparks a few laughs for my readers out there and helps curb those "Monday Blues." Have a great day, everyone, and I look forward to seeing you in the following article.

Want to know why I like the Tesla 4680 battery? Check it out here.

Check out this wild new battery tech that Tesla has and why it will forever change the auto industry.

Peter Neilson is an automotive consultant specializing in electric cars and hybrid battery technologies. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Automotive Service Technology from Weber State University. Peter can be reached on Linkedin and you can tweet him at The_hybrid_guy on Twitter. Find his page on Facebook at Certified Auto Consulting. Read more of Peter's stories at Toyota news coverage on Torque News. Search Toyota Prius Torque News for more in depth Prius coverage from our reporters.

Submitted by Rj (not verified) on March 29, 2021 - 9:42PM

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There are legitimate reasons not to buy a used Prius. Any model may need a $2500 high voltage battery by 200k miles. Some years have expensive habits like head gasket fails, oil burning, brake by wire master cylinder fails, and or inverter issues. All run $2,000 and up to fix, some even require a replacement engine. 2010-2014 models are in this problem child category unless they are very low mile and, ideally the pistons, rings, master cylinder and or inverter were already changed earlier under powertrain warranty or special customer support programs.

"Any model may need a $2500 high voltage battery by 200k miles"
1. That battery only costs that much if you buy a new one. Refurbished batteries can be had for half or less. Considering it's already probably a 10+ year old car, why would you need a brand new battery?
2. Please tell me what car I can buy that isn't in danger of having a major component die by 200,000 miles? I'm out of date but my family went through a series of GM minivans that all had transmissions die between 120 and 140 thousand miles.
3. Look at the taxis around any city in America, odds are 50%+ of them are Toyota Prius. That should tell you all you need to know about a vehicle's longevity and economy

I had. 2007 Prius with 180,000 miles . I recently purchased a 2021 RAV4. I am
Missing the Prius now that the gas prices are up. The 2007 Prius only had breaks replace one time and a bearing on the driver side. Other than inspections, regular oil changes the car costs me nothing.

Owned a 2016 and 2018 Prius 3 2016 started to lose antifreeze a gallon ever 2 weeks wasn't in the engine oil or coming out of the rail pipe.
Owned a 2018 it also started to lose antifreeze until I lost my car due to the Covid shut down
I think the constant starting and shutting off might be the cause of the head gasket failure

If you get an Alison transmission and put it in one of the minivans that just needs a transmission then you should be fine since Alison transmissions are one of the most reliable and strongest transmission's on the market and in vehicles

this is only if you know someone that can do it or you know how to or if you can learn and if you really want to do it.

Yeah, I have owned 7 of them, my first one has 350k miles on it owner says, lol never a issue, I am a mechanic, I own a 2o17 my first new car in 40 years. Eco model gets 85 mpg nursing it around town, 54 mpg at 80. If you don't buy at prius...your loss! Why are there so many prius taxis in New York city.

I have 236,000 miles on my Prius and it was going strong right up to the point the cat was stolen two days ago and now I am waiting for insurance to figure it out. It is a 2007 and was still running strong, my point is that any part can last a long time or fail prematurely and even at 2500 for a battery might be a good deal depending on how many miles you have driven the car.

Hmmm interesting comments. I own a 2011 Prius I bought used in 2012 with 19k miles. It now has 192k and I haven’t had to do any of the things you mentioned. I had to replace my brakes at 160k but that’s been the most expensive thing I’ve had to replace outside of a set of tires. I’ve been very happy with my purchase.

Not true for nationwide lifetime warranty on a hybrid battery for a 2004-2009 prius is $1,524 and 2010-2015 prius is $1,724 or for 2016-2020 prius is $2,024. These prices I mentioned include the optional lifetime warranty. They drive to you as a mobile service. I have a 2011 prius with this lifetime warranty. The company is called green bean battery.

Submitted by Phillip N Mast (not verified) on March 30, 2021 - 7:04AM

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Although, I'm glad to own a prius, I'm not sure they should exist because I've seen pretty convincing figures that at retail price they are less economical than the non-hybrids unless you are going to drive prodigously high miles. They also have a rather poor resale value since prius owners are generally the type that like buying new.
However, the low resale value makes them great options for people like me who buy used. And in response to Rj, I've fixed my battery twice for only $45. This isn't for everyone but you can also get some mechanics to do that job for you for around $750.

If Prius buyers so much like buying new, why are there almost no 2019 or 2018 Prius Cs available anywhere at a reasonable price with low mileage? They could buy a different model new.

I found a Toyota Certified 2019 Prius with only 6K miles on it while looking around online around 2 a.m. one night. I emailed the salesman right then, and tried to call right when the dealership opened but someone had already walked in and snapped up that car. That was the most dramatic story but this is happened over and over again.

Submitted by Nick Brandt (not verified) on April 1, 2021 - 9:01AM

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These people clearly have no idea what they're talking about it is one of the most reliable cars out there. You can pick up a reconditioned battery for around $700 and will last you years and years. The alternator is also not hard to change you just have to make sure you disconnect the hybrid battery first.

In the car business on and off since 1975, Sales, Service, Leasing Chevy, Porsche, Audi, VW, Volvo, MB, etc
Have owned dozens of cars, some for 22 years, some for 22 days, I don’t tolerate unreliable lemons like the brand new 1998 Ford Windstar Limited that left me stranded in the middle of an expressway because of a flimsy, plastic, ‘made in China’ fuel pump FAILURE at 7,500 miles. When the technician showed it to me I was astounded how cheaply made a vital part appeared. Bye Bye Windstar. Sold it to a retired rock star who liked the fancy chrome wheels of ‘The Limited’ model. No, I don’t hate Fords. Me and my 2 partners who operate a large, growing INDEPENDENT repair shop have JOB SECURITY for life as long as the heavily marketed Eco-Boost engines need turbos and timing chains replaced. We love those $5,000 to $8,000 engine repairs, thank you also to Chrysler !

What’s my point ? If 90% of our customers drove TOYOTA Priuses, we’d go out of business in 18 months. One of our whiz kid computer geek friends actually designed a program to determine when the business would fail if we only had the LEGENDARY Prius in our shop of highly compensated MASTER TECHNICIANS ($100K+).

Submitted by Jorge (not verified) on April 2, 2021 - 2:09AM

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I want to know why the writer of this article owned 14 of them, when that car has only been around for 20 years. What are you doing to them?? Have you been forced to switch insurance companies over the years?
Anyway, I prefer the Corolla hybrid. Gets around the same gas mileage, it's every bit as reliable, but looks like a normal car. Some of us JUST want to save gas without virtue signaling and having our peers think we like to sniff our own farts (Southpark reference lol).

I've had my 2nd Prius just over 2 years. The only reason I traded the first one (bought new in 2018 with 3 miles on it) is because I drive for Uber and they said it was a 4 seater (not the required 5) when I was looking for another plug in hybrid, Toyotas website was my last stop. But the big banner that the Prius prime plug in hybrid was now a 5 seater was all I needed to see.

Submitted by Steven Tracy (not verified) on April 12, 2021 - 4:39PM

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The Toyota Prius second generation is the most reliable durable car ever produced. The first one I bought brand-new lasted for over 300,000 miles and it had very few issues along the way. I paid $23,000 for that car I now have a 2005 which I paid $4,000 for with 250,000 miles still going strong. The person who is against Toyota Prius doesn't know about Toyota Prius and this article is biased and it's probably for political reasons but I am a Trump voter and a conservative Prius owner. I'm tired of these dummies with these stupid articles just ignorant.

Calls the article ignorant and biased, but doesn't realize it's satire even though it says it is, then brings up his political leanings for no reason I can discern.
*giggle ~ snort ~ guffaw!*
BWAHAHAHAHA!

Read brother lmao. Why do you call the author ignorant when you yourself didn't take the time to read past the first few sentences when he himself states that he was joking with the title to give us a good laugh!!!