Hello, i own a 2004 Prius since 2016, get it cheap (aprox. 2500 USD) with 165.000km on the ODO. Now in 2024 i have 247.000km, consumption is @ 4.2L/100km in Winter, 3,8 in Summer. With some modification (insulation for more silence, Alcantara, Car-HiFi wit Carplay) this Prius is fit for the next 10 years! I love it and for me it`s one of the most beautiful cars! Greets from Europe
That's great. I am Glad you like your Prius. They are so versatile and cheap to operate. Hard to beat for the price for what you get. Thanks for your comment. have a great week! BCR
@@TheAlmightySushi Sorry we no longer have the vehicle. But if you have any questions about the modifications, feel free to leave us a comment and we will do our best to answer. Thx! BCR
I have a 2006 that I bought in 2006 and we just made 200,000 miles yesterday. I love this car it’s reliable low maintenance and it’s gets me to where I am going with no worries.
@@guadaluperiverabaez If using standard oil around 3000 miles. If using full synthetic oil around 5000 to 6000 miles. On our second GEN Prius we kept it simple and just use standard oil and change it every 3000 miles. BCR
I bought an '05 Prius with 177k miles. I love it! I currently own a 2019 ford fusion hybrid with all the features and adaptive cruise but i wanna sell that and just rock the Prius 😂 I do food delivery
In love with my reliable Generation 2, 2008 Prius, with 170,000 miles. Bought new 25K 10/2007. Excellent shape, since its garage kept. Original Battery perhaps due to less corrosion on the hybrid battery connections? Has additional front and rear running lights. The HID headlights failed but replaced them myself by feeling my way with my hand and did not have to take the bumper off. They are much brighter than the originals. Replace the 12V battery twice. New water pump. New left front bearing. 2 New PVC valve replacement. Fix a leak in the air-conditioning system. Cleaned hybrid battery fan with an added cleanable filter screen at the air intake. Sometimes the dash lights go out when the weather gets cold then will go back on within 50 miles of driving. Heard it’s cold solder joints on the electronics? Went 90K 10yr. with the energy saver Defender Michelin tires and replaced them with the regular Defender Michelin tires. Loss a few miles per gallon but handles better and a softer ride maybe due to new thread. The Prius is used for long trips only with an average mileage of 50+ MPG. Short trips are by bike, feet and public transit all year. It’s a beautiful sports car Barcelona RED and a sleeping camping car with a 6’ bed with great cargo capacity. Adding a portable inverter makes a 115 Volt generator for back up efficient home power with the on and off cycle of the engine. The Princess Prius is a tough survivor like the princess cat in the movie “The Incredible Journey”. The beautiful large dash display is ahead of its time with sharp graphics like a space ship. Ran out of gas, and a whole dashboard lit up including the triangle of death (indicates serious malfunction - do something now!). Fortunately filled up 1/2 mile away before the battery became too low. Never again!! It’s an adventure reliable stealth vehicle that slips through the air quietly! The best smooth styling of all the model years. Definitely a incognito James Bond vehicle with secret abilities never to be underestimated. So watch out!!! Soon it will become a classic antique with appreciating value
B is a compression brake. The Prius normally uses regen with the valves disengaged if you shift into "B" it doesn't disengage the valves allowing you to compression brake when going downhill without overcharging the battery
@@FawfulDied Thank you for your comment. When testing the car and the battery is full letting off the gas pedal does feel different in the B mode versus regular D mode. If the car is engine breaking, it definitely feels different. Again, as I’ve said before in other comments, I don’t know all of the science/engineering behind the whole regenerative breaking/engine breaking aspect of this car. But it definitely is a lot more complex and interesting and Toyota did a great job making it all work seamlessly together. Thank you again for your comment and hope you have an amazing rest of the week! BCR
@BrianRadcliffe Thank you for your comment. I did do a little bit more research and driving in the car after posting this video and reading other peoples comments. So if you haven’t read my comment already, please look at my comment that I left for @BretCraig8492. Again, as I’ve said before in other comments, I don’t know all of the science/engineering behind the whole regenerative/engine breaking aspect of this car. But it’s definitely more complex and interesting and Toyota did a great job making it all work seamlessly together. Thank you again for your comment. Hope you have a super amazing rest of your week! BCR
Hi @bretcraig8492. Thank you so much for your comment. I did do a little bit more research and testing on the vehicle after your comment. Keep in mind I'm not sure quite how the whole entire thing still works. But here's my conclusion. I drove the car and put it in the funny little shifter B mode and let off the Excelerator. The battery does start charging immediately on the display and the engine was showing off. And from what I can tell the engine was actually not running. Immediately as soon as I put the shifter in B mode I felt a ton of resistance which is probably a combination of the regenerative braking as well as some type of engine braking going on. I did do a little bit more research and found some conflicting information. But here is basically what I found. The car does do some regenerative braking/charging. But as soon as the battery gets full (or close to full) to protect the battery it shuts off but continues monitoring the battery state of charge and uses some type of engine braking. I know it's a lot more complicated than that but that's the basic jest of what I got out of it. I want to thank you so much for your genuinely nice comment. It definitely made me do some more research and testing on the car. If you would like me to send you a couple of the links where I found the information. Please let me know or if you have anything else you'd like to share please do. Thanks again much love, BCR
@@BlueCollarReviews-cs2br If only there was some resource like the owners manual or an internet search engine that could spell it out without needless speculation. Using engine braking: To use engine braking, shift the shift lever to “B” position. During high speed driving, you may feel that deceleration by engine braking is less than that of a typical vehicle. Do not continue normal driving with the transaxle in “B” for a long time. This may cause decreased fuel economy. To prevent this, use “D” for normal driving. When you shift the transaxle to “B” from a position other than “D”, an alarm sounds and the transaxle is automatically shifted to “N”.
From experience, going down Monteagle in TN on I-24 ... it will still give your battery a charge initially (regenerative braking) while in "B" mode, and "B" mode on a steep slope is one of the VERY few times I've seen the very top bar of the battery graph turn green. The top bar is almost always white during normal operation.
The nav system isn't all that bad. I tend to use it to provide a long range overview on long trips and either my phone or my Garmin for actual guidance. I purchased my 2007 from a friend in 2018, but updated the map software to 2017 (I think?) just after I got it. The 10 year update in map data made a difference in the atlanta metro.
I am glad it working good for you. Never thought about using like that. We just never found it very useful because the Maps on the iPhone our Google Maps is just so much better. That’s awesome to know that they still support some type of updates for the old system. Thank you so much for sharing! BCR
Good review. I was amazed to see these in Chicago during the winter being used as taxis. Proof they are built tough. You are also correct on the battery life as there seems to be a cottage industry that has been established that is able to re-balance the battery packs with used cells to refurbish these prius batteries for a modest price. We have one in our area just north of Chicago in WI.
Todd S, thank you so much for your comment. Yes, the second, third, and even the fourth generation Toyota Prius are used all over as taxes. When we were in New York, and even when we were in Vegas we seen a whole LOT of them. Mostly second and third generation. So it definitely makes sense they use them in Chicago. We also have them in California but, probably not as many as other places because Uber and Lyft is real popular here. I Dont think the prius are affected as much as full electric vehicles in the winter, Because they have a gas engine along with the battery pack. They obviously won’t get as good of fuel economy. I think a lot of the taxi companies all used refurbished batteries and they just keep running, what seems like forever. Again, thank you for your comment and engagement. Hope you have a terrific weekend! BCR
@rcppop3090, That’s awesome! Your daughter should get a lot of good reliable years out of it still. Just remember as I said in the video since the car has higher mileage, just make sure she checks the oil regularly. Also make sure if you use standard oil to change the oil roughly every 3000 miles. Thank you for your comment and support. Have a super great rest of your week! BCR
We own 2 of these - 2005 and 2008. Both have almost 200k miles. Replaced struts on both and hybrid water pump on the 2008. No other issues. My son has ran the 2005 completely out of oil twice (forgot to add oil during oil change) and the engine is still running strong. He’s wrecked his 3 times as well. I’m beginning to think you can’t kill them. 😂
Wow, that’s pretty incredible! Yes, these cars do seem to run forever. Like I mentioned in the video this vehicle has over 300,000 miles and it’s still running strong. Thank you so much for your comment and I hope you guys get many more years with your two vehicles. BCR
@andreylosetskiy5217, I definitely think it is one of the most reliable and longest lasting, best bang for the buck Prius that you can get in today’s market. But I have to say the brand new 5th generation is definitely sexy looking and the best looking of all the previous generation hand down! In my opinion of course 😉. As far as reliability will have to wait and see. But knowing Toyota, I’m sure the car will be great. Thank you for your comment. Have a beautiful rest of your week! BCR
Your car is in fantastic condition. I think the rims look really good. I would probably go with the CT200h rims but I applaud you for changing it up. I think the third GEN Prius is good looking, and of course, the fifth gen. Second GEN I mean it’s not horrible, and subtle changes like you have done make it look a lot better.
The "B" feature on the gear shift was incorrectly explained. It does not produce regenerative braking. It controls engine valve timing to create engine braking, like that in an 18 wheeler. This is used when the battery is fully charged, and there is nowhere for the power produced from regeneration to go. Since you are going downhill, the engine doesn't produce any braking effect, as it is stopped. Engaging the engine brake (B) engages the engine for braking. Otherwise, the wear on the brake pads would be too excessive.
Yes as another viewer (@bretcraig8492) already commented earlier about the same thing that you mentioned. There definitely is some type of engine braking going on when you engaged the B function on the gear selector. But I did test going downhill in the car and if your battery is not fully charged it will continue to charge the battery until it is full and then continue the engine breaking. Thank you so much for your comment have a great week! BCR
Great video thanks. I am buying one in Australia in Two weeks. 2nd Gen 2006 model. 2nd Owner, well serviced with 106,000kms (65,865 Miles). Really looking forward to it since my v6 Pathfinder is chewing through my wallet with petrol costs. You made excellent choices with the modifications. I'm curious how much the mpg is affected with the 17's and tyres? Also, after lowering it, how is the comfort of the suspension now and do you bottom out often or scrape on bumps much? Thank you for your time.
Thank you so much for watching our video and your comment. I’m excited for you and the purchase of your second GEN Toyota Prius. With that low mileage with general maintenance you should get many happy years with it. Definitely you’re going to enjoy saving a lot of money on fuel. That’s one of the things I loved so much with this vehicle, is being able to go so far on so little money on gas. Not to mention how roomy and versatile the vehicle is for being so small and compact. One of the things that I liked least about the car was it visual stock appearance with some of the most ugly looking stock wheels and hubcaps. That was one the deals I made with my wife when purchasing this vehicle, is that I was definitely going to have to do something to make the car look better. Especially her knowing I’m a car guy. As far as the hit on the MPG’s. We lost an average of about 5 miles per gallon and if you asked my wife whether or not she liked losing those MPG’s, she wasn’t a fan. But when I asked her if she wanted me to put the stock wheels back on, the answer was definitely not. Still averaging between 40 and 42 miles per gallon is not bad for the car to look a lot better. Lowering the vehicle was definitely something that had to be done, just for the overall appearance and stance not to mention the car would handled a lot better. I know it’s no race car by any means, but it definitely helps when taking corners. Keep in mind this was my wife’s daily so I needed to be mindful when lowering the vehicle not to go too low. So I went with some lowering springs that lower the car about 2 inches. Don’t get me wrong my wife can definitely handle driving modified cars, but I just didn’t want to inconvenience/frustrate her too much. So overall going over speed bumps every once in a while it would lightly hit the under side of the car but not too bad. By the way, if you’re looking for wheels that are not too expensive the wheels we used were the stock Toyota FRS wheels you can find them used for a pretty decent price. Send us some pictures when you fix up your Prius. Hope this helps and good luck with your new to you Prius! BCR
That’s awesome! Definitely emails us at 4BlueCollarReviews@gmail.com and we will do our best to get back to you as soon as we can. Thank you for your comment and have a fantastic day! BCR
I've been considering a 2008 with just over 300K, battery has been replaced. So your video was definitely a bonus to find. Other then some burning oil is there anything else that you've had issues with? Have you had the timing chain done?
@Ameichholz Thank you so much for your comment. Yes because the car does burn oil the catalytic converter needed to be replaced around 225,000 miles. So if the catalytic converter has not been replaced, it may be getting close to needing to be replaced. We are in California and you can only buy them from a dealer which is quite expensive around $2000. In most other states I believe you can buy aftermarket ones for around $200-$300. I would suggest installing an oil catch can because it will help with the oil that blows by the rings. We also had the digital display/speedometer go out. We sent it out and had it fixed and upgraded because of a faulty diode, I believe . Not very expensive to have done, I think it was about $150. I also replaced the brake actuator which researching is a somewhat common thing to go out, but ours didn’t start going out until about 300,000 miles. If you’re mechanically inclined it’s something you can do yourself, but it is very time consuming and it is a lot of work to do. I purchased a used one for just under $500 but if you plan on keeping the car for a long time I would suggest buying a new one for around $1,000. You will know when it starts to go out when the car is turned off and you hear a slight buzzing sound by the driver side windshield (it’s right in front of the firewall) which would usually go off after about a minute. So if you hear a buzzing sound that keeps going on after the car shuts off for more than a minutes. Most likely the brake actuator is starting to go bad. Keep in mind, the Prius will usually make slight noises after the car is turned off, it’s very common. Another thing that can go out is the center display where you adjust your heater, radio and monitor your hybrid system. But ours never went out, But it is a common thing that can go out. If it does go out, it’s quite inexpensive to have fixed. I believe it cost about $100-$150. As for the timing chain, they are usually not a common failure part on these cars. Sorry for such a lengthy response. Overall the second generation Prius is a pretty solid vehicle and they can run for a very long time if taken care of properly. I hope this helps. Have a great week.. BCR
@@BlueCollarReviews-cs2brdoes the head gasket go out like the 3rd generation I have a 2011 and the head gasket went out at about 210,000 miles I found a 2008 Prius for like 4K with 90 k miles I’m thinking about buying it but I’m scared to take a loss I guess I will never know as my Mexican people say el ke no ariesga no gana translation if you don’t risk you won’t win let me know abou the head gasket bro I will highly appreciate you
WOW, Great Review! I wish I saw it before I bought my gen 2 with 66K. I bought one last year and had to replaced the ABS modulator 7 months ago with a OEM brand new one as I didn't want issues. Relatively easy job. Quite as a mouse until two months ago and now I hear the chirping sound from it. Not as loud but it is there. UUGGGG So disappointed! No codes and many say the sound is actually normal. Time to move on!
Thank you for your comment. So sorry that you are having issues with your car with such slow mileage. I know you said that it’s some kind of chirping sound. But is the car starting to run bad? Hybrids tend to make all kinds of weird noises when they run or stop and or even when they are turned off. A lot of them are quite normal. Not sure exactly what sound you are having? Let me know if you have any further questions. Thanks again for watching and your comment. BCR
Thanks for the secret compartement, just found the old owners wallet in it it had parking tickets from 2011. PS : I own the car for 2 months and its great i just have water infiltration in the trunks 12v batterie area. Thanks for the video
Thank you so much for your comment. we are in Southern California. This particular year and condition, you should be able to find them in a price range from $3,500-$7,000. I would recommend also looking for used car prices at a website like kelleybluebook.com where you can put in all the information that you have on a vehicle and they will give you a price range for a private party, trade-in, etc. Also, whenever looking at any car private party or use car lot, if you’re not mechanically inclined or know a lot about cars, it’s always a good idea to bring someone that is. Whether that be a mechanic or someone that knows car very well. One last thing make sure the car has a clean title. You can use a website like carfax.com. You would enter the Vin number and they will give you quite a bit information on that exact vehicle. Keep in mind. These are just some tools to use when looking to purchase a used vehicle but they are not perfect. Use them as a guide. Hope this helps. Best of luck. BCR
Hi @youngtaylor. Thank you for your comment. The dash cam that we installed is the Rexing V1LG dual channel dash cam 1080p. It works decent for the price it offered a lot of features. Although the interface is a little clunky, once you get used to it it works pretty decent. I don't believe they sale V1LG anymore and if they did I would definitely encourage you to upgrade to the newer versions away. Like the Rexing V1P 4K duel channel dash cam. Rexing has a few different versions with a lot more features. Some of the cool features are 4K, and an app so you can download straight to your phone. I left a couple links In the video description. Keep in mind I have NOT reviewed any of the newer versions. But I did look at some of the reviews and the product description and it looks like they should work good. Check them out and let me know what you think. Thanks much love, BCR
The rims are from a Scion FRS and they are the stock wheels (from 2013-2016). Subaru also did a joint venture with Scion (Toyota) and made the Subaru BRZ which have the exact same wheels model year 2013 through 2016. Hope this helps. Thank you for your comment and your support. Hope you have an amazing week! BCR
