liner33 Posted January 18, 2015 Report Share Posted January 18, 2015 Ordered one of these today to replace our well loved Skoda Superb , should get delivery in a few weeks We wanted a nice relaxing car to drive , for the wife really, so needed to be auto and pretty effortless and the Prius fits the bill Plus she often gets one when she works in the US and decided she liked them Going to be base white like this one , will miss the Superb though but decided we would shake up the cars a little and replace my Fabia VRS in a few months with a larger vehicle 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sagitar Posted January 18, 2015 Report Share Posted January 18, 2015 Nice one. What are they doing about a spare wheel on the T Spirit now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liner33 Posted January 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2015 They put it in the boot, has that not normally been the case? The plug in doesnt get a spare nor models with solar roof they just get the foam . We had to add spare tyres to our last two Skodas and the 370z doesnt have the room for one anyhow We test drove a plug in but didnt think it was worth the premuim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sagitar Posted January 19, 2015 Report Share Posted January 19, 2015 My 2009 T Spirit had a skinny in the lower boot compartment, but I had heard rumours that the 2015 version would have only the gunge. I'm pleased to hear that the rumours were wrong. I had endless trouble getting a skinny for the plug-in, including deliberate obstruction by Toyota UK of my attempts to purchase the part. No spare would be a deal breaker for me now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted January 19, 2015 Report Share Posted January 19, 2015 Nice one, I've never been that keen on the shape but they do tick all the right boxes and they're one of the few cars that would be an ideal replacement for the missus Civic when the time comes. What is the Toyota auto box like? I'm surprised you're getting rid of the Fabia so soon, you've not had it long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liner33 Posted January 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2015 It's the Superb that going , had it 6 years and done 85,000 miles in it. The cvt is very smooth , couldn't get over how quiet it was . We were looking at replacing the Superb with a yeti but wasn't impressed with it , lots of wind noise and engine was rough , plus it's pretty ugly ! Mind you we are thinking of changing the Fabia this year as well , we've had that three years but I'd like something bigger and since we are downsizing to the Prius then we will need something for family gp holidays etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted January 19, 2015 Report Share Posted January 19, 2015 Nice one and i didn't see this one coming.... Truth is the Prius has laid the benchmark with a proven working platform inviting many new owners so in truth i'm not surprised you've taken this direction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sagitar Posted January 19, 2015 Report Share Posted January 19, 2015 What is the Toyota auto box like? Strictly speaking, the Prius does not have a gear box. There is a planetary gear train with three separate torque/power sources attached to it (the IC engine and two electric motors). Varying the rate of rotation of any of the power sources changes the rate of rotation of the driving wheels. So the gears are always engaged and there are no gear changes in the conventional sense. I've hugely over simplified this description, but there is lots of detailed information about the system on the net if anyone is interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted January 19, 2015 Report Share Posted January 19, 2015 I'll have to read up about them but after a quick look on autotrader (looking at 04-05 reg) most have done well over 100k, some even nearing 200k so they must be reliable cars but I'd imagine the battery needs replacing on them. The £10 tax would also be very appealing! What is the real world mpg like for town driving? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liner33 Posted January 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2015 About 60mpg real world driving apparently. Should be a saving on fuel as the Superb does about 41-43mpg but of diesel but that wasnt the motivation since depreciation costs a lot more than fuel , but it was only about 25% more for a new one over a 3 year old 15,000 mile one Tax is free on the newer ones and the battery is covered for 8 years or 100,000 miles, from what I have heard (granted its gossip) but a new battery pretty much writes a 10 year old one off. sagitar , is there any good forums online ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sagitar Posted January 19, 2015 Report Share Posted January 19, 2015 There's a Prius forum on the Toyota Club site at http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/forum/52-hybrid-toyota-prius/ but by far the best one technically is US based Priuschat site here http://priuschat.com/categories/gen-iii-2010-2015-toyota-prius-forums.93/ You have to be a bit careful with the US site because there are some specification differences on cars built or delivered there, but it's all pretty obvious. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted January 19, 2015 Report Share Posted January 19, 2015 Just out of curiosity and not designed to put anyone off the car but how much does the battery cost? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parthiban Posted January 19, 2015 Report Share Posted January 19, 2015 Just out of curiosity and not designed to put anyone off the car but how much does the battery cost? http://www.toyota.co.uk/hybrid-faq Will the battery be replaceable in Hybrids or will the car lose its value/the battery very expensive to replace, a bit like an iPhone battery is very hard to replace?It is extremely unlikely that a battery will need replacing. In the unlikely event that the hybrid battery does need to be replaced and the warranty has expired, the cost is approximately £800. An annual Hybrid Health Check at a Toyota Dealer is the best way to ensure you are safeguarding the health of your vehicle for years to come. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted January 19, 2015 Report Share Posted January 19, 2015 Is the £800 for the battery or the health check.... If battery it's not cheap but since it's the cars heart is also not to bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMARTLY Posted January 19, 2015 Report Share Posted January 19, 2015 Cheaper than a head gasket replacement and cheaper than the £18k for a Tesla. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sagitar Posted January 20, 2015 Report Share Posted January 20, 2015 The Prius has two batteries; the high voltage traction battery and the low voltage battery that boots the computer and enables start-up. Surprisingly, it is the low voltage battery that gives trouble. It's quite small and tends to discharge when the car is not in use because of the quiescent load from sensors etc. If, like me, you do only low mileages, it pays to give it a regular boost charge. The traction battery is very well managed by the system, which avoids running it to the extremes of charge/discharge. It gets a fairly easy regime aimed at extending the battery life and leaving plenty of headroom for regenerative braking. Premature battery failures are very rare. The battery pack is made up of multiple modules and large numbers of small individual cells so that even when the battery pack performance is beginning to degrade, it is still possible to refurbish the pack by replacing the cells that show early signs of failure. So it's possible to avoid the big hit that would result from the need to buy a completely new battery. I believe the replacement cost figure shown above must be the cost of a re-built pack. The cost of an entirely new battery would be much higher than the figure quoted. I think one of the real engineering successes of the Prius is the way in which Toyota have been able to manage the traction battery for long life and the extent to which they have been able to achieve a high level of battery re-cycling and keep down replacement costs. Of course, the Prius traction battery is relatively small and so it does not need the kind of extreme charging regimes that plug-ins with bigger batteries require in order to reduce charging times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sagitar Posted January 20, 2015 Report Share Posted January 20, 2015 What is the real world mpg like for town driving? In the three years that I drove the T-Spirit I managed about 55 mpg. A lot depends upon journey patterns and I do a lot of very short journeys. It's not a problem in the summer but in the winter it plays havoc. If you look at Fuelly you'll see an enormous range of mileages, but I think liner is about right as long as the "warm-up" proportion of the journey is pretty normal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted January 20, 2015 Report Share Posted January 20, 2015 Let's face the truth the Prius has set the commercial benchmark all other manufacturers are trying to follow and it seems their vision for the battery is equally well thought out.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted January 20, 2015 Report Share Posted January 20, 2015 Some good info there and 55mpg around town is brilliant, I think the Civic (auto) struggles to hit 30mpg. With the battery it must be cheaper to replace/re-condition than actually buy a new car but it does sound like they should last the life of it. I guess if buying used a high mileage is probably the better option as you know it's been used regularly so the batteries would've been kept charged. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liner33 Posted January 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2015 Just got word that it's going to be ready for the new 15 plate , roll on the 1st March Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted January 20, 2015 Report Share Posted January 20, 2015 Bet you can't wait..... Anything new on the 15 plate, facelift or alike? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liner33 Posted January 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2015 Dont think there have been any changes 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 Not surprised they pretty much hit the nail on the head first time.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liner33 Posted January 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 This model has been around for coming up three years , I believe a new model is due for this year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parthiban Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 This model has been around for coming up three years , I believe a new model is due for this year It's been around longer than that hasn't it? Didn't this shape of Prius come out in 2009? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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