I’ve worked as an automotive technician for about 20 years and 8 of them were as a Toyota tech. The Prius was not a reliable vehicle.
How could the Prius possibly have a lower total-cost-of-ownership than an EV? That statement wreaks of bs. EVs don’t leak engine oil or transmission fluid or coolant or need spark plugs or timing belts or fuel filters or air filters or transmission filters and on and on… or even gas.
Regular maintenance on ICE cars is relatively low. The fluids, belts, and filters are fairly cheap and should be sparsely-needed throughout the normal lifespan of a car. The high number of Prius you saw in the shop is merely due to the popularity of the car (most go over 200k miles and many last 250k-300k). Its counterintuitive. If they weren’t dependable, you wouldn’t see them getting maintained (because they would be in a scrapyard).
Relatively low compared to what? Because we are comparing them to EVs which dont need any of the fluids, filtersseals, gaskets or belts that gas engines need or transmissions or differentials for that matter.
You’re comparing spending money on maintenance to not spending money on maintenance and saying the cost is low. Wtf?
I’m not saying Prius is unreliable because of my personal experience. I’m saying it because of all the common failures that it has documented on a site called Identifix, a site mechanics use to track pattern failures on vehicles.
I gotcha. I absolutely agree EVs should have a lower maintenance cost vs. ICE and hybrids. I’m kinda off-topic (if you are just focusing on maintenace costs).
The real costs-of-ownership working against EV’s are high depreciation and battery failures (very rare). I’d like to see comparisons between how often conventional motors and transmissions fail vs. EV battery failures. Those are the big, worst-case repairs for each and I don’t think we have enough EV data quite yet.
Again, I totally agree with ya that EV maintenance is lower without all the normal ICE fluids and filters. Tires are the only consumables EVs eat more of (when compared to similarly-sized, lighter gas vehicles). Shocks, sway bar links, brakes, tie-rods, etc. all seem approximately equal across the board.
EVs still have fluids and they really ought to be changed. Shit some really bad ones still have belts. Your battery pack still has coolant, and differentials are still differentials they’ve still got oil. Just because Toyota says the fluid is “life time” doesn’t mean it actually lasts a life time.
Coolant for EVs doesn’t need to be changed because they aren’t operating at the high temperature that combustion engines create burning fuel. It has nothing to do with Toyota or what they say. Differentials aren’t needed on EVs because each axle in an electric motor can turn independently.
I’ve worked as an automotive technician for about 20 years and 8 of them were as a Toyota tech. The Prius was not a reliable vehicle.
How could the Prius possibly have a lower total-cost-of-ownership than an EV? That statement wreaks of bs. EVs don’t leak engine oil or transmission fluid or coolant or need spark plugs or timing belts or fuel filters or air filters or transmission filters and on and on… or even gas.
Regular maintenance on ICE cars is relatively low. The fluids, belts, and filters are fairly cheap and should be sparsely-needed throughout the normal lifespan of a car. The high number of Prius you saw in the shop is merely due to the popularity of the car (most go over 200k miles and many last 250k-300k). Its counterintuitive. If they weren’t dependable, you wouldn’t see them getting maintained (because they would be in a scrapyard).
Relatively low compared to what? Because we are comparing them to EVs which dont need any of the fluids, filtersseals, gaskets or belts that gas engines need or transmissions or differentials for that matter.
You’re comparing spending money on maintenance to not spending money on maintenance and saying the cost is low. Wtf?
I’m not saying Prius is unreliable because of my personal experience. I’m saying it because of all the common failures that it has documented on a site called Identifix, a site mechanics use to track pattern failures on vehicles.
I gotcha. I absolutely agree EVs should have a lower maintenance cost vs. ICE and hybrids. I’m kinda off-topic (if you are just focusing on maintenace costs).
The real costs-of-ownership working against EV’s are high depreciation and battery failures (very rare). I’d like to see comparisons between how often conventional motors and transmissions fail vs. EV battery failures. Those are the big, worst-case repairs for each and I don’t think we have enough EV data quite yet.
Again, I totally agree with ya that EV maintenance is lower without all the normal ICE fluids and filters. Tires are the only consumables EVs eat more of (when compared to similarly-sized, lighter gas vehicles). Shocks, sway bar links, brakes, tie-rods, etc. all seem approximately equal across the board.
EVs still have fluids and they really ought to be changed. Shit some really bad ones still have belts. Your battery pack still has coolant, and differentials are still differentials they’ve still got oil. Just because Toyota says the fluid is “life time” doesn’t mean it actually lasts a life time.
Coolant for EVs doesn’t need to be changed because they aren’t operating at the high temperature that combustion engines create burning fuel. It has nothing to do with Toyota or what they say. Differentials aren’t needed on EVs because each axle in an electric motor can turn independently.