I got a side job doing driving and delivering, it would probably be perfect for a Prius appliance with saving gas money and such.
Since I've never needed anything like this I know diddly about them. What should I look for? I'm looking more at the cheapest end of the spectrum than anything
Does your job have any vehicle age requirements?
Gen1 is 2001-2003. These have trunks
Gen2 is 2004-2009. These have a hatch and get 40's mpg
Gen3 is 2010-2015. These can get in the 50's mpg but they will cost you more to buy.
For me, the Gen2 is the value sweet spot
John Welsh said:Does your job have any vehicle age requirements?
Gen1 is 2001-2003. These have trunks
Gen2 is 2004-2009. These have a hatch and get 40's mpg
Gen3 is 2010-2015. These can get in the 50's mpg but they will cost you more to buy.
For me, the Gen2 is the value sweet spot
It doesn't,it's a rural paper route. Odd job to be sure but somehow a good wage.
Loved my 2007. Drove it from 217 to 277k, sold it to a family member, its now at ~310k and needs timing chain/guides. It still rattles down the road at 40mpg.
I would own another.
I'm not a big fan of the 1st gen. They aren't enough cheaper than the 2g to compensate for how much worse they are. My .02.
Owner of both 2nd and 3rd gen. Low miles compared to the higher end Prius crowd, and thus far no issues with the cars. Cheap to run, dead nuts reliable, and huge MPG. I'm seeing 55MPG during the winter in Chicago if I can find some trucks to draft on the highway (my commute is mostly highway). Easily 60MPG+ during the summer if I do the same thing. 55MPH seems to be the sweet spot for MPG - at 70MPH you see a pretty significant degradation.
I would purchase an app and an OBDII reader to see the readings from the battery packs. Otherwise it's diligence like you would on any other car.
Vigo said:Loved my 2007. Drove it from 217 to 277k, sold it to a family member, its now at ~310k and needs timing chain/guides. It still rattles down the road at 40mpg.
I would own another.
I'm not a big fan of the 1st gen. They aren't enough cheaper than the 2g to compensate for how much worse they are. My .02.
Yeah, the Gen2 is far superior to the Gen1 for no more money.
Your 2007 has 310k. That would never happen in a 2004 or 2005. You see, there is an odd quirk where the digital odometer on the 2004 and 2005 are not capable of going past 299,999 miles. You can physically drive them for more than 300k miles but it will never register more than 299,999
I'm curious about HV battery replacement costs on 1st and 2nd gens, I've only ever heard 2nd hand horror stories about cost, but adaptations to 18650 cells seems semi affordable.
Around here there are several independents who sell refurb battery packs for under 700 installed with a warranty. Daughter got one 2 years ago, still works. As soon as the subarus are gone I'm getting a Prius gen 2
In reply to JesseWolfe :
I've had 4 Prius, all over 150k miles and none have yet needed anything HV battery related. However, there are tons of Youtube videos about HV maint/swap. Replacement cells cost about $100 and you typically only need 1-3 of them. The worst part of the job just seems that all the interior trunk area trim needs to be removed so more than 30 minutes of small plastic fasteners, etc before getting to the actual battery pack.
Gen1's have a different and inferior battery. Gen2's also benefit from huge sales numbers resulting in huge numbers of parts vehicles. Gen1's were rarer, only being sold for 3 model years and sold in much smaller quantities.
In reply to Antihero :
I think a Prius would be great at newspaper delivery but I provide this word of caution. It can be difficult to buy your way into savings. Your current vehicle might be good enough. I would caution about making investments for what is effectively a dwindling business model...print media.
The paper delivery game is one of volume and close proximity. If everyone on the street gets a paper then there is some money to be made. In the current era, there may only be a few people on the street who get the paper. This means more driving for less income. Passing a lot of houses that you make no money from. Also know that most major city papers have reduced their number of days. Where they used to print a paper every day, many are now just down to printing 3 days a week. This means that a paper delivery job just went to less than half of the work (and the income) that it used to be.
Final note: Papers and their black ink are hell on a car. It is very likely that you will begin every day at an unsafe load level as you jam in more papers than your car can reasonably carry (paper is heavy.) This is hell on suspension and brakes. Additionally, the black ink is hell on the interiors. Take a look at the insides of some other driver's cars.
In reply to John Welsh :
Interesting point about the potential future of a job like this. It would be really interesting to see some data for newspaper subscriptions over time for the last 5 years or so. I'd guess that the move away from print media is accelerating. It's not just the demand slowing due to other news sources, I think there's been a drastic drop off in quality of newspapers in that same time which is actively driving people away. At least it seems that way locally. I often see the newspaper delivery people on my street in the early AM. They stop at about 20% of the homes on my street, and I live in an area where the average age is well over 55. Seems like it might be even more bleak in a neighborhood with younger residents.
Hated my 2010. I respected it as an appliance, as there's no denying that it was good at going from point A to point B using very little fuel. I averaged something like 42mpg with it. However, the interior was too funky for me and the driving experience was literally wretched. Even my wife commented how poorly the thing handled. It made a 1993 Lincoln Continental feel like a Lotus. I was soooo much happier giving up 4-7mpg for a driving experience that was far less horrid. Something like a Honda Fit, Hyundai Accent, Kia Rio, Hyundai Elantra, etc....
We bought a 2012 Prius V last summer. Here are a few of my observations: - It's Toyota reliable - It can haul a surprisingly large amount of stuff. - It gets better fuel economy in town than on the highway. We get about 44 mpg mostly highway. - The Toyota dealer wants to see it every 5000 miles. I'm doing this because ours has low mileage and still under powertrain warranty. - It's the most gutless, soulless, boring vehicle I've ever owned. - It seems to do exactly what it was designed to do. If you need a hauler the V might be worth a look.
In reply to JesseWolfe :
Replacing the batteries on these only needs a handful of tools, and the batteries are individual Nickel Metal Hydride packs, not lithium- they're tougher but lower voltage, and quite a bit safer to handle. Typically, a handful of cells finally gave up the ghost instead of the whole pack, so it's easily fixed once you remove all the plastic trim and the rear seat.
In reply to STM317:
No joke about the drop in quality- I remember MST3K even making cracks about the newspaper industry dying back in ~2000 and it's only getting worse. Thanks to the internet, you'd don't have to pay for quality pieces anymore- it's far easier instead to pander to your base with poor articles and filler to get by, 'cause you can always find some droog to write something like that for $0.05 a word. Who needs integrity anymore?
Wife owns a 2013 Prius plug in. We use it to carpool to work every day and we've done a couple cross-country trips in it as well. We've put about 20-25K miles on it in the last year or so with nothing other than gas and some oil changes. It's reliable as can be, comfortable with pretty decent ergonomics, holds a good bit for a small car being a hatchback and all, and the gas mileage is excellent. In the city if I'm careful 60-65mpg is pretty easy. On a 1,000 mile road trip we averaged about 55mpg on the highway doing 75. Handles decently, like a small Toyota. It's not a fast car but who cares - I feel like anyone that criticizes the car for not being fast and handling like a Miata probably misses the whole point of having a Prius as a commuter car. Honestly for a daily commuter car I would say there are few cars better than a Prius. Second gens can be picked up for dirt cheap these days.
infinitenexus said:Wife owns a 2013 Prius plug in. We use it to carpool to work every day and we've done a couple cross-country trips in it as well. We've put about 20-25K miles on it in the last year or so with nothing other than gas and some oil changes. It's reliable as can be, comfortable with pretty decent ergonomics, holds a good bit for a small car being a hatchback and all, and the gas mileage is excellent. In the city if I'm careful 60-65mpg is pretty easy. On a 1,000 mile road trip we averaged about 55mpg on the highway doing 75. Handles decently, like a small Toyota. It's not a fast car but who cares - I feel like anyone that criticizes the car for not being fast and handling like a Miata probably misses the whole point of having a Prius as a commuter car. Honestly for a daily commuter car I would say there are few cars better than a Prius. Second gens can be picked up for dirt cheap these days.
I never expected mine to handle like a Miata. But just like any other small sedan would be great. Mine was seriously the worst handling car I've ever owned. Flopped all over the place even in slower turns, no body control. And yes, the suspension was fine and in good shape.
infinitenexus said:I feel like anyone that criticizes the car for not being fast and handling like a Miata probably misses the whole point of having a Prius as a commuter car. Honestly for a daily commuter car I would say there are few cars better than a Prius.
I totally agree with this statement. I've driven a bunch of econoboxes as rentals as I travel for work, and can't say I enjoy them any more than my Prius. Yes, most of them are a tad faster on acceleration, but with their stupid CVTs it's certainly not fun by any stretch of the imagination. At the end of the day it's what you're trying to optimize for, and if it's reliability, low purchase price, and low operating costs, then I think it's really hard to beat. My dad recently offered me his 2015 5 series for like half the market price and I told him it's just not worth it for me - why spend 2x-3x the cost for a stupid commute when what I have already does the job well?
Can the second gen handle 2 car seats?
In reply to trigun7469 :
I almost exclusively moved a 4 yr old and a 1.5 yr old in my 2007 Prius.
I'm 6'1" with a 32 inseam.
As a family of 4 we road-tripped the Prius over a long weekend to a family wedding from Ohio to N. Carolina. This included bringing enough luggage as well as a pack and play. Easy trip.
We did a similar trip in my MILs 2014 Ford Escape and we actually had less usable seating room. The Escape required my wife's seat to be moved forward. Not the case with the Prius
Photographic proof...
In reply to John Welsh :
All that is totally valid, and one reason why I never looked at this as a gig.
This one though......it pays well enough that I could almost do 2 challenge cars a month. It's a long route but little papers, 120 papers is the absolute max. In winter I'm driving a 98 v8 explorer, it burns about 15-20 bucks a day in gas. Cut that in half and there's easily a car payment there and still more savings.7 days a week and 2-4 hours depending on weather and such.
Like I said, weird job but somehow worth it
In reply to Antihero :
Im not sure of your location or climate but for me, in Northern Ohio, I run General ArticMax winter tires on my Prius and they work fantastic. Also, Gen2 Prius are 15" tires. I can get quality, mid-grade tires, like 65k rated Falken 201's for $75, mounted.
Brakes last 100k miles...really!
Antihero said:In winter I'm driving a 98 v8 explorer, it burns about 15-20 bucks a day in gas.
I just filled up this morning for 21 bucks for 490 miles. Beyond the money savings you'll also save some time going to the gas station!
In reply to bcp2011 :
Sadly, gen2s only have a 10 gal tank, but at 8 gal the gauge is flashing telling you are low on fuel, so it appears to only have a 350 cruising range.
Compared to other cars with lesser fuel economy but bigger tanks, I am at the gas station just as often but I am there for a very short time each visit
I had a Gen1, it was a good car. The #1 issue with it is simply that the Gen2 exists:
John Welsh said:Yeah, the Gen2 is far superior to the Gen1 for no more money.
I wouldn't consider a Gen1 anymore at all. Nothing in the hybrid system scares me, but the electronic streeing rack which is >$1K to replace, if its still available, is scary. If you are in the city though, the Gen1 is 6 inches shorter and has a 6 inch shorter wheelbase, which is kinda nice. Gen2 is definitely the value spot. If you can find one with a bad battery, you might be able to pick it up for super cheap and just have a refurb installed.
The handling never bothered me. It's like driving a Corolla (because thats what the suspenion is), just with crappier tires.
You'll need to log in to post.
