2007 Toyota Prius from North America - Comments

No problems with the car when pulled off the lot. Great so far.

I just purchased a 2007 model with the Option #2 package and a Toyota brand 6 CD Changer. In package #3 I believe you get the 6 CD changer with an upgraded stereo and speaker system, but not in this option. The dealer added CD Changer was $595. Because the color (red) was difficult to find in my area, I went ahead and bought the car for $23,600. I really love it. The car is quite roomier than I thought it would be.

Some things that I've noticed thus far about the car are as follows:

1) The number of drink holders are cool. More than 4 is pretty good for a car of this size.

2) Going up hill (steep gradients of 12%) was handled well by the car. The battery was drained by one notch after taking a hill that was about 1/4 of a mile.

3) The rear view that is blocked by the middle rear middle brake light takes some getting used to. Although my view of the rear appears to be quite functional, I'm a bit tense right now in getting used to not having a clear rear view.

4) There are a lot of pockets to store things around the interior of this car. It's amazing.

5) I didn't realize that it would be so important to monitor the oil in this car. The manual states that one quart of 5W-30 is used up by normal use every 600 miles. As each tank will get you 425-475 miles, every gas re-fill really does require a check of the oil levels. Something I didn't do in other cars that I've owned.

Purchase experience

After deciding on the options I wanted, I shopped around via Internet and in person at six of the dealers in my area. I ended up buying at the dealer that had the color of the car that I wanted and not necessarily the cheapest price. So I ended up allowing myself to pay $300 more than I would have liked. I went back and forth on the price with the linch pin guy and refused to buy at the price he wanted me to come up to. I was ready to walk and he knew it. He eventually gave in at a price I told him that I could easily get at a dealer down the street from my home. I had really been down to that dealer that morning and really did get that price I mentioned to the dealer I did buy it from. I'm glad I did that. With that price in hand and a price quote via fax from another dealer in my area, I was able to feel comfortable about that the price of the car I was getting was a good deal, but not an excessive hardship on the dealer.

The Toyota purchase process went well. I came to realize that Toyota does a very good job in defining excellent customer service standards.

My biggest challenge was with the finance stage. Toyota in my area is selling four post-sales products. They are the anti-theft alarm ($1,495), the paint bonding sealant that is re-applied every 6 months ($600), the extended warranties ($2,495) and pre-paid maintenance package ($1,495).

Firstly, I refused the alarm and the prepaid maintenance packages. Although the finance person let the prepaid maintenance package refusal down rather easily, they didn't let the second option of the alarm go without a good fight.

Thirdly, I was offered the paint package at $600 and ended up getting it for $350. I made a mistake with the extended warranty however. They offered a premium Toyota extended warranty (7 year, 100,000 mile zero deductible) for $2,495. My wife just said yes to it before I even had a chance to say wait a sec. No wonder the sales people involved were practically jumping for joy as I walked out the door. I knew that I had been ripped off on the warranty, but I thought... we'll at least I'm getting something for my money.

Anyway, I drove home with the car. I really like it.

I came home tonight and researched the warranty on-line and found that I could actually cancel the warranty within 30 days of purchase (Something they didn't mention in the office and why would they?). I also found out that I could purchase the warranty even a year later. And although, I can't confirm this, several Internet forum comments on other websites have said that one need not buy the extended warranty until the actual one is about to expire. That's because the factory warranty and the extended warranty time frames would overlap. One gentlemen at a Toyota dealer is selling the extended Toyota premium warranty for $990 which is a significant savings. Do an Internet search for "Toyota Premium Warranty Comment".

Moreover, I was surprised to learn that one need not buy the warranty at the same dealer as one bought the car at. Therefore, I could have bought the warranty from another dealer in another state at a drastic discount and not pay sales tax!

I plan on calling tomorrow to cancel the warranty and then clarify when I would need to buy the extended warranty. You see, I'm deeply concerned about the parts breaking down. Even one repair could hit $1,000 easily. It's a foreign car after all. They are all manufactured/assembled in Japan. All 100% of them.

This forum was very helpful and so were the other resources on the Internet. I'm so thankful for finding this thread of comments. I hope my comment is equally helpful.

I see that the previous vehicle was a Ford Taurus so the Prius must seem very sporty. However, there is no comparison with a Mini Cooper or Sports Car.

'Exciting'?!

Aaack, my Mercury Villager minivan is probably more exciting than this car.

Uhh, I think the OP mis-read the manual. A Prius does not consume 1 quart of oil every 600 miles.

OP: dealer add-ons such as paint sealants and the like are worthless. Extended warranties are expensive insurance policies, which means that, on average, they make a profit for the sellers, not for the buyers. Cancel the wildly over-priced warranty you bought and use the cash to pay off some debt or put it into a money market account. If you absolutely must have an extended warranty for "peace of mind" the very same warranty is available for $1,000. Search for example at http://priuschat.com.

I have a pair of 2002 Prius (the sedan model that looks like a Ford Focus sedan), so I can accept the manual may be different. However the engine is essentially identical. The 2002 manual doesn't say much about oil consumption except that short trips in town may provide a false sense of oil not being consumed because of moisture build-up. But the cars themselves, at about 75K miles and 110K miles, don't consume noticeable amounts of oil between the 5K mile changes.

The safe thing to do with any car is to check the oil at every fill-up. (And I should floss my teeth every night!) Sometimes a broken piston ring will show up as sudden oil consumption in the quart per 600 mile range.

Mike.

I don't own a Prius, but have friends who do. In the last 12 weeks I have seen 5 Prius' dead along the side of the road including my friend's Prius. This is higher by a factor of 5 over any other car on the side of the road. So much for reliability. There is obviously something wrong with this car that no one seems to be mentioning. In the case of my friend's car, there was a software problem with the computer control and it needed a patch upgrade done under warranty.

Just bought a Silver Metallic with Package # 3.

Wow what a cool car. I'm 58 years old and it's refreshing to be able to afford a car that excites me. Plenty of storage and cup holders. I'm averaging 50 MPG, and I'm at 1000 miles. Back-up camera is a great feature only to monitor if someone is behind the car. Distortion (wide angle lens) forbids the use of this camera for anything else. Digital displays are very handy. Fun to drive, however, the one drawback is pickup. In order to accelerate you must really kick down the gas pedal. A small price to pay to have this car. If you're 30 or under, and like Mustangs, DO NOT buy this car.

I have heard that the Corolla gets about the same MPG as the Prius in mixed city/highway driving. Anyone heard of comparisons? If the MPG is even with 5-8 miles the difference in purchase price between the two would make if it a 'no brainer' to go with the Corolla.

I know two Prius owners, one gets about 50 mpg in nothing, but city driving, and the other gets about 55 having to drive the highway to work. However, I still like the Corolla better. You can drive them every day for 20 years, and even if the body rusts off finally, the engine would still be there idling on the ground. They run forever.

I drive an 06 Toyota Corolla, mostly city driving, and oh no it does absolutely NOT do as well as the Prius. During the summer with A/C on I got about 23mpg and now I am lucky to get 26mpg. This is mostly intense city driving, but I realize now the Prius may have been a better choice. However if you do a lot of highway driving the Corolla does very well on its own, almost 40mpg so if you do a lot of highway you might favor the Corolla over the Prius. Personally I would still pick the Prius, I had the chance to check it out in person and the interior is much much more comfortable than the Corolla's. In the Corolla my left knee is constantly up against the door panel and sometimes my right knee bangs into the steering column as I try to move my foot over to brake. I am not a tall person either at 5' 8". Plus the hatchback is much more practical and the cool factor is way up in the Prius as well. I only have two cup holders in the Corolla as well whereas the Prius has more than two. This is important as I am busy shoving a quadruple big mac into my face, (that is a joke). Anyway the only thing that would have kept me with getting the Corolla was if I could get it in manual. However, my fiance must also drive the car so it needs to be automatic anyway.

I have a leased Prius and I love it. They actually do go pretty fast too. I was amazed at the acceleration on the freeway when I wanted to pass cars: I could get up to 75 or 80 from 65 in a short amount of seconds.

On a trip from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara and back, I got 44 MPG and was averaging 70 MPH on US Highway 101. I even got off the 101 in south Monterey County onto an old stretch of road that used to be 101, a road hardly anyone uses anymore, to race it up to 97.

So anyone who claims these cars don't accelerate well is full of it! They might not be Corvettes, but for a mid-size station wagon, they're pretty zippy, and even from a standing start. Toyota increased the torque of the electric motors by nearly doubling the voltage. The 2007 and 2008 models are faster cars than the previous years' models. Flooring a Prius means all three motors are going full blast! If one has seen the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car" one would know that the GM EV1 electric car beat a Corvette. Toyota didn't increase the power of the gasoline engine, but increased the power of the two electric motors in the Prius, thereby giving the car more pickup and more speed overall. I've talked to other Prius owners about this: they all claim they've been surprised at the Prius' acceleration ability, a bonus not foreseen.

Regarding anyone who claims that they'd rather buy an all gasoline car with the same mileage, figure it out! At least some of the time a Prius does not use any gasoline. The next generation of Priuses will use even less fossil fuel! Oil companies have got to hate that! I'm fed up with anti-hybrid propoganda that obviously is perpetuated by the oil conglomerates.

I bought a Prius T Spirit in May 2008 as a replacement for my taxi. The car that it replaced was a Ford Mondeo 2.0 diesel that averaged 35mpg. My Prius averages 51mpg. Where I live and work, there are quite a lot of hills, and the car has no problems tackling those hills, even with five adults on board.

I've driven 21,000 miles so far, and had no problems (knock wood).

With passengers getting in and out of the car multiple times every day, leather seats were a must for me. After six months of quite heavy use, they still look like new, (and are very comfortable).

Here in the UK, the hybrid technology has a 8 year, 100,000 mile warranty. I don't think that Toyota would offer that warranty if the batteries stop working after 2 years (as another poster suggested).

The T Spirit in the UK has 'park assist' that will reverse the car into a parking space for you. You control the speed at which the car reverses, but the car does the steering. Every time I have used it, It's worked perfectly.

There's only one thing I don't like about the car. The rear window. It's small, and the rear windscreen wiper only wipes two thirds of the screen. Having said that, the rear view camera helps when reversing.