2001 Toyota Prius from North America - Comments

After I had my Prius for well over a year -- by that point, the car was over 3 years old -- my tires blew due to wear from bad alignment. I had the tires replaced and the alignment fixed and all has been well since.

Also, about a month after my tire problem, I started getting all sorts of strange warning lights. It was in the middle of a heat wave and for awhile it seemed to be related to the 98+ temperatures. When the lights came on a second time, I took it to the dealer where they replaced some sensors, and had to keep the car for a few days to make sure they had actually fixed the problem. Apparently the car was "running lean". Most of the work I had done was covered under my warranty -- it was still under factory and the dealer's warranty because it was Certified Pre-owned -- and for the amount of work I had done, it cost me amazingly little. I spent about $135.

Those are the only problems I've had so far. I've taken in the car twice for recalls, but I've never actually had a problem.

I love my Prius.

My car is almost four years old now with almost 84,000 miles and it runs like new.

I live in CT and during our rough winters the gas mileage is not as good as one might hope, at about 35 MPG, because the car cannot turn off its gas engine as often. But in the summers - I've never used the AC often in any car I've ever had - I can get anywhere from 45-50 MPG.

The car is surprisingly roomy, and is definitely a different kind of driving experience. The cabin is so open that getting into a more conventional, low riding car is kind of strange for me now. I feel closed in.

People worried about getting top-speeds probably won't be considering the Prius anyway, but the car is plenty zippy for me.

I can turn on a dime and often find myself great parking spaces because people with bigger, clunkier cars can't make the tight turns to get in.

The only complaints I have are that I'd like a CD player and cruise control. I bought my car used and those options had not been installed. If I had it to do over, I might look for a Prius with those two features. The CC would also help get even better gas mileage.

Interesting comments about the fuel consumption, here in the UK a Prius will achieve anything from 60-85mpg, in fact my old diesel Toyota used to do 57mpg, I wonder why its so different in the USA. Anyway the Prius is definitely the way forward and I hope more people buy them, but of course the oil lobby won't like that very much as they love to have a strangle hold on us mere mortals.

The British gallon is bigger than the U.S. one. That will account for at least some of the better M.P.G in the U.K.

Another thing to take into consideration about differences in MPG between Europe and the United States is the oil barons. It's no secret that the United States lives on oil and oil products. Other makes and models sold overseas make better milage than their sister cars over here mainly because of tuning. Other considerations are the insane things they do for pollution control on vehicles in the states. Not only do they increase the amount of fuel burned they don't even compair to the superior pollution controls on European and Asian vehicles.

From what I understand fuel refineries in the European countries do a much better job "cracking" or refining the crude into lighter oils. This is especially so with diesel fuel.

European diesel fuel is superior to American fuel as Americans took the cheapest way out by offering the lowest grade (highest sulfur) diesel possible. This is changing this year as America is introducing new low sulfur fuel compatible with European fuels, which may open up the market even more for diesel cars (for example, California is the largest car buying state, but fuel diesel cars can be sold here due to emissions restrictions).