Plug-in or Hybrid, 2012 or newer?

General Discussion
1

What are some best options if I want a Plug-in or Hybrid, 2012 or newer?
Chevy Volt
Plug in Prius (2012 onwards)
2014 Accord Plug in

Volt vs Prius - which is more reliable?
Volt doesn’t have much trunk space.

2

Prius is the most reliable one, and I’d rather have the regular hybrid instead of the plugin, not worth the extra cost to me, and the battery is BIG $$$.

3

Agree with @texases, I would go with the Prius. Also agree with the regular hybrid. The range for the electric only on all of the plugins isn’t spectacular

4

I’ll go a little contrary to the field… with caveats!

If your commute is short, the plug in hybrid is the way to go. You will rarely need to buy gas. The Volt is dirt cheap because no one wants them and as such, will leave money on the table for repairs. Not likely as reliable as the Prius as Chevy doesn’t have as much experience with hybrids.

Any plug-in hybrid is going to need a dedicated parking space, preferably in a garage so the charger and cords don’t get wet and so the batteries stay a little warm.

Consider that these are VERY complicated cars with batteries that may require replacement. Newer is better. But newer is more expensive as well. Gotta weigh the costs and your situation.

1 Like
5

These are not the type of vehicles I would consider buying used . They are complicated and could be expensive to repair. Also if the Chevrolet Volt was such a good deal then why is it discontinued ?

And a 2012 is 7 years old .

6

The Prius, any Prius, has it hands down in reliability and battery life.
In fact, Prius is the only hybrid, other than some other Toyota models, I would buy.

Figure in $2800 for a new Prius battery after 10 years or 250,000 miles.

1 Like
7

I would guess battery age is likely even more important than mileage.

On one side of this extreme, NYC drivers get up to 300K miles on their original Prius batteries.

On another side, I have a coworker, his family owned 2 Gen2 Priuses and battery failed on both after 12-13 years, around 150K miles for both.

Myself I’ve just bought a 14-years old Gen2 for my daughter’s first car, 117K miles and dead battery for cheap, good overall condition, so I figured I will DIY it.

I have a local place who will refurbish the battery for you for $550, at least it was the original plan at at time of the purchase, but now, I found myself remanufacturing/recalibrating the battery on my own, pretty much to get an insight on how it works and how to do it properly. Running around $400 on the replacement modules so far.

Another alternatives I found was to buy a full replacement battery pack, around $1200 for non-OEM, local dealer would be happy to sell me the OEM pack for $1700 (parts only), but I decided to go cheaper route.

8
  1. Is there a concern with the Alternator failing? Engine removal is needed to fix this making it very expensive?
  2. Finding a Prius of around 2012 seems hard - eBay doesn’t have any
9

You really want to buy a 7 year old Hybrid off EBAY ? You can’t see it or drive it and you might have shipping costs . Check the web pages of dealer near you at least that way you can test drive one.

10

Could u share me the dealer’s name … contact?

11

Easy to google it, they all share the same Toyota base site, then you select the dealer close to you.
Start off https://parts.toyota.com/

Here is the dealer close to me, to give an example of how the site looks: https://parts.355toyota.com/

12

Couple guys at work have the plug-in Prius. They rarely put in gas. Maybe once every other month.

1 Like
13

They must live around the corner. The 2017 Prius Prime has an electric range of 25 miles, while the 2017 Volt has an electric range of 53 miles. If the OP has a 25 mile one way commute, it’s all electric, while the Prius Prime is on gas half the time.

GM said they stopped production of the Volt because it was a temporary step along the way to the all electric Bolt. They never did like high voltage hybrids because they didn’t want to pay a royalty to the patent holder. Neither did Toyota, and they certainly paid a bunch when they lost their lawsuit levied by the inventor.

1 Like
14
  • I thought GM wanted to go for SUVs?
  • Other reason I heard was Tesla managed to put newer batteries to get the range - GM wanted to go that path!
    em, I am not an expert - just saying what I heard.
15

Yes, that too. I’m sure their grandest dream is to sell a fleet of fully electric SUVs. That won’t happen anytime soon, but it doesn’t hurt to have long term goals. Still, it’s so far off, IMO, that buyers could change their mind about what they want to buy.

16

OK - so what mileage can I go upto?

It seems like 150k is a potential trap for expensive maintenance - in case if the alternator failed car is worthless.

We might put 5-6k annually.

17

That is not really enough mileage to benefit from a Hybrid . But if you must have one then as much as I am against leasing consider leasing a new one .

18

Dealers sell warranty with:

Is it worth getting for a used hybrid?

19

You should have read here many times that after market warranties sold for used cars are not really good ways to spend your money.

20

Alternator? Or do you mean battery? I’ve never hear of an alternator failing on a Prius, and I don’t understand why it would be expensive to fix. Or was that for some other car?