Poor Girl's Car

[M_a_t_t]

If it's a manual do you think she will work on holding throttle? Since she would be having to shift up and down all the time.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by me and my metro

I know of a high mileage Prius that uses quite a lot of oil like a quart every 500 miles. I think it is an 07 or 08 and it has 200k miles. Just saying my 200k mile Saturn doesn’t use any.

I've heard this before, which makes me think it's not uncommon. Where is the oil escaping from?

Originally Posted by M_a_t_t

If it's a manual do you think she will work on holding throttle? Since she would be having to shift up and down all the time.

No.

[Daox]

Someone mentioned that one model year had issues with burning oil. I think it was 07 but I am not 100% sure. My 04 has no oil issues at all with 150k on it.

[redpoint5]

She's getting $4200 for her 1999 Lexus ES300 with 150k miles on the odometer, which I think is a good deal for her.

[redpoint5]

Ford Fusion Hybrid/energi has a similar planetary gearset to the Prius, right? What other cars have such a design, or something equally indestructible by constant accel/decel?

I'm looking at the following hybrids:

Altima
C-max
Fusion
Prius
Camry
Highlander
Escape

[JSH]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Ford Fusion Hybrid/energi has a similar planetary gearset to the Prius, right? What other cars have such a design, or something equally indestructible by constant accel/decel?

In your price range the Ford Escape Hybrid and Toyota Highlander Hybrid.

The 2008-2011 Altima Hybrid used a licensed version of Toyota's HSD.

Nissans new hybrids just put the electric motor between the engine and traditional transmission like Honda's old system.

[vskid3]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Ford Fusion Hybrid/energi has a similar planetary gearset to the Prius, right?

Yep, Ford hybrids are pretty similar to Toyota's. My parents own the '06 Escape hybrid I had. It has over 200k miles now with few issues.

Any way you could convince her to drive better?

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by vskid3

Any way you could convince her to drive better?

Probably not. I already told her the reason her Mazda and now her Lexus has failing transmissions isn't because they were poorly built, but because she isn't a smooth driver. I've got another friend who drives exactly the same way, and he's gone though at least 4 transmissions that I know of, always saying his cars have bad transmissions. He also once told me to take the car off cruise control when it started raining, and was surprised when I told him I hadn't had it on at all during the past 2 hours.

She's got a bit of a "what can you do?", in a rhetorical sense, type of personality. As if we're all caught up in the currents of life, with nothing to do about it.

Very smart girl, just too focused on the negative things to realize she's got it pretty good, and it could even be better.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Probably not. I already told her the reason her Mazda and now her Lexus has failing transmissions isn't because they were poorly built, but because she isn't a smooth driver. I've got another friend who drives exactly the same way, and he's gone though at least 4 transmissions that I know of, always saying his cars have bad transmissions. He also once told me to take the car off cruise control when it started raining, and was surprised when I told him I hadn't had it on at all during the past 2 hours.

Are these friends of yours doing the scheduled maintenance for their cars? Most automatic transmissions require servicing. My VW is every 40K and my Chevy every 50K miles.

If not, that is another point for the Prius. The transaxle does not require fluid changes.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by JSH

Are these friends of yours doing the scheduled maintenance for their cars? Most automatic transmissions require servicing. My VW is every 40K and my Chevy every 50K miles.

If not, that is another point for the Prius. The transaxle does not require fluid changes.

Not sure...

I know one of them has taken the car in several times for a Jiffy Lube flush (don't know what that entails). I've never actually done ATF service on a car and I've never had any problems, even on cars at 230,000 miles. I have dropped the pan several times on my truck, drained the fluid, and changed the filter. The truck will actually burn the ATF since it's capable of pulling heavy loads up steep hills.

Cars have no reason to burn ATF, and my theory is that people who have failing auto transmissions are probably just hard on them by making them shift constantly, and under hard acceleration.

Anyhow, broke girl now has a $4,200 check, so this weekend we'll be looking at the cars below. I think hybrid is the way to go considering her constant accel/decel method of driving. Any cars I should add or remove from the list?

Do any of these have timing belts instead of timing chain? I'd like to avoid that maintenance item too.

Altima
C-max
Fusion
Prius
Camry
Highlander
Escape