Replace the Prius: Corolla or Civic

[hayden55]

Nah we don't have any good diesels in Amurica. I hear local German cars in Germany are extremely reliable, but they are not known for being reliable here. Here is a screenshot of a power search of top mpg diesels here.
45mpg diesel convert down with 2.65/2.90 = 41mpg equivalent cost in mpg gasoline.

[Autobahnschleicher]

Originally Posted by hayden55

Nah we don't have any good diesels in Amurica. I hear local German cars in Germany are extremely reliable, but they are not known for being reliable here. Here is a screenshot of a power search of top mpg diesels here.
45mpg diesel convert down with 2.65/2.90 = 41mpg equivalent cost in mpg gasoline.

From what I hear it's mostly neglecting maintainance over in the US.
Also the ratings of these cars are rather pessimistic, even when not hypermiling.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Autobahnschleicher

From what I hear it's mostly neglecting maintainance over in the US.
Also the ratings of these cars are rather pessimistic, even when not hypermiling.

Nope, not just neglected maintenance. The A4 cars with the 1.9L TDI (1999 - 2005 Jetta) were notorious for electrical problems. That isn't neglect.

I did maintenance by the VW service schedule with all OEM parts.

Things that broke on my 2003 Jetta Wagon (built in Germany BTW)

1. The radiator fan
2. The heater blower and resistor pack (twice)
3. Glow plug harness (twice)
4. MAF sensor
5. Both headlights (The lenses yellowed)
6. Replaced 3 out of 4 window regulators
7. The sunroof seals started leaking
8. I had to clean the intake manifold twice because soot from the EGR system would fill it up
9. The glove box latch broke
10. The center console latch broke
11. The soft-touch paint stared peeling off the interior trim pieces

I had to do brakes, tires, shocks, struts, etc too but those are normal wear items.

Compare that to my 2005 Toyota Prius. The only thing I every had to replace on that car (and the 2009) that wasn't on the service schedule was the 3-way valve in the coolant system. The valve failed on both cars about 125K miles

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by JSH

Most of the diesel cars you have in Europe simply do not exist in the USA. Our only options for fuel efficient diesel cars in the USA were VW Golf, Jetta, Beetle or Passat and the Chevy Cruze. That is it. Today there are no diesel cars sold in the USA. We do have some diesel trucks and SUVs.

I had a 2003 Jetta Wagon TDI with the 5 speed manual and averaged 47 mpg over 10 years / 240K miles. The engine was trouble free but the body had lot of issues.

I have a 2014 Jetta Sportwagen TDI today. It is one of the cars that VW had to buy back because of emission cheating. I'm averaged only 37 mpg in mixed driving. Very disappointing and expensive to run.

Between those two TDIs I had a 2005 and 2009 Toyota Prius that were MUCH less expensive to maintain.

For reference there are 3.8L in one US gallon

BMW sells a couple of 3 and 5 series TDI, I believe.

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by JSH

Nope, not just neglected maintenance. The A4 cars with the 1.9L TDI (1999 - 2005 Jetta) were notorious for electrical problems. That isn't neglect.

I did maintenance by the VW service schedule with all OEM parts.

Things that broke on my 2003 Jetta Wagon (built in Germany BTW)

1. The radiator fan
2. The heater blower and resistor pack (twice)
3. Glow plug harness (twice)
4. MAF sensor
5. Both headlights (The lenses yellowed)
6. Replaced 3 out of 4 window regulators
7. The sunroof seals started leaking
8. I had to clean the intake manifold twice because soot from the EGR system would fill it up
9. The glove box latch broke
10. The center console latch broke
11. The soft-touch paint stared peeling off the interior trim pieces

I had to do brakes, tires, shocks, struts, etc too but those are normal wear items.

Compare that to my 2005 Toyota Prius. The only thing I every had to replace on that car (and the 2009) that wasn't on the service schedule was the 3-way valve in the coolant system. The valve failed on both cars about 125K miles

Our Fit has literally had zero repairs in its life, and it's approaching 250k.

Scratch that, I think the climate control cable came off the lever, and we had to put it back on. In summer my SO is averaging high 40's MPG, which I think is great for such a boxy vehicle.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Ecky

BMW sells a couple of 3 and 5 series TDI, I believe.

2018 was the last year for BMW diesels in the USA. I didn't include them as the 328d started at $43,000 - not exactly affordable. 2016 was the last year for Mercedes diesels and 2015 was the last year for VW.

[Vman455]

Originally Posted by hayden55

Try the scan gauge. The dash is more of a dummy gauge.

State of Charge8216F101C9 0316844105C9 2808 00C800330000 SOC XX.X %
https://www.scangauge.com/support/x-...ommands/prius/

70% on scan gauge is full bars on the dash

I should have noted--I read battery SOC on the Scangauge. The dash indicator is useless and only vaguely correlates with SOC. In that picture, it was at ~76%.

Originally Posted by Autobahnschleicher

Although a car beeing a VW instead of a toyota is probably a good thing in therms of reliability.
I've made the misstake of buying a toyota, and the amount of engineering failiures I've had to fix is insane.

*laughs in 22RE*

[hayden55]

I'm in like the 6k and under range so i will probably stick to japanese. No diesels for me.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Vman455

*laughs in 22RE*

Gotta love some earlier Toyota engines. New ones might be incredibly efficient with all the bells and whistles, but some old-school tech which still gets the job done has its merits. Do you remember when some random Chinese automaker that sells unlicensed copies of the Hilux had used images of some of its trucks being operated by the ISIS for advertisements? Yet I don't know if their engines were copies of the Toyota 4Y gasser or the Isuzu 4JB1 Diesel.

[Autobahnschleicher]

Originally Posted by JSH

Nope, not just neglected maintenance. The A4 cars with the 1.9L TDI (1999 - 2005 Jetta) were notorious for electrical problems. That isn't neglect.

I did maintenance by the VW service schedule with all OEM parts.

Things that broke on my 2003 Jetta Wagon (built in Germany BTW)

1. The radiator fan
2. The heater blower and resistor pack (twice)
3. Glow plug harness (twice)
4. MAF sensor
5. Both headlights (The lenses yellowed)
6. Replaced 3 out of 4 window regulators
7. The sunroof seals started leaking
8. I had to clean the intake manifold twice because soot from the EGR system would fill it up
9. The glove box latch broke
10. The center console latch broke
11. The soft-touch paint stared peeling off the interior trim pieces

I had to do brakes, tires, shocks, struts, etc too but those are normal wear items.

Compare that to my 2005 Toyota Prius. The only thing I every had to replace on that car (and the 2009) that wasn't on the service schedule was the 3-way valve in the coolant system. The valve failed on both cars about 125K miles

Compared to my Toyota that's nothing.
Within my 3 years of owning it I had to:
-replace the roof
-replace all 4 struts
-replace the rear subframe
-replace the rear brake calipers
-replace the lower universal joint on the steering column
-replace the brake discs (all 4)
-replace the brake pads (all 4)
-rebuild the front brake calipers
-rebuild the cylinder head
-replace the connecting rod bearings
-replace the piston rings
-clean and modify the pistons
-replace the oxygen sensors
-replace the muffler
-rebuild the headlights (lenses yellowed)
-replace the radio
-replace radiator hoses
-fix rust issues

And there is probably a bunch I've missed.
Compared to what I see my peers who own VAG cars older than mine, that is a lot and a lot of repairs on the Toyota are a lot harder than on VAG vehicles.
The only person I know who had to do more on their car owns a Porsche 924S.