Shopping for Prius, any trouble to watch for?

[MetroMPG]

Anecdotal sample of one:

My 2004 Prius had 274k km / 170k mi. on it, and didn't use any oil.

It was maintained by the book from day 1, and I had all the receipts that showed it.

[S Keith]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Anecdotal sample of one:

My 2004 Prius had 274k km / 170k mi. on it, and didn't use any oil.

It was maintained by the book from day 1, and I had all the receipts that showed it.

Are you saying that prior to each oil change, you confirmed that it was at the same level on the dipstick as it was following the last oil change?

Without that or actual records of amount in and amount drained, it's impossible to draw that conclusion. I can readily accept that it remained in the acceptable range (between dipstick marks), but saying it didn't use any oil really requires a much more intensive effort to support the claim.

Change interval also matters. Standard is 5000 miles. Did you change it more or less often?

[MetroMPG]

The oil level didn't change noticeably on the dipstick in between oil changes.

That said, I only owned the car for 1 oil change interval -- about 6000 kms, if memory serves.

Also worth noting: I drove this car pretty gently. In the past I've owned cars that burned oil, and consumption seemed tied to how hard (fast/high load) they were driven.

[Xist]

I never felt the need to check a dipstick when I changed the oil, but now I need to invest in the latest advances of a pocket notebook and a pen. I should just log fill ups instead of writing the mileage on the receipt and hope I keep track of it.

Logging maintenance like when I add oil would be great. I never noticed any problems with my Accord, but now I am trying to figure out what killed my cat and it would be great if I could rule out oil consumption.

[elhigh]

I've been doing logbooks for a while now. Here's the one from my truck:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-el...4854-hdr-1.jpg

That date is about two weeks after we bought the truck. The cover is held on with foil tape that I got from an HVAC trade show about 2007.

I even still have the original key code, which I finally put to use on a new key last year. The old one is quite smooth.