<p>Those of you with hybrid cars: are you finding any special/unexpected/expensive fixes required? Thinking of buying one here and wondering how they’re holding up. Thx.</p>
<p>I can only speak to the older models, since we’re not big car people, so we tend to hang on to good cars. We have two Priuses, one a 2003 and the other 2005. Neither one has had any problems. We love them.</p>
<p>We’re on our second Civic Hybrid, a 2003 which was replaced last year with a 2010 - both that got LOTS of miles. No problems with either. Though I’m not sure what the story is with the battery if you keep it for a very long time (how long they last I mean…)
And when driving, it doesn’t even seem much different than any other car. They’ve both been great cars.</p>
<p>The only problem with our hybrids that we’ve noticed is that you have to be a lot more careful in parking lots. Once the hybrid motor is working at 100%, with no input from the gas motor, people can’t hear the car. Consequently you have to be a lot more careful to avoid pedestrians. I love the lower noise levels.</p>
<p>Our 2005 Prius had had no problems. 150,000 miles and going great.</p>
<p>Two Priuses here, 2007 and 2010. We love them, and we have had no maintenance problems. I’m not counting the body work on the '07 from two collisions (not our fault, and no injuries). Our dealer told us to watch out at places like Jiffy Lube because they tend to overfill the oil. We’ve had several Toyotas in the past, and all of them have had great repair records.</p>
<p>There have been other lengthy threads on hybrid pros and cons, so you might want to do a search.</p>
<p>We have a 2006 Civic Hybrid with almost 80,000 miles on it. The one thing I’ve noticed is it lacks power when accelerating, or going uphill, when the “main” battery is not charged enough-- which seems to be often. When the dealer checks it out they say nothing is wrong but they also manage to say that the main battery is still under warranty (as if this could be the reason). They also said that this vehicle needs to idle at about 2,000 RPM’s regularly (weekly?) for about 5 minutes when the car first gets started. I’ve never heard that one before now. </p>
<p>I think Prius owners picked the right hybrid between the two.</p>
<p>Camry Hybrid owner. No mechanical problems whatsoever. I also have to watch out for pedestrians who do not hear me. Listening to music is wonderful!</p>
<p>2006 Honda Civic Hybrid owner here, 59,000 miles. There have been a couple of warranty battery related fixes Honda told me about and “fixed” free. I never had a problem with the battery or any other aspect of the car and I live in a severe climate and off a gravel road. Regular maintenance has been my only cost (besides gas).
My work route is about 18 miles and includes long steep hills at the beginning and end of the route, moving into 55 mph traffic. Never a problem with acceleration or hill climbing, always felt quick maneuverability. Loved the 58 mpg on that route today!
Sewnsew: I love the quality of the audio system in my HCH, and your remark about how quiet a hybrid can be might be part of that. I especially love how the car engine turns off at full stop, totally silent.</p>
<p>@Birch, My 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid never gets to over 41mpg. Did I do something wrong? Otherwise it works fine. Yes the battery seems to drain fast initially when it was first started in the morning. It charges up after a mile or so of driving.</p>
<p>Ok - so which car for your 20 year old (commuting in and out of city 30 miles per day each way)? Honda civic Hybrid 115k miles $10k or Hyundai Elantra 20k miles $14k?</p>
<p>Hugcheck – Elantra. </p>
<p>Re: original question. Owner of a 2003 Prius…no problem that is in anyway related to the hybrid engine. Did need a wheel bearing assembly replaced this week. </p>
<p>kxc – I think the original mileage is overhyped in <em>every</em> car. Or they aren’t using the same gas with ethanol in it that the rest of us use. Prior to the gas companies adding so much ethanol, I’d get 50+ mpg. Since then, I get about 40, give or take. </p>
<p>Still beats my gas-only car.</p>
<p>Toyota Highlander Hybrid 2007 4WD here! (LOVE LOVE the car in very way btw, more than the new version, which is more like a van…)</p>
<p>I have to REPLACE THE TIRES OFTEN. WHY?
Because there is extra friction generated on braking from contact with the tires to recharge the hybrid battery. I live in a hilly place which has lots of stops signs, so there is lots of braking when not on highways.
On my previous cars, I had to replace my brake pad very often- 2x/yr. Have not had to replace it in over 3 years with this mechanism…</p>
<p>KXC: I don’t know if you are doing anything “wrong.” Try using a search engine for forums discussing your vehicle, your miles per gallon, and especially your battery charging issue. Your dealer is the first stop, but the forums are often quite helpful. (I looked them over previous to the warranty battery fix, as some posters were suspicious the mpg would suffer. My mpg didn’t suffer.)</p>
<p>I agree with Novelisto about a lower mileage car for OP’s son, but don’t know Elantra.</p>
<p>Mileage doesn’t seem hyped for my car. I use regular gas. The manual and the forums helped me learn techniques to boost my mpg, but I’m not a hyper miler. The gauges on the car for monitoring miles per gallon and battery use are good aids, and get my competitive spark going.</p>
<p>I have a 2011 Ford Escape Hybrid, bought in February. I already have over 10K miles on it, with zero unscheduled visits. I get 30.2 MPG, which is more than the official estimate of 27 highway, 30 city. It takes 87 octane, which is a nice bonus.</p>
<p>Elantra owner here. Bought one for D earlier this year when her previous car died of old age. She loves the Elantra. The mileage on the 2010 (I am assuming the car you mention is a 2010) is not as good as the 2011 (which is 40mpg highway), but it is still pretty solid. You just never know what you are going to get with a car that has 115k on it. We went that route on the car that died. We paid $10,000 for her last car with 62k miles. It had been taken care of well. And we took great care of it. But the engine died after 5 years. We had hoped it would last through grad school. It died during junior year of college. We went with the Elantra, figuring it would be the last car we ever had to buy for her.</p>
<p>Zippedshut has made me feel better about logging so many miles on our 2009 Prius! We will probably be in the same ball park by the same age.</p>
<p>We like the car, though not my teenagers idea of a good car. </p>
<p>Only issue is that the small tires seem very sensitive to road conditions as we have had to replace tires more frequently as hard to avoid numerous “potholes” in our part of the country. But just are more mindful of the road conditions.</p>
<p>Sierra, See my post above about Toyota Highlander - could be same issue.</p>
<p>I’ve got an 09 Camry hybrid. Bought it gently used at around 28K miles or so. It’s been getting roughly 40+ mpg, with a best of 45 and worst, in the dead of Denver winter, of roughly 37. This is on a car rated for 34 mpg. Maybe the lower octane at our elevation helps? I love my car!</p>
<p>2006 Honda Civic Hybrid. 80,000+ miles. We get mid to high 40’s most of the time, up to low 50s on the highway in the summer. No battery problems to speak of. I have noticed that the battery every so often lately seems to lose its charge, but it builds up again so quickly that it really doesn’t impact the mileage at all; for a few miles, acceleration is a bit sluggish. Does not happen very often though. </p>
<p>We don’t have the parking lot problem of Priuses described above because the motor only turns off when stopped, not when going slowly. I like it better because it cost a bit less, gets fairly equivalent mileage, and has better sightlines.</p>