2004 Toyota Prius

2004 Toyota Prius (Hybrid)
Purchased April 22, 2004

Left to right: Baldo, Jeanine, Gary, Scott
Click the image to enlarge

Prius Chat Room

Motor Trend Review

This Prius was purchased at Toyota of Midland. The salesmen were Baldo Duarte & Gary Kelly (432-520-4114)

Maintenance records and costs will be posted to help evaluate the Prius

Log Entry	Date	Cost Per Gallon	Prius Gallons Used	Prius fuel Cost	Prius Mileage Per Tank	Prius Actual MPG	Estimated Cost of 15 MPG car	Savings per tank	Dealer Service & notes
	3-11-04								Drove demo Prius. Baldo was very helpful. We wrote a $500 check to order a Driftwood Brown Prius with Package 5. Cost with tax, title, and license was $24,290. The car would not arrive until October. My wife wanted blue, but since we could not see one we decided to be safe and order Driftwood Pearl because we did get to see a Prius in that color and it was pretty.
	3-24-04								Baldo called and gave my wife and I a very nice 25th anniversary present. He said they had unexpectedly been notified that they would receive a blue Prius. He remembered my wife had really wanted blue. Good salesmanship. Impressed us greatly. The car did have most of the things we wanted so we were agreeable.
	4-22-04								Baldo called to let us know the car arrived. As soon as Jeanine saw the blue color she was happy. One surprise that made us feel good about the dealership was we had assumed they would cash the $500 deposit. When we started signing the paperwork Baldo handed us the check. It had not been cashed.
Gasoline	4-25-04	$1.69	7	$12.01	328	46.9	$36.95	$24.94	First time to fill up. Fuel indicator is divided into 10 squares. There were 3 squares left when I filled up so approximately 4 gallons were still in the 11.9 gallon tank. Highway miles. We are very happy with the car and find new things every day.
	4-26-04								Went to credit union to sign loan papers. Credit officer informed us she had to call the dealership three times before she was able to get the paperwork faxed to her to complete the transaction.
Gasoline	5-1-04	$1.73	9.2	$16.09	397	43	$45.79	$29.70	We let the fuel gauge get down to one square. When the odometer reached 395 miles it beeped once and the square started blinking. There were still 2.7 gallons in the tank when we filled up. This was all highway miles again.
Gasoline	5-1-04	$1.77	7.3	$13.02	316	43	$37.29	$24.27	Drove to Brownwood. Gave three rides with four and five college kids in the car. Drove back with three adults. Very comfortable. Two squares left on fuel gauge when we filled up. 4.6 gallons of fuel was still in tank.
Gasoline	5-7-04	$1.77	9.4	$16.82	421	44.6	$49.68	$32.86	Nearly all highway miles driving 65.
Gasoline	5-8-04	$1.87	7.2	$13.54	339	47	$42.49	$28.95	Went to Brownwood to move daughter out of dorm. Folding the seats down and filling the storage space beneath the rear floor gave us an amazing amount of room. I can not believe how much we packed into that car. This was all highway miles driving 70.
Gasoline	5-14-04	$1.82	8.1	$14.98	391	48.3	$47.48	$32.50	We are learning to drive it more efficiently. Turn off the cruise control in hills and monitor the computer mileage display. The car will be a month old on the 22nd. It looks like we are going to make half of the car payment in gas savings each month.
Gasoline	5-20-04	$1.92	7	$13.51	317	45.4	$40.58	$27.07	All highway miles.
Gasoline	5-22-04	$1.92	6.4	$12.50	285	44.5	$36.48	$23.98	All highway miles. End of first month of ownership. Saved enough on gas to make over half of the car payment. We would have used 184 gallons of gas in our van.
									Salesman Baldo Duarte called today to check on us and to make sure we were happy with the car. Good service.
Gasoline	5-28-04	$1.92	8.4	$16.23	421	50.1	$53.88	$42.65	Jeanine drove to Canyon and monitored the computer closely.
	5-28-04								Received a package from Midland Toyota. It contained a VIP folder that had our picture on the front and a credit card inside for first 3 oil changes and a calendar with our picture on it. Again a nice touch from the dealership.
Gasoline	5-29-04	$1.87	8.2	$15.51	372	45.4	$46.38	$30.87	Drove to DFW in Dallas with 3 adults and four large suitcases. Drove 70 with cruise control on.
Gasoline	6-12-04	$1.87	8.2	$15.42	351	42.8	$43.76	$28.34	Returned from DFW with same conditions as above. Handled well in heavy rain.
Gasoline	6-21-04	$1.87	8.1	$15.29	357	44.1	$44.51	$29.22	All highway miles driving 70.
Gasoline	6-26-04	$1.79	6.8	$12.38	314	46.1	$37.47	$25.09	All highway miles driving 70.
Gasoline	7-2-04	$1.87	7.6	$13.61	317	41.7	$39.51	$25.90	All highway miles driving 70. Took the car to dealer for oil change and tire rotation. They were very nice and had in done in one hour. No charge.
Gasoline	7-3-04	$1.85	7.3	$13.66	340	46.6	$41.93	$28.27	All highway miles, various speeds.
Gasoline	7-11-04	$1.79	9.4	$17.05	365	38.8	$43.56	$26.51	Highway miles driving hard. On one trip, due to illness, we had to drive 80 m.p.h. for several miles. It handled fine at that speed.
Gasoline	7-15-04	$1.85	6.9	$12.97	369	53.4	$45.51	$32.54	All highway with Jeanine driving. She always gets better mileage because she doesn't use the cruise control and she watches the computer mileage indicator. This is the best mileage to date.
Gasoline	7-20-04	$1.84	7.9	$14.78	329	41.6	$40.35	$25.57	All highway miles.
Gasoline	7-26-04	$1.84	6	$11.13	310	51.7	$38.03	$26.90	All highway miles.
Gasoline	7-31-04	$1.83	6.2	$11.21	306	49.4	$37.33	$26.12	All highway miles.
Gasoline	8-7-04	$1.79	8.8	$15.84	389	44.2	$46.42	$30.58	All highway miles. Plastic protection strips along the edge of the doors keep coming loose. They should have some adhesive to hold them to the door. When we go in for the 10000 mile oil change I will see if they can correct this.
Gasoline	8-10-04	$1.79	7.2	$13.07	343	47.6	$40.93	$27.86	All highway miles.
Gasoline	8-18-04	$1.82	6.6	$12.24	299	45.3	$36.28	$24.04	All highway miles.
Gasoline	8-27-04	$1.79	9.5	$17.26	360	37.9	$42.96	$25.70	All highway miles.
Gasoline	8-28-04	$1.72	7.5	$13.10	329	43.9	$37.73	$24.63	Drove to Yoakum TX. First time cruising at 75 m.p.h. on the interstate. Handled well and gas mileage did not suffer as much as I thought it would.
Gasoline	8-29-04	$1.95	7.7	$15.17	345	44.8	$44.85	$29.68	Return trip. We put 900 miles on the car in two days and it was comfortable. Do not stop in Junction, TX. It is a gas rip off.
Gasoline	9-3-04	$1.79	8.1	$14.70	365	45.0	$43.55	$28.85	All highway miles.
Gasoline	9-6-04	$1.73	7.9	$13.85	371	47.0	$42.79	$28.94	All highway miles.
Gasoline	9-9-04	$1.78	8.8	$15.79	364	41.4	$43.19	$27.40	Highway miles. Took car to Midland Toyota for oil change, tire rotation, and adjust molding on door edge. Arrived 5:15 P.M. and drove out at 5:45. Excellent service.
Gasoline	9-18-04	$1.78	9	$16.19	389	43.2	$46.16	$29.97	All highway miles.
Gasoline	9-23-04	$1.83	8.1	$14.97	359	44.3	$43.80	$28.83	All highway miles.
Gasoline	9-30-04	$1.83	9	$16.72	360	40	$43.92	$27.20	All highway miles.
Gasoline	10-3-04	$1.91	7.1	$13.73	335	47.1	$42.66	$28.93	All highway miles.
Gasoline	10-8-04	$1.87	6	$11.43	277	46.1	$34.53	$23.10	All highway miles.
Gasoline	10-11-04	$1.87	7.2	$13.63	333	46.3	$41.51	$27.88	All highway miles.
Gasoline	10-14-04	$1.88	4.5	$8.67	189	42	$23.69	$15.02	All highway miles.
Gasoline	10-15-04	$1.93	4	$8.00	209	52.3	$26.90	$18.90	All highway miles.
Gasoline	10-16-04	$1.89	7	$13.49	296	42.3	$37.30	$23.81	Highway miles mostly in the 75 to 77 m.p.h. range.
Gasoline	10-17-04	$1.89	7.2	$13.80	315	43.8	$39.69	$25.89	Highway miles mostly in the 75 to 77 m.p.h. range.
Gasoline	10-20-04	$1.88	8.9	$16.82	380	42.7	$47.63	$30.81	Highway miles mostly in the 75 to 77 m.p.h. range.
Gasoline	10-23-04	$1.88	8	$15.26	377	47.1	$47.25	$31.99	Highway miles, normal driving.
Gasoline	10-29-04	$1.87	5.3	$10.00	239	45.1	$29.80	$19.80	Highway miles, normal driving.
Gasoline	10-30-04	$1.99	6.9	$13.94	294	42.6	$39.00	$25.06	Highway miles, normal driving.
Gasoline	11-3-04	$1.86	7.4	$13.91	317	42.8	$39.31	$25.40	Highway miles, normal driving.
Gasoline	11-5-04	$1.93	6.5	$12.65	308	47.4	$39.63	$27.01	Highway miles, normal driving. Jeanine took the car over for oil change and tire rotation. They did it quick as usual. The fabric on the center console was coming loose on the front. Instead of doing a quick fix Neal ordered a new top. It came in four days later. Very happy with service.
Gasoline	11-11-04	$1.85	7	$13.10	287	41	$35.40	$22.30	Highway miles, normal driving. Took car back to Midland to have new console top put on. In and out in 30 minutes and no charge. Excellent service again.
Gasoline	11-13-04	$1.88	6.8	$12.86	271	39.9	$33.97	$21.11	Most of this tank was around 73 m.p.h. (80 occasionally passing cars).
Gasoline	11-19-04	$1.79	9	$16.22	327	36.3	$39.00	$22.78	Normal driving. No explanation for mileage decline.
Gasoline	11-24-04	$1.79	7.5	$13.59	336	44.8	$40.10	$26.51	Normal driving.
Gasoline	11-26-04	$1.84	6.8	$12.75	314	46.2	$38.52	$25.77	Normal driving.
Gasoline	11-27-04	$1.89	7	$13.38	266	38	$33.52	$20.14	Normal driving.
Gasoline	12-7-04	$1.77	9.3	$16.68	331	35.6	$39.06	$22.38	Normal driving. Still know reason for mileage drop. This tank was easy driving.
Gasoline	12-11-04	$1.76	7	$12.32	360	51.4	$42.24	$29.92	Hard driving to Dallas. Set Cruise on 72 & 73.
Gasoline	12-12-04	$1.75	6	$10.56	262	43.7	$30.57	$20.01	Hard driving returning home. Set cruise on 74 for much of trip.
Gasoline	12-14-04	$1.74	6.8	$12.04	289	42.5	$33.52	$21.48	Half hard driving and half normal.
Gasoline	12-19-04	$1.72	6.4	$11.13	231	36.1	$26.49	$15.36	Hard driving with 3 passengers, luggage, and extreme wind.
Gasoline	12-21-04	$1.86	6	$11.25	264	44	$32.74	$21.49	Normal driving with 3 passengers and luggage.
Gasoline	12-24-04	$1.69	5.4	$9.46	240	44.4	$27.04	$17.58	Hard driving to Dallas. Set Cruise on 72 & 73.
Gasoline	12-24-04	$1.79	4.6	$8.29	171	37.1	$20.41	$12.12	Hard driving to Dallas. Set Cruise on 72 & 73.
Gasoline	12-24-04	$1.69	6.4	$11.08	261	40.8	$29.41	$18.33	Hard driving from Dallas. Set Cruise on 72 & 73. 4 Passengers with heavy luggage.
Gasoline	12-26-04	$1.69	6.4	$10.88	230	36	$25.91	$15.03	Same as above plus some local driving
Gasoline	12-27-04	$1.67	3.5	$5.88	213	60.9	$23.71	$17.83	Very surprised. We had 5 adults and all the luggage we could get in at an estimated weight of 1100 total pounds. Drove Highway 87 from Big Spring to Canyon with cruise set at 72. The road was flat and very little wind. Heaviest load we have ever put on the car and by far the best mileage. Prius handled load well.
Gasoline	12-28-04	$1.63	7.8	$12.82	264	33.9	$28.69	$15.87	Same heavy load as above, but very hilly highway.
Gasoline	12-30-04	$1.69	6.9	$11.79	322	46.7	$36.28	$24.49	Same heavy load as above. Half of trip hilly & half flat. Maintenance Required light came on around 20,000 miles. It was off after oil change and tire rotation. Toyota had a recall on a light bulb so it was replaced. Service man found the air cleaner box was full of dog food. Could explain erratic mileage. Filter protected engine, but airflow was compromised. Excellent service at Midland Toyota again.
Gasoline	1-2-05	$1.87	6.8	$12.79	286	42.1	$35.65	$23.86	Load heavy. 4 adults, 2 large & 3 small suitcases. Cruise set at 72. New factor, started burning unleaded plus.
Gasoline	1-2-05	$1.75	6.6	$11.70	297	45	$34.65	$22.95	Load heavy. 4 adults, 2 large & 3 small suitcases. Cruise set at 72.
Gasoline	1-6-05	$1.78	7.9	$14.40	395	50	$46.87	$32.47	Jeanine drove this tank. She does not speed. One or two passengers with no luggage.
Gasoline	1-15-05	$1.83	7.5	$13.80	339	45.2	$41.36	$27.56	First tank in a long time that was just to work and back. 13 miles each way. We are going back to regular unleaded. I don't think unleaded plus made that much of a difference.
Gasoline	1-16-05	$1.75	7.9	$14.05	276	35	$32.20	$18.15	Quick trip to Brownwood and back. Cruise set at 73 & 74. Two passengers and hilly driving.
Gasoline	1-24-05	$1.82	7.6	$13.96	373	49.1	$45.26	$31.30	Normal driving to work and back.
Taxes									Hybrid $2000 tax credit helped us get a large income tax refund.
Gasoline	2-4-05	$1.81	7.8	$14.36	341	43.7	$41.15	$26.79	Normal driving to work and back.
Gasoline	2-11-05	$1.71	8.4	$14.49	377	44.9	$42.98	$28.49	Normal driving to work and back.
Gasoline	2-19-05	$1.78	8	$14.48	354	44.3	$42.00	$27.52	Normal driving to work and back.
Gasoline	2-26-05	$1.78	7.4	$13.41	342	46.2	$40.58	$27.17	Normal driving to work and back.
Gasoline	2-28-05	$1.78	7.7	$13.86	327	42.5	$38.80	$24.94	Normal driving to work and back.
Gasoline	3-5-05	$1.89	7.3	$14.00	301	41.2	$37.92	$23.92	Florida trip beginning mileage 24272.
Gasoline	3-6-05	$1.85	5.8	$10.82	260	44.8	$32.06	$21.24	Highway driving at 60 to 70 mph in very heavy rain.
Gasoline	3-7-05	$1.71	5.7	$9.97	272	47.7	$31.00	$21.03	Highway driving at 72 mph.
Gasoline	3-8-05	$1.89	5.4	$10.26	230	42.6	$28.98	$18.72	Highway driving at 72 mph.
Gasoline	3-9-05	$2.04	7	$14.38	295	42.1	$40.12	$25.74	Highway driving at 74 to 75 in Louisiana.
Gasoline	3-10-05	$2.19	7.6	$16.77	322	42.4	$47.01	$30.24	Highway driving at 74 to 75 Miss. & Alabama.
Gasoline	3-12-05	$2.00	8.7	$17.91	353	40.6	$47.06	$29.15	Highway driving cruise set at 77. Florida police drove faster.
Gasoline	3-13-05	$2.07	7.8	$16.26	405	51.9	$55.89	$39.63	Highway driving at 72mph.
Gasoline	3-13-05	$2.02	8.3	$16.87	315	38	$42.42	$25.55	Highway driving at 72mph. in very strong winds.
Gasoline	3-14-05	$1.95	6.5	$12.91	355	54.6	$46.15	$33.24	Highway driving at 72mph.
Gasoline	3-14-05	$2.01	7.3	$14.91	306	41.9	$41.00	$26.09	Highway driving at 72mph. We put 3226 miles on the car in a week long trip to Florida. It handled great. No problems at all. Gas costs for this trip $141.
Gasoline	3-20-05	$1.97	6.3	$12.64	304	48.3	$39.96	$27.32	Local driving to work and back. 13 miles each way, long up and down hill grades.
Gasoline	3-30-05	$2.04	8	$16.59	325	40.6	$44.20	$27.61	Mostly work and back each day.
Gasoline	4-6-05	$2.15	7.1	$15.35	318	44.8	$45.58	$30.23	Mostly work and back each day.
Gasoline	4-14-05	$2.11	7.5	$15.85	337	44.9	$47.40	$31.55	Mostly work and back each day.
Gasoline	4-16-05	$2.19	7.8	$17.19	305	39.1	$44.53	$30.23	Highway driving.
Gasoline	4-16-05	$2.15	5.4	$11.75	257	47.6	$45.58	$36.84	Highway driving.
Gasoline	4-19-05	$2.07	8.7	$18.29	400	46	$55.20	$36.91	Highway driving.
Totals for 1st year	4-22-05		675.3	$1266.04	29664	44.2	$3677.42	$2426.02	One Year of Data. Payments were $400 a month. Gas savings compared to our old 15 mpg car did make half of the payments. We have had no maintenance problems and reliability has been exceptional.

My daughter, who is a senior in college, has the Prius. She needed a reliable car so we were very comfortable giving her the Prius. There will be no more data added to this page unless something major happens. The car has over 37,000 miles on it now and still no problems.

The car now has 41,815 miles on it. My daughter told me it had started jerking when the gas motor would start and that it was making a funny noise when she turned it off. I took it back to the dealer where we bought it in Midland and he said there was a recall on it. They did three software updates and that fixed all the problems. I drove it a couple of days before she went back to college and it was as smooth as butter. As per the warranty on the tires we did order the new tires through the Toyota dealership in Brownwood, Texas, where my daughter attends college. The tires have not come in at this point and it has been about three weeks since they were ordered. The Brownwood Toyota dealership never came through with the tires. We called Midland Toyota and they had the tires in two days. We did receive a check reimbursing us for the tires.

On 7-3-2006 we took the car back to Midland Toyota for a recall. It did not take them long to do the repair. The car now has over 56,000 miles on it. I had them check the brake pads because I was guessing they should be replaced with that many miles on them. The pads were still in fine shape and the service manager told me they have not replaced any pads on a Prius yet. It is still running fine and we have not made any repairs other than the recall. The car still averages around 45 miles per gallon.

1-1-2007 update. We are still really happy with the Prius. We drove the car to Virginia Beach, VA and back. It was 1,710 miles to our destination. We made it in 28 hours. I added up the gas receipts for the trip up and it came to a little under $70. We had three adults and lots of luggage. Once we were out of Texas we drove between 75 & 80 mph for most of the trip. The car is still running great and has had no problems. We had checked on airline tickets and they were $590 each. Instead of spending $1770 we spent $240 for food and gas. It did take two days, but it saved $1530. The car now has over 71,000 miles on it.

3-23-2008 update. Still amazed with this car. It just rolled over 88,888 miles. We made the same trip to Virginia Beach and back. Gas was between $3.07 to $3.19 a gallon. The total cost of gas to Virginia Beach (which is 1710 miles) was $108. Airline tickets were close to $3,000 for just two of us and that was if we drove to Dallas to catch a flight which is 250 miles away. We still have not done one thing to the car other than the regular oil change at 5000 mile intervals. The tires were changed for the second time and again were paid for by the Toyota warranty. We set the cruise from 73 to 75 mph for most of the trip.

4-24-2008 update. The Prius rolled over 90,000 miles so I took it to Midland Toyota for an oil change and tire rotation. Once again I was reminded why I buy cars at Midland Toyota. I gave the service manager the key, went inside and visited with the sales people for around five minutes, sat down in the waiting area and turned the TV to Foxnews and before Brit Hume could finish the first story the service manager was standing there in front of my with my key and said it was finished. These people are good and fast. They earn your business and will continue to get mine, plus they smile and visit with you and I like that.

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