My brother is looking at these cars. Apart from replacement batteries are there any other majors or common faults to look out for ?
sw20,
Jan 13, 11:22am
They are very basic. Batteries won’t need to be changed.
dutchess46,
Jan 13, 11:36am
Wife has had an 03 Prius for about 10 years now. Loves it and never had any costs apart from the usual tyres and services.
gblack,
Jan 14, 3:50am
Wife has had an Aqua for couple of years and loves it.
Quite decent little car so can recommend them.
One thing that I found out recently was that there is a huge difference in specification levels. My wifes 2012 Aqua has heated seats, automatic lights, keyless entry, reverse camera, steering wheel controls for audio/phone etc.
When we went on holiday to Queenstown we got an Aqua for the rental car, and despite being the same age as my wife's car it was really basic. Was weird to see how stripped down the model was - not even a rear windscreen wiper which was annoying.
Still, we travelled just over 1000km in the week we had it, and despite punting it like a rental car around Otago/Southland, managed to end up with 22km per litre (4.5l per 100km) on the trip meter averaged over the whole trip. That is pretty decent - a lot less than some rental options
kazbanz,
Jan 14, 4:33am
They are proving to be a really reliable vehicle. To clear up the battery "issue' A complete new battery pack will cost $3600 installed in current money.
westwyn,
Jan 14, 5:04am
They have proven to be the most reliable vehicle we have dealt with in my 25 years of Dealer trading, and that's with close to 700 Aquas now under our belts. Battery replacement is a non-issue, the lack of any supply to the market is in direct correlation to the absolute lack of demand.
There are 3 main trim specifications with two "facelifts" in their model life thus far- introduced in the last days of 2011.
sw20,
Jan 14, 5:34am
The top spec one can go for serious coin too. The GS spec, especially a 2015 version with cruise control.
westwyn,
Jan 14, 6:56am
We chased a G'GS yesterday in Japan, low km and in yellow- stopped watching when bidding topped over the $NZD20,000 at the auction!
sw20,
Jan 14, 7:07am
Yes I was looking at yellow 2014 G'GS at a yard in Christchurch in yellow for my mum. I think it was $18,000 about six months ago.
vtecintegra,
Jan 14, 7:29am
That's kinda nuts considering you can get the full size Prius (even a plugin) for less than that. You'd have to be really, really keen on the smaller size for an Aqua/C to make sense.
kazbanz,
Jan 14, 7:34am
It depends on the spec level/CC rating/Year and miles of the two vehicles. In Old world speak its like comparing a 2000 200k commodore exec to a 2001 14000k Calais
sw20,
Jan 14, 7:44am
I ended up getting mum a 2013 Lexus CT200h Ltd NZ new for $18k. Couldn't justify a Japanese import with all the screens and warnings in Japanese when we could get a superior spec vehicle for the same price.
djrandomguy,
Jan 16, 7:31am
great news about battery, we see heaps of them around and I've been in many uber ones.
djrandomguy,
Jan 16, 8:35am
Does the same apply to Honda Fit Hybrids or are they less of a safe bet ?
vtecintegra,
Jan 16, 9:53am
I think those are more failure prone and no where near as economical.
sw20,
Jan 16, 10:01am
Toyota make the gold standard of Hybrids, they have been developing them for 25 years.
djrandomguy,
Jan 16, 5:53pm
The Fit fuel use is listed as lower than the Aqua and my brother preferred the way it drove, But I'll warn him off due to scale of economy [ #number of Prius C's vs Fit Hybrids ] Thank you.
kazbanz,
Jan 17, 5:41am
where do you get that information from?
djrandomguy,
Sep 26, 5:58pm
he's going with the Fit Hybrid. time will tell
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