2004 Toyota Prius: Yes, We Still Own the Prius

I think it shows a lot that the Flex is a 2008 and already has 50k miles and this one is a 2004 and its taken them this long to rack up 65k... the flex will probably have that in another 3-4 months!

It does exist! I feel like I've seen bigfoot or something!

I can't even remember you having a Prius ever. I remember the Insight sure, but not the Prius.

Now onto the mystery of the disappearing Edge...

But what about the Edge???

That front tire is looking a little low. That can't help the fuel economy.

I'm shocked as well .. I figured it'd have at least 75k on the clock by now!

So what about the 550 Maranello and SC 430 (both from '02-03), RX 400h, Edge, and Civic GX? They (all) still around?

Why u still have it?

OH my god why is that car still here kkkk

hahaha i love that the first thing that popped up on my screen was "yes, we still own the prius." How about the Ford Edge and Lexus RX400h? I saw them on the clipboard in one of the previous posts...

So lets hear from the RX400h, Edge, and Civic GX now!

Wow wasaabi92, that would be a real long term test for them to still have the 550, but i'd love to see how that would hold up over so long

@ Waasabi

The 550 Maranello and SC430 were before my time, but I find it humorous that they both disappeared. Atleast the Civic GX pops up every month or two. The RX400h and the Edge on the other hand...

@cah11705

I'm sure the Fezza and Lexus SC are both long gone, but I never saw a LT Wrap-Up ... and Edmunds/IL has my homepage and has been since '01, when I was 14. (Much to my parents delight.)

40 mpg average still isn't enough to make up for the cost difference between it and a reasonable conventional small hatch.

stovt001: considering how hard they drive everything, that conventional hatchback would probably get pretty low mileage. That Prius might make sense yet.

ok, that answers that...

still doesn't explain why IL can't manage to make the long term list of cars match what's actually in the fleet. maybe Oldham could turn down the playboy radio long enough to delegate this tremendously difficult task to someone.

Ok, so what's with the Edge?!?! Seriously, there's gotta be something up, because this has gone unanswered numerous times. Legal battle as the result of an accident? You guys set it on fire to try and collect the insurance or something? Just kidding, of course. But your loyal readers would like to know... At least a hint.

Oh, come on! We've been pissing and moaning about not hearing about long-termers like the Prius, and then when Kelly is being really nice and gives us an update on the Prius, all she gets is, "well yeah, but what happened to the Flex?"

How about we applaud Kelly for updating us on at least one car that was supposedly AWOL?

The funny thing is, these AWOL LT cars are all among the least interesting on the list.

Well its nice to see the 04 Prius is still around... now lets take it out back shoot it and run it over with the Ram.

Moving on the matter of the Edge the people demand a answer or at least a hint of the fate of this vehicle. Show us a shard of glass, a cracked grill, or a mangled wheel cover just give the people what they want!

It doesn't take a genius to figure out:
1) Edmunds generate revenue with ad's
2) More traffic = price premium for ad space

Now imagine: you have 15 minutes to burn, are you more likely to:
1) Read about the long-term Aston Martin BD9 driven by James Bond on C&D
2) Read about the long-term turbo-charged fire-spitting project S2000 on MT
or
3) Read about the long-term 2004 Toyota Prius with 60k on the odo?

You complain about blog entries for concealed day-time running night switches
You complain about blog entries for a car's fantastic clear coat
You complain about blog entries for the Ford Focus SES, which is deemed to be too boring
You complain about blog entries for the Dodge Caravan, which is a minivan

So what does Inside Line do when they can't think of anything else to blog about their boring LT Ford Edge, Mitsubishi Outlander, and Toyota Prius? They become errand runners and camera cars with nothing else to blog about (you bet this Prius would be blogged about daily had it been a 2010 Prius).

Until they figured out blogging about these cars once in a while may erect some gasp's and awe's

In conclusion, older, boring LT cars have no news value and cannot attract visitors, hence they are never mentioned again. Inside Line has no obligation to disclose what it does with its cars anyway.

With that said, I did enjoy reading about almost every car here, except for the Dodge Caravan

Wow, you guys don't drive this car much.

The last blog update was in September 2007 and at that time, the car had 50k on it.

So, it took you guys 30 months to accumulate 15,000 miles. That's 500 miles a month!

I wrote to the Eds several months ago about the Edge...they finally wrote back and said "why do you want to know?....yes it is ok" A BS answer really and they refused to say anything else about it. There is a real reason they cant talk about it but I cannot fathom why that is.

sniperruff, I think its more of a closure thing... people who follow the long term blogs just want to know what happened... so even if the eds just posted something a long term wrap-up that said "well instead of selling (car x) or turning it back to the manufacturer we are keeping it around for a while to be a mule" most people will probably be satisfied... No they don't have an obligation... but a "break-up" letter to the person who weirdly and diligently follows the blog posts on the Ford Edge would probably be a nice thing to do!

"With over 60,000 miles, our Prius doesn't exactly look like a new car anymore."

That's too bad. When my car had a mere 60K on it, it still felt new.

Btw: Kelly, thanks for being the only member of the IL staff with the guts to post about the Prius.

With four more long term cars coming, I see even less miles in the future for the Prius, 400h, & Edge.

The Civic GX usually gets an occasional posting from the guy who has the home refueling device, so I'm not too worried about that.

I always wondered about what happened to the 550 Maranello as well.

Again why you still have it? Especially on the list of current active vehicles?

It's a good thing Edmunds is holding onto their first long-term gas-electric hybrid for awhile.

Consumers would like to know about long-term battery pack life.

Most battery makers claim that NiMH like those used in the Prius (which cost $5000 to replace) are good for some 250,000 charge cycles or 8 years of use.

Battery pack life including charge/discharge cycles will eventually become one of the most important considerations when buying a car new or used.

When plug-ins hybrids hit the market en masse, over the next two years, charge times and battery ampere capacity will become pretty important as well.