Autopian member Vanguy is an auditor for the state of Pennsylvania. He used to have an awesome ’97 Ford Econoline, hence the name, but due to a variety of circumstances (mostly a complete lack of reliability), he now is rocking a highly customized Prius v. We’ll take a look at both!
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Most people are at least passingly familiar with the Toyota Prius, the massively popular and influential hybrid now in its fifth generation. Most assume the Prius, like other cars, has always been a single model with various trim levels. For the third generation (2009-2015), however, Toyota decided to experiment a little bit and offered three completely different cars bearing the name.
There was the standard five-door liftback that we all know. Then there was the Prius C, which was a smaller, more compact hatchback that actually looked pretty sharp. And for those who were willing to give up bit of efficiency in excxhange for extra room, the Prius v added a significant amount of space with its large hatchback/MPV body. Powertrains were the same in all three versions, and the v still gets better fuel economy than most modern cars, while offering the practicality of a small-medium sized crossover.
In many markets around the world, a third row was squeezed in. Here in the US we just got a 5-seater with a cavernous cargo area that held as much as the first-generation Venza. Approximately 150,000 Prius vs were sold in the US across six model years, and it’s a very convenient package. Car and Driver has a good rundown if you want to learn more about it, but right now it’s time to get to know Vanguy.
How did you get into cars?
I’m the youngest of 6 and our family almost always had a full-size van. We had an Econoline before I was born, one during youth, and then I got my own in high school as I was starting a DJ business. I think liking those vans as a kid might have been my “hook”. I didn’t really start learning much about vehicles in general until later, when I started visiting the old lighting site regularly.
Somewhere along the way I left my personality in the van and forgot to take it out when I sold it, so now I’m modifying my Prius v as much as I can to compensate.
How long did you have the Econoline?
Did you modify anything on it?
Why did you sell it?
Any desire to get another?
What attracted you to the Prius, and specifically the v?
Once I was commuting a short distance regularly, I wanted to get something fuel efficient, reliable, and still reasonably comfortable for backseat passengers with plenty of legroom. I hate vehicles with decorative back seats, and my friends and family include many 6’0″ individuals. And of course, a wagon. I still wanted some space to carry large-ish things.
By this point a sibling had a Corolla and my parents had a Sienna, and I’d been learning about the famed “Toyota reliability.” So, of course, I didn’t do my due diligence on the third-generation Priuses, or the many anecdotes of high-mileage examples suffering myriad four-figure repairs.
I was cross-shopping regular Priuses, v’s, and Camry Hybrids locally. The Camrys (Camries? Damn these plurals) were still recent-ish and too pricey for my “just-started-first-serious-job” income, and the fight was between regular Priuses and the v’s, the v won for having a slightly less hard headrest.
It’s been clean and reliable this whole time. It has had exactly one completely unexpected, non-self-inflicted issue since I’ve had it, but AAA towed me to the dealership and it was fixed for free under some Technical Service Bulletin. In the meantime I had a shop clean out the EGR preventatively at 140,000 and now it sits at 152,000.
What mods have you done to it?
Here’s the list:
- Side and rear window tint (done at a shop whose online name does not exactly match its posters in person, which say “Larry’s Tint Cave”, which I had to share because it’s creepily hilarious)
- Prius Offroad skid plate
- Prius Offroad 1.5″ lift kit
- Pioneer 9″ head unit (retained steering wheel controls, backup camera, and access to car settings menus, while gaining Android Auto and Apple Carplay)
- 2 under-seat mini subwoofers
- Front and read dashcams
- Diode Dynamics auxiliary high beam
- Diode Dynamics auxiliary fog light
- Diode Dynamics SS3 fog lights
- All bulbs replaced with LEDs, inside and out
Any further plans for it?
I’ve made a little condition for myself: I am trying as hard as I can to keep it near its original fuel economy (40-44 EPA estimated; I get closer to 38 in the winter).
The 1.5″ lift (useful for huge speed bumps I used to scrape on) had no noticeable effect. The skid plate might’ve had a marginal net positive effect, but the jury’s still out ’til next winter. The front auxiliary lights have sadly removed my ability to go into the much more effective “soft-touch” car washes, but they’re distinctive and I like them, and they also haven’t seemingly punished it aerodynamically in any noticeable capacity.
There are only a few mods left that fit my criteria. I’m planning to replace the 1.5″ Prius Offroad rear spacers with their HD Lift springs, which are apparently good for the same height, and more useful if I load it up, which will be a possibility when I next get a bolt-on tow hitch and wiring kit installed, which, more than likely, I will just use for a tow hitch light to act as a supplemental taillight, brake light, and reverse light. But hey, if I ever use it to tow the smallest U-Haul trailer or a flat cargo carrier, that’d be nice too.
The most speculative upgrade in mind is if the hybrid battery starts to give up the ghost. I was recently told new batteries plus labor from a dealership would run around $3,000, and online searches say that only comes with a 3-year warranty. With that in mind, the Project Lithium “upgrade” batteries (which Lewin talks about here) for about $2,200 make sense, even if they’re a bit of a gamble. The idea of losing 40 pounds of weight while gaining fuel economy and acceleration is enticing. But I definitely wouldn’t do this until these batteries are giving me warning signs.
Aside from that, the last thing I can think of would be something I’ve never done before: a purely aesthetic upgrade: new rims. My current tires are high-mileage ones and they’re only 30,000 miles into an 80,000 mile warranty, and my mechanic said they’d be happy to swap them onto similar rims. For now, I’m pretty set on some “flow-forged” gold-colored ones. But for the price, those are probably a year or more away after the tow hitch job.
The most upsetting thing is that a sibling bought a similar 2012 Prius v right after mine, but theirs is a top-trim Five, and it has factory headlight washer sprayers. I’m envious, but I’m guessing getting those installed aftermarket would be both a fool’s errand and stupidly expensive.
Ignoring things like money, practicality, and actual needs, what would be in your dream garage? What appeals to you about each of the cars in said dream garage?
A late-model Chevy Express with the 6.6L L8T, extended, high roof, with 6 captain’s chairs plus the bench seat/bed.
Then a Miata. I tend to focus on the practical aspects of vehicles, so I owe it to myself someday to try something that’s made to be fun from the factory. I’ve never driven stick, but I’d be happy to try (Don’t look in the Autopian Discord for what happened when someone suggested CVT-swapping a Miata…).
But for now, there’s something special about having only one vehicle. Modding gets the simultaneous pro and con of “the vehicle must be in running condition when I finish later today,” but at the same time, it’s a hobby that doesn’t take up space.
Thanks, VanGuy!
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the fairly rare but so rewarding feeling of just driving a bunch of friends places! There’s such a wholesome, heartwarming feeling I got from that
this..
a friend had a Kombi which we used to roll around in, to concerts, mountains, beaches, pub crawls..
one evening we got stopped by the cops, five of us roistering in the back. The cop asked our designated driver if he’d been drinking, he said no, cop said ‘you know it’s awfully lonely up in heaven’ and let us go..
Then I had an Econoline for some years, my getaway car.. at the weekends just needed to add some food and beer, then take off for the hills. Mine was pretty reliable, finally got rid of it when the second child seat wouldn’t fit.
“Powertrains were the same in all three versions”
The C had a 1.5L engine, the V had a 1.8L engine. Battery sizes also differed between the Prius models.
Shoot sorry. The v and the standard Prius look to be the same, but you’re right the c is the smaller engine. Thanks for catching that!
Love the look of the lifted prius, especially with the lights. Makes me want to lift mine
Do it! Get some massive wheels/tires on there too, go for a self made Prius wilderness edition
My brother lifted his and kitted it out a little, he calls it a Rav2
I love that!
Very nice write-up! You had me at State Auditor but sealed the deal with “crunch the numbers in my long-term repair spreadsheet.”
$666: yes, a bad omen if ever there was one. And I have no doubt that Larry’s Tint Cave is a perfectly reputable establishment.
Happy trails!
I can only speak “Larry’s Tint Cave” in the Mr. Regular voice.
Awesome read!
Thanks! Appreciate you stopping in!
Vanguy gets his day! Great read, thanks for sharing.
Long overdue for one of the top discord celebrities for sure!
Basically a Ferrari in red
Hm, lift kit and tow package…
A Ferrari transmission wishes it could be this efficient.
Those old conversion vans were so cool. I remember my neighbor had one and I saw the 3rd row convert to a bed and I was like WHAT!?
We had 2 when I was a kid, and the middle row captains chairs would swivel to face the back too, but would only lock either front or rear facing. So we would set them to face the center and see how long it would take for them to get turned one way or the other. They were so much fun!
My wife’s aunt had a Chevy conversion van. It was obviously just a van picked off the lot that had not been spec’ed for conversation duty. It had the smallest, smog chocked V8 with a tall axle ratio. It wallowed with the extra weight. On level ground, 0-60: eventually. Going over the pass to the Eisenhower tunnel on the way to Denver, all we could get out of it was 35mph wide open in 2ng gear of the 3 speed automatic.
The Prius-vanification reminds me of the Stanza Wagon with the sliding doors, do a sliding door conversion you know you want to! 🙂
I get it on the big van problems, when my grandfather passed away my mom inherited his old Dodge van, not a conversion or anything, fairly standard bench seats, and it had been sitting for years, but I worked on that thing on and off for a few weekends and just could not get it to run, basic Dodge carbureted engine and would just sputter and die, we didn’t have anything in it and not much emotionally either so decided to let it go.
One with a Chevy LS-swapped would be sweet. Maybe even try swapping in an old Tahoe hybrid drivetrain.
Haha a sliding door Prius v would be amazing! I miss the small vans from the 90s
Hello fellow autopians, glad to see appreciation for the humble prius on here. I have one and it’s been the best car i’ve ever owned!
when i bought my prius i looked for a V but could not find any local and the few that were close people wanted 4-6k more for the V. Still wish i had the V but the normal prius has lots of room. I was doing IT managed service work and the company was letting me use my personal car and expense the mileage (69 cents a mile … in a prius.. NICE) there were times that i ALMOST couldn’t fit everything all in there!
I like the lift on your prius, I was driving on some pretty crap roads and sometimes I have to be careful entering driveways or getting on the highway from a business because of huge dips I will ocasional scrape bad or sometimes even bottom out. If i was still driving my personal car i would consider the lift because of that but thankfully i talked the company to just get me a work vehicle because the miles was insane and although the extra cash on my check was nice that was a lot of wear and tear on my vehicle. (new tires, new brakes all around, 4 oil changes, struts are needing to be changed now, the lift supports on the tailgate need to be changed now)
The prius is the unsung hero in the automotive world. it just goes to work day in and day out , puts it’s pants on one leg at a time, and sips fuel while doing it.
Truly, I just wish I had learned about the gen 3 issues before I bought it. And of course, do those problems effect every high-mileage 3rd gen owner?? Hard to know. Presumably not. But it’s just a little ball of anxiety trapped in my head.
So long as the batteries, engine, and brake accumulator only fail one at a time, I should still have this car for a long time.
I bought my 2014 with 70k on it in 2021 and i’m at 115k now. Hopefully nothing major fails. I’ve heard that the 2014 and 2015 last two model years most things were addressed but also heard some horror stories about some 2014 and 2015s so you never really know what could happen.
I know from experience that Gen 2s suffered from oil consumption at higher mileage. Mine did, and when the water pump also began to fail unnoticed, that was the beginning of the overheating and eventual head warp. When the HV battery began to fail around 250k miles, I stepped out of the Toyota-only mindset and installed a Dorman HV battery. Failed on day 1, then the replacement Dorman failed at 3k miles. Got lucky and found a used Toyota replacement at a decent price and returned the Dorman. Worked great until the engine died at 300k. I noticed a lack of power and decrease in mileage from the Dorman as well. Now driving a Gen 4 AWD Prius, which is great.
It is hard to beat a conversion van for a road trip machine. When I was in college my roomate’s parents had an slightly older Chevy that had most recently been used by him and his siblings as their vehicle during HS. With that all done it mostly sat around their house ready for anyone to use. We took it on a number of road trips over the years. Of course we’d drive straight through taking turns napping on the 3rd row folded down into a bed.
That said I am an Econoline man having purchased my 1962 back in the 80’s. There was a ~3 year gap between that and the second but since then I’ve always had at least one in the fleet. Ok the current is a 2009 so it is technically an E-series. However other than the first one they were all used for business even the 1989 high top conversion I had.
Always wanted a full size van. got to drive a lot for work and it would be awesome to have one for personal use whenever i want.
Then you go to a pump when you’re kissing E and put $100 in. They’re not all rainbows and unicorns…
But man, you get the high seating position of a pickup, decently plush seats even on the regular passenger models, and my story of driving over a deer corpse at 70 mph unscathed didn’t even make the cut!
Way higher seating position than a pickup actually. Contemporary f150s are probably close to a foot lower.
Econoline Plush #AllThatYouAre
Hmm… well, you all already know what I’m about to say.
Mad props for having an unpopular automotive opinion and sticking with it!
I thought I was having a “fight me” moment here a few months ago when I called the C3 the ugliest Corvette. I was pleasantly surprised to find out how many people agreed with me.
I love them, and think it depends on the year. A 67 is better than a C4, but an 82 is certainly not. But aside from that I still think I would say the C8 is the ugliest.
Are the aux light mounts too flexible for the car wash? I had Hella 500s on my old Legacy on top of the bumper and had no issue with car washes, torrential downpour, snow, etc., but some of that was probably down to mounting adjustable stops behind the lights. They were just bolts with wing nuts (for easy adjustability, though in practice, I adjusted them once and that was it) bracketing a hole through the grille on one end and a rubber stopped on the end pushing against the back of the light as braces against rearward forces. Don’t know if that would work here or not, but thought I’d throw that out there.
They’re on two Prius Offroad front plate brackets I was able to install on top of each other, with one upside-down. Since they’re only attached to the bumper by two bolts, I’d be a bit nervous risking it.
Realistically though, I keep getting told by my Toyota dealership to avoid automated ones because every single time, the two rubber black pieces that run the length of the roof come loose from the air blowers, and I have to put them back by hand afterward.
They say that they’re meant to channel water specific ways, so gluing them in blocks the water, or something like that. So they just kinda “sit” in there.
They’ve never come loose in the wind otherwise, so I’m happy to take their advice. Either way, small price to pay to make an otherwise fairly pedestrian vehicle extra recognizable from the front.
My 2010 Tacoma had the same issue. I went through a car wash with it and the rubber strips came up. I just washed it by hand after.
Ayyy, VanGuy! Big props on the feature!
Just fantastic. I grew up in the 70s/80s, when the conversion van thing was huge. My best friend’s parents had one, and I remember all the fun outings to which I got invited where that van played a role. They’re like rolling living rooms, and just driving places in it was an event. Of course in those days, we were all over the back, no seatbelts, but still, it just screamed “adventure” to a little kid.
Hope your next one is black, b/c the 80s did offer another reason why they’re cool…”hit it, B.A.!”
simply have several econolines at the same time and there is 1 working one between them
I give it a month before there’s no brakes left between them!
Yes! Vans!
The Prius v is super underrated, I’ve always liked them. And that Econoline looks like it was awesome. I wish you luck finding another fun van.
Thank you! The pictures don’t do justice to how much of me I left in it. Alas.
They really are great cars. It’s hard to find something more practical and the 40mpg is icing on the cake.