The Toyota Prius, with its 50-mpg combined EPA rating tops most Fuel Efficient Car Lists.

Gas prices keep moving up, and once again, U.S. car buyers are setting their sights on smaller cars to increase gas mileage.

Older Prius Keeps On Going

People continue to ask, Will Prius Hold Up? What will the reliability of an older Prius be? Will the battery pack and electric components work properly after 100,000 miles, after 200,000 miles?

We talked a while back about a 2002 Prius with more than 200,000 miles on it and how well it continued to hold up .

Now here’s the story of another high-mileage Prius, this one the far more numerous second-generation model built from 2004 through 2009.

The owner drove his 2004 Prius hybrid from his home in Iowa City to Consuner Reports’ test facility in Connecticut. The car arrived with more than 215,000 miles on the odometer.

In standard acceleration and gas-mileage tests, CR found that acceleration time had increased only slightly, from the 10.5 seconds brand-new to 11.3 seconds.

The fuel economy changed from 44 mpg to 42 mpg, not much, and might be attributed to different tires.

With gas at $4, that difference would cost the owner $4.32 every 1,000 miles, not much again, so it’s not very significant in the grand scheme of things.

So, you could do a lot worse than a used Prius—even one with 215,000 miles on it. That owner better look out, that Prius might be a pallbearer…

Well this is for Fun! This from Tokyo, apparently someone felt that they had to have a Chrysler 300 with some “BAD” gas mileage if you know what we mean…This custom creation appears to be a second generation (judging by the interior door panels) Toyota Prius hybrid wearing a…Chrysler 300 front end. The show car also features sliding rear doors, lowered suspension, larger five-spoke alloy wheels, Chrysler 300-style tail lights and a high-end audio-visual system that replaces the rear seats. Chrysler 300, Eldorado, Lincoln Town Car front ends (rear-ends too), with gas prices heading upward, someone could start a cottage industry here…

In 2004 the all new second generation Toyota Prius with Hybrid Synergy Drive (HSD) was introduced and quickly became the Rolling Hybrid Icon with the Golden Reputation for environmental technology and the car with outstanding real-world fuel efficiency. 

So what is this Prius (HSD) Hybrid Synergy Drive all about and how does it operate Prius? First the (HSD) system is made up of the following components:

• 1.8 Liter Dual-Overhead Cam Engine, runs at low temperatures and low RPMs for high reliability and fuel efficiency.
• Hybrid Battery, reliable nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) that has proven performance.
• Inverter/Converter Assembly, boosts hybrid battery voltage from 201.6 to 650 volts AC to drive thr motor/generator; inverter constantly calculates power output and boosts voltages to the powertrain
• Motor Generator 1, System generator that recharges the battery and powers Motor Generator 2 when demand requires it.
• Motor Generator 2, Drives Prius and provides regeneration voltage on deceleration and braking, thus capturing energy and returning it to the battery.

The Toyota Prius is a true Split Series-Parallel Hybrid (full hybrid). This means that Prius can drive on electric-only power during a driver’s commute. Many Prius hybrid competitors cannot do this.

Below is a visual layout showing how these components of Prius Hybrid Synergy Drive work systematically to operate Prius and produce the remarkable performance that this car achieves. The layout below is also very much like the dash display that a driver can monitor inside the car while driving Prius: