So, I'm 17 miles away from hitting 20,000 miles on my Prius. It goes in for inspection and the 20,000 mile check-up today. I've got my list of things to ask them:

a) why does the brake make that weird chuffing sound when I press it to the floor after I've started it as I put it in drive?

b) Can you please patch the rear passenger side tire?

c) Can you please turn back the lugs a bit? I couldn't break them when I tried to rotate them at 15K.

d) Is there any way you can recalibrate the internal tire pressure warning to around 35PSI instead of the 20PSI it's at now?

e) Do you offer nitrogen for tires?

That's it. That's my list of "problems". Only the first one is an actual "problem", and it's more of a "is that supposed to be doing that?" than a "zOMG it's dying!" In comparison, in 20,000 miles on the Elantra, I'd:

Had the brakes replaced once. Had the e-brake replaced twice. Had the transmission rebuilt. Wore out all four tires. Replaced all headlights at least once, most twice. Had the seat belt replaced. Had it in the shop three times for the radio, which they never satisfactorally fixed.

So, here's the gas damage as of my last fill-up:

19712 Miles
444.668 Galllons
$1187.70, an average of $2.671/gallon
44.33 MPG
total fuel cost: $0.06/mile

Now, my MPG is lower than it could be. I didn't really know how to "drive" the Prius for the first 10K miles. I found that if I slow down on the Turnpike, my mileage goes up significantly. The first 10K, I was getting high 30's to mid 40's for each tankful. Now, I'm getting mid 40's to mid 50's. My average has gone way down with the cold recently, and the snow really killed it. I'm only getting 40 on this tank.

And as for the average miles I'm going to be putting on this thing? I bought it on 3/31/06. I'm at 20k on 2/16/07, a full month and a half shy of one year. I had thought that the trips to Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina had run the average up, but I was wrong. Since I'm working at Yardley now, I'm packing it on faster.

3/31/06 - 8/28/06 (151 days) - 10,000 miles (66.2 MPD)
8/28/06 - 2/17/06 (173 days) - 10,000 miles (57.8 MPD)

So, my average yearly mileage, not counting long trips, works out to 21,100 miles. I put 45,000 on the Elantra in 4½ years. I'm on pace to put 95,000 on the Prius in the same time. Something tells me that I'll have significantly less problems with the Prius. I'm thinking that for all the money that we dumped into the Elantra, over the same ownership span, the $25K more Prius will wind up costing the same as the $15K Elantra, and without the headaches.

-pb