{"id":48413,"date":"2023-04-28T00:03:12","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T04:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=48413"},"modified":"2023-04-28T00:03:12","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T04:03:12","slug":"junkyard-gem-2003-toyota-prius-sedan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=48413","title":{"rendered":"Junkyard Gem: 2003 Toyota Prius Sedan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite being beaten by Honda in the race to sell the first production hybrid-electric cars in the United States (the first Insights<\/a> hit American streets as 2000 models), the larger and less silly-looking Toyota Prius ended up wiping the floor with the Insight in the hybrid sales battle that took place when the first 2001 models<\/a> appeared here. The first generation of Prius<\/a> sold here was available only as a four-door sedan with an unfortunate resemblance to the Toyota Echo<\/a>; its hatchback successor<\/a> appeared as a 2004 model. Here’s one of the last of the Prius sedans<\/a>, found in a Denver car graveyard recently.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This car’s interior looks like it’s about 20 months<\/em> old, not 20 years.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The body is nearly as nice. Why is this car in a place like this?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We can assume that something catastrophically expensive went wrong with this car’s powertrain, probably combined with the costly-to-replace hybrid battery pack going bad at the same time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This car will be a bonanza for a junkyard shopper looking to revive the worn-out interior of a 300,000-mile first-generation Prius.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hybrids are no big deal today, but this car was one of just three gasoline-electric models available in the United States when it was new (the other two were Hondas: the Insight<\/a> and the Civic Hybrid<\/a>). More competitors soon got into the hybrid game; Ford introduced the Escape Hybrid as a 2005 model<\/a>, while the Saturn Vue Green Line<\/a> appeared in the 2007 model year (GM also offered a “mild hybrid” version of the Silverado in 2004<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

2003 was the biggest sales year for the first-generation Prius in the United States, with nearly 25,000 leaving showrooms that year. The roomier second-generation Prius<\/a> sold much better, with sales first cracking the 100,000-unit mark for the 2005 model year. The Prius sedan is a rare sight today.<\/p>\n\n

Transportation is finally evolving.<\/p>\n\n

The Prius went on sale in Japan in late 1997.<\/p>\n\n

Today, even Toyota’s mighty flagship<\/a> is a hybrid-electric machine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite being beaten by Honda in the race to sell the first production hybrid-electric cars in the United States (the first Insights hit American streets as 2000 models), the larger and less silly-looking Toyota Prius ended up wiping the floor with the Insight in the hybrid sales battle that took place when the first 2001 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48414,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}