sever-ug @ 20.11.2013, 12:19
Google translator is good enough.
I typed " дет" instead "лет ". (дети - children, лет - years)
д & л are close on the keyboard.
Sorry, it was my fault. 
No doubt all our friends understand it as years (not children),
do not worry about it.
The cheapest Prius here is about 1 200 000 RUR ($36 000).
The loaded is about $ 48 000 (but not as loaded as in USA, f.e. here it is without solar roof, etc).
To be honest it is difficult to save money on fuel (to drive Prius) here.
For example my fuel economy on my previous Prius NHW11 (4 years, around 100Kmiles with me) only about $2000.
Prius is very expensive car: I paid about $17 000 for it (used , not new NHW20 from Sweden. With delivery and customs tax.
But I like silence, comfort and reliability of it.
As far as I know Prius is very very popular vehicle in Siberia.
No one (other vehicle) can start engine when temperature is minus 58F.
About roads: somewhere our roads so so, somewhere russian says: there are no roads but only directions.
It depends on...
because we are special breed most of us can repair own vehicle, even to replace valve seals
well, about questions: what do you know about engine oil for Prius?
Which kind of it do you use?
As far as I know usually engines (and interior of the vehicles 
) of used vehicles from USA have very bad condition.
Because in the United States use the cheapest engine oil.
Is it true?
In answer to what oil do i use, I use synthetic oil. Some Toyota engines have trouble with oil sludge (engine runs too cold) while other Toyota engines have trouble with varnish (engine runs too hot). I don't want to find out which in my car, so I use synthetic oil, the brand Castrol Edge or Mobil 1. My car runs like new. I started using it at the 15000 mile on the odometer.
As for the other USA drivers, they FORGET to change their oil. The oil itself never wears out, but the additives get full of gunk (carbon and the by products of combustion. Its kind of like washing dishes with the same soap over and over. Sure, you can get them wet, but the water is full of food stuff. It needs to be changed more often. Here, most Toyota engines can go 5000 miles between changes. Some go too far on the same oil. Then when the car doesn't start, people say "Toyota makes a bad car, it doesn't start in the winter time". Stupid Americans, car maintenance is the last thing on their list, so it never gets done. Fram oil filters has a commercial on TV that says "Pay me now, or pay me later". So folks even trade cars every year, just to keep from spending money on maintenance.
Cheap cars are not the normal in America. Worn out cars, vehicles with 200000 miles are more the normal. People tend to get a vehicle and drive it until it stops.If it cost too much to fix, then they buy another worn out car and drive that one until it drops again, it becomes a cycle.
I am beyond that now, I buy or lease a vehicle then drive it until the lease is up then lease another one. Or, if I like the vehicle I buy it at the end of the lease. I have a 2010 Toyota Camry Hybrid that my daughter drives, since her Honda Accord had transmission problems. It would have cost $3000 to $4000 to replace the transmission. I believe it would not be cost effective to put that much money in a 13 to 14 year old car. We traded it for the Camry Hybrid 2010 model.
We got our 2013 Toyota Camry Hybrid because our lease was up on our 2011 Toyota RAV4. We test drove the Venza, the new RAV4, the Prius V, and the new Prius. The new Camry Hybrid fit my wife the best. We drove from Indianapolis,IN to Daytona Beach, Florida stopping only once for fuel at about the 600 mile mark.
This was a vehicle with less than 400 miles on the odometer. At 70 mph, it gets 40 mpg. Not bad for a car loaded with all our luggage, and three people riding in it.
Finally, are you saying that the Prius does start in Siberia at -58F? If it does, that is amazing, it makes me wonder what oil that they use in their engine? I saw a program on TV by National Geographic showing kids in Siberia playing (it looked like recess) in the super cold conditions. The group had a big army like vehicle that they built a fire (!) under the differential at both ends of it. The announcer said if they did not put the fire under the diff, the bearings would starve for grease/oil and would fail since there was no lubrication. Yikes, we never have anything that cold here in Indiana. Lowest temp ever recorded here was -23F. I remember driving to work that day. My breath was freezing on the windshield as I drove my 1987 Mitsubishi Mirage to work. I can tell you it was the coldest I have ever experience. I have not had a cold day like that since. Occasionally, we get down to -10F but it does not last. We get hot summer days, the temp will go to 95F to an unbelievable 105F. Then we have drought to flooding. One year we have a drought of 10 to 15 inches of rain that never came. The following year we got 6 to 10 inches above normal. Why am I telling you this? Indiana has extremes of all kinds. Last weekend, the counties to the North of us had 42 tornadoes hit Lafayette to Kokomo. It wiped houses off the map. Do you ever get tornadoes in Russia? I would hate to have a car lost to a weather thing. That would be horrible.
So my comrades, I have written too much, again. My apologies for taking up so much space. I love chatting with all of you. Sincerely, Janstheman (JTM2955) and my Prius I named her Zoey after zoetrope which was a toy in the 19th century that you turned to see a scene changing. The root words Zoe- meaning life and trope- meaning changing. So Zoey is my life changing vehicle, I don't know where I would be without her. JBS
