thanks for the response Bob.

I read somewhere (maybe the manual) that the battery's life expectancy is ~150,000 miles. Being aware of that, If my battery needs replacement after that, I would not be devastated. By then, I would probably invest a few thousand $$ to convert it to a plug-in.

other that batteries, are there common well known problems with the prius
that occur over the years?
that's probably hard to answer

I have a couple of friends that have 2004 models and no problems of any kind. That's only 2 data points.

did the prius with ~325k miles have the original battery?
I've never had a car for that long


thanks again