I'm on my second one, the first was totalled by my son, and that's the only time anything came loose. The maintenance costs are fairly low, but you HAVE to use synthetic oil, so you pay that premium.

My WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) is pretty high. It took her a bit to get used to where everything was, but she's happy with the ride, handling, and appointments. There are enough 'toys' to appeal to my geeky side, so the ownership experience has been very positive.

 

I drive a 07' TCH bought it '06. It's our only car so we have 93k miles on it. The only major maintenance work I had done was to replace the water pump. They found it was leaking (a really small leak) on my last oil change about a month and a half ago.

Funny that at my last oil change they had asked me if I put new brake pads in since it was at 9mm at 90k miles. I had not. It's still the original brakes.

As for stuff related to aging. I am hearing some rattling noise occuring in the dash/windshield area which is a known issue on this year car. There is a TSB out on it. Unfortunately it didn't start to happen to me until way after the warranty expired, so I never got it fixed.

Also squeaking in the gear shift area is notorious for this model year. This I got fixed under warranty.

Other issues I have/am encountering now is the passenger side sun visor has semi-failed, meaning it doesn't stay all the way up. It dips down a little, which can be annoying for the passenger. Another issue I am experiencing is that occasionally the electronic door locks wont lock. It will not lock via the lock button on the 2 key fobs, nor the door lock buttons on both the drivers and passengers side doors. It will always unlock but not lock. It's annoying because when I get to my destination and shift to 'P', all doors unlock and I have to perform a circus stretching act to reach all 4 doors to manually lock it. I find that repeatedly pressing the lock/unlock button on the driver side door will eventually "fix" the issue until it happens again. My guess is the computer enters into some bad code that prevents the doors from being locked electronically. I'm out of warranty and did not get an extended warranty so I'm holding off on getting it fixed. Which reminds me that in the state of CA, hybrids purchased there have an extended warranty on the hybrid system only for 10 yrs/150k miles. Check your area if they offer that.

Aside from that, no major issues with the car. I still continue to get between 33-38 MPG by normal driving. people have complained about trunk space, but I've always been able to fit what I needed in the trunk. I'm not looking forward to replacing the glass mat 12-volt battery as I heard those batteries can be way over a hundred bucks. But since that battery is really only used to boot up the computer (which then the hybrid battery takes over) I'm hoping it will last for a while. Mind you, the 12-volt battery is also used up when the car is in acc mode, like when you park and want to listen to the radio and maybe your phone is plugged in and charging. Those pull electricity off the 12-volt battery.

Hope this helps!

 

Love this car. Just purchased it!
Use for deliver food around 50-80 miles a day.
Honestly, I got 28 - 35 MPG depending on how busy I was (rushing).
Only one thing I don't like is the rattle sounds form the console and the moonroof Rattles!

 

No real problems that I know of in the interior. A few people have experienced squeaks from interior trim parts moving slightly. Mine had a little squeak from where the air vent touches the rear package shelf. It was barely audible when running on electric, and not audible when the gas motor was running. I think the real issue in the interior is that the electric drive is so extremely quiet, that you can hear other things that you would never be able to hear in a regular car. A snip of felt in the right place made that little squeak go away.

As for maintenance costs... they recommend 0w20 or 5w20 synthetic oil, which costs more than the 30-weight at the 10-minute oil-change places. And it wants an oil change (even using synthetic) every 5000 miles. Air filters every 15K just like other cars. Plan on changing the cabin air filter, also, every 15K. The OEM Bridgestone tires don't last - you will want to read the tire threads on this site before you buy new tires. The brakes last essentially forever, since they basically are not used for normal driving.

The miles-per-gallon display on the nav, and the people on this site, will help you learn how to drive to get better mileage. As you learn to drive again, you will also find yourself being gentle on the machinery. So things just don't break.

But, other than that, it is a Toyota. You can expect extremely few repairs.

 

My two peeves...
The sight lines are awful. Due to the shape of the car (comparing it to my Avalon) the visibility out the passenger side is significantly less. Unless the passenger seat is all the way forward, I have difficulty seeing out that side of the car. In addition, the slope of the hood makes for guesswork as to where the car ends (I'm used to it now). This isn't a problem with the hybrid, per se, but rather with the body style common to the Camry.
The other annoyance is the wiper blades are extremely noisy, even with new inserts. When there's a fine mist the action is silent, but once there's any moisture beyond a mist it is extremely loud at the point when the blade is returning from full extension. This has nothing to do with the car being relatively quiet, the sound can drown out the radio. Again, new inserts have no effect.

 

I have had my 09 for almost a year now and have had 0 problems. It now has 46000 on the clock and I am still amazed that you can get this kind of comfort out of a 40 mph car.