I agree with Galaxee - if you are buying this new then everything for the first 3 years / 36,000 miles will be a warranty repair, except for accidents and accidental incidents. The HSD system is covered for 8 years / 100,000 miles in addition to the standard warranty.

Here's a snippet from Toyota's Prius FAQ

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Basic: 36 months/36,000 miles (all components other than normal wear and maintenance items).
Hybrid-Related Component Coverage: Hybrid-related components, including the HV battery, battery control module, hybrid control module and inverter with converter, are covered for 8 years/100,000 miles. The HV battery may have longer coverage under emissions warranty. Refer to applicable Owner’s Warranty Information booklet for details.

Powertrain: 60 months/60,000 miles (engine, transmission/transaxle, front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, seatbelts and airbags).

Rust-Through: 60 months/unlimited miles (corrosion perforation of sheet metal).
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Since Toyota is planning on increasing Prius production and availability it's possible there will be 300,000 more Prius on the road when your 3 year warranty is up. At this point there should be plenty of Prius techs at Toyota dealerships and there will be more (but probably still scarce) familiarity at other auto shops.

Cheers,
Jeff

 

I've heard the same line of logic over the years about every new tech in cars. How will small garages work on fuel injection? How will they work on ABS? How will they work on stability control?

It's an easy formula really. When there are enough hybrids in the US that a garage can make money by training their techs and buying the specialized tools(I'm convinced all cars have a team of engineers that work on making a car where you MUST buy at least 3 specially shaped tools to do a common task), they'll buy the tools and get folks trained to work on the hybrid things.

The sooner you drink the kool-aid and buy your prius, the sooner I'll be able to get it fixed away from the dealer.