Buying Used Prius Agonizing over Details : }

Lucky you, I still have my '04. 156k and still have the original big battery. Mom's car is a '13 Camry XLE Hybrid, she has 18k on her, it drives like a dream. I swear the faster you go, the better it feels.

 

Sounds like your mom got a good one. I won't say I am lucky, blessed maybe. Deep in debt, uh huh... At the time, I thought it was the right thing to do. Today though, I feel I should have hung on to it. Hard to say, cause I have no idea what is going on with it now. Could be in a junk yard somewhere (totalled out) or could be burning up the roadways.

Best of luck to you.

 

Mom is my wife, no harm done. I waited a long time for mine, first new car in over 14 years. I change my own oil, put Mobil one or Castrol Syntec 5w30 since the 15000 mile mark. Also, I changed the air filter every 5000 miles.

I was involved in an oil test with Chevron back in the late eighties. They changed the air filter, oil and filter every 5k in 50(thats right fifty) taxi cabs in Indianapolis. GM was testing new components on the taxis and even had a V6 minivan, one of the first.

They were testing that additive called Techron. The hardest part was pulling the 4.3L V6 engines out of the cars, weighing those components with a triple beam balance. We weighed EVERYTHING and then reassembled those engines and drove those cars 75 to 100k miles. Then we disassemble those engines and sent the parts to Chevron. Puttimg 50 brand new engines in those slightly worn cabs was a lot of work. Techron did work, no wear at all. So thats why I do what I do with my car. No problems at all.

 

Write me privately, if you like Daisy. Because I am hete to help 24/7/364. I don't work on Christmas.

 

"Please forgive me if I'm misunderstanding your tone. Not sure if you're being friendly sarcastic or totally annoyed. I don't watch TV and when I did, I only watched what I was interested in. If my posts are bothering you, please, please refrain from reading them. I only gave an update because JTM asked for one. Otherwise, I'm searching for are car that I feel has been well taken care of."

I'm not annoyed or being sarcastic. It's your money and you have to live with the car you buy. I'm just trying to help find one that fits your criteria.

When this thread pops up on the new post list I look forward to seeing if you found a car.

 

The Prius is not distributed evenly. I see a lot more in Virginia & Pennsylvania. I presume PA's higher (usually) gas prices are the cause. The awful commute into DC and the local gas price probably boost Prius sales in VA. Both are non-CARB states so I wouldn't buy there just because of the warranty.

 

You see Prii in North Virginia because Virginia has bad traffic, and Virginia was the first state back in 2001 to give free single-occupant HOV to Hybrids. This boosted hybrid sales, and although the free HOV benefit was watered down for new owners, the original owners are "grandfathered" into free HOV as long as they keep buying hybrids (retention bonus!). Also hybrids are tax free in DC and Arlington Co VA gives tax credit (originally more VA counties had tax credits).

 

The package 6 is top of the line with leather & nav.

I'm not changing plugs until I have a problem as that looks to be a PITA job on my Gen3.

I do not see any damage to the wiper arms that are attached to the car.

The only spot of rust I have is on the end of a tab on one of the wiper blade frames. I don't know (or care) if it is the one I bought at NAPA or Advance Auto Parts. I remember that one of my Oldsmobiles had the black finish sand blasted from the wiper arms but they weren't protected by the hood from the air flow.

If the arms are pitted with rust spots and they are enough of an annoyance I'd try gently sanding & repainting but that may be more work than it is worth and look worse.

In 6 or 7 years & 86000 miles there is plenty of opportunity to pick up any number of scratches & chips. If they aren't visible from a distance I wouldn't be concerned.

What's the build date? (Just curious & it is on the plate.)

 

That sounds like a good one. The iridium spark plugs last a long time. I did mine at 135k. But they were a bit too fouled. Gen2 is fairly easy DIY job (Gen3 harder).

 

The cabin air-filter and the ICE air-filter are both dead easy to replace yourself (~$40 for the two filters at AutoZone), might be a good idea to rotate tyres (depends on how they're looking).

 

Sounds like a nice car. Hate to say anything negative, but I keep wondering "Why is the dealer doing a 90K service on a car with 86K on it"?

 

my daughter has an '08 with 100k, great car, i think you'll be fine. all the best!