Buying 2012 Prius v 3 This Weekend...

We are long time Prius owners, 2006 & 2008. Sold both of them a couple of months ago. Now having Prius Withdrawal. This weekend I plan to purchase a dark gray 2012 v 3. 151K miles. Original owner. Well maintained with service records and oil/filter changes every 5-6K miles.

I am excited to see what the v has to offer to include the extra room for when we are traveling/camping on the cheap. I have to be in Las Vegas 2k miles in two weeks and am looking forward to driving my new toy. It does need new tires so I am currently researching my best tire options. I will be doing a tranny drain and fill and alignment ASAP.

I have been reading everything I can find on the v and as always....PriusChat remains a great source of information. Outside of the obvious fluids and brakes...any suggestions for things to inspect or service would be appreciated. Thanks!

Glad to be rejoining the Prius family!

 

Thanks...glad to be back! I appreciate the heads up about the EGR. I will focus on that. Hopefully it is not something I need to get into right away.

 

Testy,

Thanks for the info. They do look much larger when sitting next to a standard Prius. The current owner has been getting 45 mpg according to the on-board readout. He did say that he had never checked it manually.

We're leaving in the morning for a 450 mile drive to pick this thing up. I am taking my laptop with Techstream so I can take a look and see if there is any history in the computer that hasn't been cleared. Hopefully all will be good!

 

UPDATE... We bought the v. There was a bit more parking lot rash that what I was expecting, but it was obvious this older couple (I'm old...but they were older! ) had taken good care of it. The engine bay had never been cleaned, but was mainly just dirty...nothing obvious. On our way home we stopped at Home Depot and purchased two 2'x2'x0.25" MDF board and used them to lay over the gap after sliding the rear seats forward. Since we do all sorts of camping, finding the right combination of sleep pads was pretty straight forward (we brought a lot of stuff with us. The wife was quick to set everything up and slept through all of it...which is normal for her (wish I could sleep like that!).

We enjoyed dinner at a state park and we were the only ones there except for two ladies fishing on the pier. We sat out their with them while we ate dinner. OK...time for bed. Fired up the v and set the temp, parking brake, crawled in and suddenly realized we hadn't planned for the dash lights. Covered those, lowered the temp a wee bit and tried it again. The starting/stopping of the ICE and the other non-natural noises a prius makes kept me awake. Finally I turned on the Relaxo app on my phone (it is a white noise generator...lots of options) and piped it in via bluetooth. Once the volume was right...all was well.

A couple observations... I must install a secondary switch to unlatch the back hatch for easier egress. Also learned I could not lock the doors with the remote while the engine is running. Having a remote for setting the HVAC temp would also be helpful! I will also be building panels/shades to keep the outside light out (lots of easy options there) So...just a few things to sort out.

Over 450 miles I averaged 44.5 MPG at 72 MPH indicated. I was reasonably impressed. I installed new tires as soon as we got back home this morning. I'm sure I will take a MPG hit on that.

All is good...now starts a few mods for my solo Las Vegas/Family Reunion trip. With everything I/we do...it must satisfy the needs of both of us. We spent the afternoon looking at options for my trip but mainly focusing on our needs together. I think I will remove both seats and build a platform in two pieces so the left rear seat can remain in for my Vegas trip. That will provide the option we need and also make it easier to handle. It looks like about an hour job to build both platforms, hinged tops and folding legs for easier storage when not in the v.

Again...glad to be back!