Trying to buy used: $8,500

welcome!

tough buying a prius in cali

slippery pete scares me. idk what 8.5k will buy there. auction cars are iffy. one good thing, you still have 30k left on the battery warranty if its not salvage,

 

If you’re looking for a good used Prius, you might be able to talk nicely to @The Critic and he might part with his 2011 for lower than what you’re sweet spot is.

He’s gotten the major services done (including the egr circuit cleanse, head gasket replacement and it has a Prolong harness) and it runs like a champ.

He’s been eyeing the new RAV4 hybrid, so might strike at the right time .

 

CarFax sucks, b/c it misses stuff. Some people report filing a claim w/ them is bad. I would NOT trust the CF report if is provided by seller; buy your own.

Online reviews suck: some are lies, some are genuine.

Are you opposed to private party? Possibly get a comparable car for less?

Does this mean you DIY? If you rely on PAID labor, cost/mile will become expensive no matter the car, Prius or no Prius.
Only if you DIY, is cost/mile LOW.

If you are able to DIY, I would look at Gen2 w/ failed HV Battery (<170k miles) and a Gen3 that is just over 150K miles (HV Battery Warranty over), and try to get steep discounts.

You should look at buying outside of CA. Maybe OR, WA, AZ, NV? Possibly get similar car you want now, for a little bit less.

Maybe post a "WANT TO BUY ...." here Private Sales | PriusChat
Maybe look people selling their car here Prius Cars For Sale | PriusChat

 

I would pass on this guy. I have seen he lists Prius all the time. That picture isn’t even a car dealer lot, it’s an office building he takes photos of his cars at.

 

Yep, Carfax is a joke. I know a lady the bought a Mini brand new. Thing was a total piece of junk, broke down at least twice a month. They even replaced the entire wiring harness once. After she traded it in on a Prius we checked the Carfax to see what would come up. Not a single repair came up. Car came up 100% clean.

 

Just to make sure I am inferring/understanding correctly.

Friend bought a new Mini, meaning "zero" miles from a Mini dealership.
"They," as in a Mini dealership, replaced the wiring harness?​

How soon after the money pit was traded in, did you wait to see what would showup on CarFax? A few days might be to soon. Maybe a month later, hopefully that would show-up. Or, it could even be the Mini dealership purposely is NOT reporting the wiring harness replacement.

CarFax is only a tool, unfortunately imperfect, b/c it is relying on business (insurance, dealerships, body shops, repair shops) to report to them. If CarFax incentivized shops to report, more data would get captured, and the report would be better.

 

Yes a brand new mini from a mini dealership. With an extended warranty. All repairs were done at the dealer. She decided to get rid of it after I asked her what happens when the extended warranty runs out. She had it for years, had problems with it for years.

 

Ouch.

Guess she did not look at Consumer Reports New Car buying guide?

Hopefully she bought a boring: Toy (Avalon, Camry, Corolla, Tercel, Rav4, Prius), Honda (Accord, Civic, CRV), Ford (Focus, Fusion, Escape). Far more reliable than a Mini, but less fun.

 

She bought a Prius c or v. Don’t remember which one.

 

I hate defending CarFax, but it seems that you're confused about what the report is supposed to show. Your typical vehicle history report is only occasionally going to show maintenance - they get the data from service garages and dealers, and I'd argue that most have little/no incentive to do such reporting. CarFax/AutoCheck is mostly about accidents and other body damage.

Additionally, it's a Mini - I'd argue that they have pretty terrible reliability in general and don't tend to rank very high in reliability rankings. You can read yourself what people think about them. Some of the older models had a reputation for having (repeated) engine failures (another article). I think it's a great car to lease, but a horrible car to own.

 

I understand, Carfax just sucks. I bought a certified used Toyota 4 runner from a dealer once with a 100% no damage Carfax. When I went to replace the back up lights with brighter ones I found evidence of body repair even though Carfax said there was none. It does have one good point though. It always has the mileage of the last emissions test. If someone is trying to sell you a car that they changed the instrument cluster on you can see they are lying about the mileage.

 

I agree about the CarFax, there are quite a few stories you'll see on car forums where owners will talk about totaled cars coming up with clean reports.

This was actually a recent discussion on Reddit.

The most amusing quote from that discussion was popularized by Carl Sagan (and more recently repeated by Gin Rummy from The Boondocks):

"The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence"

Really hard to tell by website photos. Looks like a nice enough car - looking at the pricing of similar models it doesn't seem likely you'll get a particularly good deal in your area (I mean the poverty line in SF is like a $120k/yr salary). Are you willing to travel or look at a Prius c? Cause otherwise it looks like you're gonna end up forking out.

 

Sounds like a plan. I drove our Prius Prime 1600 miles home to save a few thousand dollars. Might do it again when I decide to buy another performance car.

If you aren't already aware, remember that 12V car batteries sourced in the hotter southern US states are often designed for use in higher temperatures and may have issues starting the car after being moved somewhere colder.

 

Weaker acid is all. Fixable on a floodie by adding a small amount of straight battery acid instead of water once.

In old times Cobalt was added to “hot weather “ lead acid batteries to slow positive plate coorsion.

No one goes to such lengths anymore and AGMs should be immune anyway