Trade in advice

Just pay off the loan and keep going? I've never bought a car on time, always cash, so a bit biased.

 

I would go with the 2017 Prius c with low miles even though its not near the car your 2013 Prius v is. The 2015 Prius has the same engine issues as the current car. The Prius c is a 1.5L but being almost new will give you a long lifespan. On the Prius c, be sure you test drive on a rough road and can deal with the increased noise, degraded ride and reduced space of the c. As a daily driver it will be fine.

With your car we can list the possible repairs starting at maybe 175,000k but who knows? Brake Booster and Actuator, Head Gasket and HV Battery would be concerns if you expect more than 200k.

So the miles per year you drive is a critical factor. So far its averaging 20k miles a year but your ownership period may be more or less per year. At 20k I would drive it two more years. At 10k maybe four years.

Another factor is the "trade in" value now and later especially at a dealer. You stand to lose most of the current value by the time you hit 180-200k. Regardless of its condition and maintenance. Even now the dealer will just send it to auction and give you much reduced value one way or the other. The trade in appraisal will be ~three thousand less than what you could get from a private sale. Even if the trade price looks "ok" it will be low and they will make it up through an already inflated price on your next car. In the end its your money and payment may be the most important thing, but watch out for the interest rate and calculate how much interest you will actually pay.

 

I don’t trust Toyota hybrid cars beyond the warranty

 

The best way to stop making car payments is to stop making car payments, and put the monthly "note" into a car repair fund.
You might be thinking that you want a "comfortable" car payment, which is wrong.

You want car payments to be decidedly UNCOMFORTABLE.

You have a 7 year old car that you've maintained properly, which makes you smarter than the average bear.
You also have some extra bucks in your checking account.
Me too.
So do about a million other folks.

Good time to buy another car, just like it's a good time to buy surgical face masks in Hong Kong, since there's not very many other folks in the market - right?
I would pay off the '13 and let it reward you for knowing how to check your oil and what an EGR cooler is, and I would take the money that you're making in car payments and put it into a repair fund.

BUT...that's me being me again.
I haven't made a car payment since we paid off the 2012....in 2015.

 

The good thing is your looking at the right brand.

My take on the 2017 Prius c is that it is an updated second generation Prius (04-09) with a 1.5L engine. The actual vehicle is based on a Yaris. At the time Prius c's were selling close to $20k msrp in a reduced size and feature package. The odd thing is the full sized Prius in 2017 was getting 10 mpg better mpg with its fourth generation 1.8L engine.

Can't say much about the 2016 Scion IM with 41k miles but it should be the lowest cost option with the lowest miles. Remember the Scion IM was a class below the Corolla (eg 4" shorter wheelbase with limited features) and sold new for a MSRP of less than 20k. I would hope the price was in the $10-12k range as a four year old car. As far as the financing issue, I believe if you can put down a substantial amount and get decent interest rates then financing is ok and is often the only real option. Just be sure you know the total outlay before signing and don't be afraid to walk out of a "deal". I don't like to hear about people who paid thousands too much at a used car lot and then financed at high rates. They may end up paying one third to half as profit to those dealers and finance companies. Which often puts them upside down if they need to get rid of it early.

 

I’d keep it. All the maint is up to date and you’ve already done the egr/catch can. Not much else to go wrong for a few more years...12v if it’s not been replaced and maybe wheel bearings. Battery pack should be good for another 5 years +/-.

Don’t get caught up in the monthly payment trap.

 

Put your tax money aside for that potential future repair, then, and finish paying off your car on schedule. Then do as others suggest and keep making payments to yourself, to hedge against future repairs and to pay for your next vehicle when the time comes.

I'll bet if you do the math on both options, you'll find that eating depreciation at a steep part of the curve on two cars plus the interest on the new car loan will be more than you'd spend on repairs even in a worst case scenario with your existing car.

Now, if it was a VW with over 100k on it...that's a different story.

 

Thousands of folks have no trouble with their cars and/or don't post. Here you will hear of the problems and from the people that post endlessly about what a piece of ... the car is. Somewhere in the middle lies the truth.

Over my life, I've absorbed way more depreciation that I've spent on repairs.

Now at some point you decide repairing that '65 Ford Falcon isn't going to happen again and buy newer. And if you figure out the algorithm telling you when that best time is on a particular car, please share it.

 

I wish I never sold my 65 Mercury Caliente convertible, the Falcon’s dressed up cousin.

In truth everyone eats depreciation and most are concerned more about reliability than squeezing the most value out of their “investment”.

 

I buy a car because it offers me features and capabilities that my current car doesn't. I generally keep cars 10 years and up to 100k miles. But recently, cars have been evolving at a faster pace than before and the desirable features are now what drives me. I traded my 7 year old v for a Rav4, hybrid still. Loaded with all the electronic nannies the v didn't have. The v needed nothing that I knew of. I could have kept it another few years. But I was financially able to make the swap and I have already benefited from those nannies.

And the RAv4 has depreciated at a startlingly low pace relative to its great purchase price. Once the plug in hybrid Rav4 is available, that won't be the case as Toyota has also put another plant in KY producing RAv4s. So simple supply and demand and no longer the new thing....

 

This scenario I would never do.
You're basically trading in the used car you KNOW..and have maintained, for a used car you do NOT know.
You can always worry about what "might" go wrong with a vehicle/machine. But IMO Prius have a reputation of being very reliable. I think you can EASILY trust them past their warranty period. Activity at and on this very site, pretty much proves owners of Prius can go many, many miles beyond warranty, and many many years beyond warranty and have a very reliable vehicle.

From the OP's statement, it seems maintenance has been maintained, tires, brakes, rotors, catch can, and new tires?
Nah...keep it, keep driving, why trade in a "trouble free car" for a unknown quantity?

 

Still making loan payments on a car with 135,000 miles?? To me, that seems like a path to permanent indebtedness. I'm a believer in having no monthly payments (unless one counts savings deposits) for the majority of the car's life. And minimal tax refunds (I'll actually be paying a little bit this coming April.)

Back in the 20th Century, with skimpier resources, I did buy cars on time -- 50% down, 50% financed for two years. My last monthly payment was in late 1998, for a 1997 model, which I kept until 2013.

With all the savings stashed from that plan, I then converted to the cash-on-the-barrel-head plan for all our 21st Century car purchases.

My spouse's daily driver is a 1989 model, though now driven considerably fewer annual miles than the other cars mentioned in this thread. I've been ready to replace it on a moment's notice for years, but at the current rate, she won't have a replacement selected for another five years. If we were still working, that would be a lot of saved car payments, much more than the occasional repair bills.

 

Seems like quite a few think car payments are an extremely bad idea, apparently because of interest paid. I don’t agree assuming the loan does not go upside down in the process for obvious reasons in case of a total loss. A reasonable down payment prevents that scenario but paying cash does not eliminate depreciation or total loss financial concerns. These days a $20k loan for five years can be had at 3% and will cost $312 a year in interest. Not a killer concern.

 

Car payments are not a uniformly bad idea. But they do encourage a very large number of people to spend beyond their reasonable means, and get into or stay trapped in long term indebtedness.

 

Depends on what you think you can earn on the money you don't pay in cash for the car. There are times where very low finance rates were available (even with an additional discount of $1k) and I would have been better off financing and leaving my money in the market. And then there is now and I would have lost money if I had left that money in the market.

I prefer to pay cash. It makes the buying a car so clear, they can't play games that confuse you. It all comes down to how big a check do I have to write. The same reason I sell my old cars, I can sell them in 12 hours on CL for more than any dealer would offer me. And the trade in can't obfuscate the real cost of the new car.

 

If you keep it you might want to change the water pump. Does it use any oil? And of course the traction battery at 200,00 or less.
Brake master... and pump possible anytime..... pretty sure the inveter will blow but that's under warranty.

 

2013 sounds like a spring chicken to me, but our 2006 finally got weak batt at 192k and 14 yrs.