hey folks, newbie here (just joined). I'm looking for a gen3 Prius for my daughter who will be getting her license next month. I found one 2012 Prius 4 with almost 94K miles, single owner, well maintained car. I was able to negotiate it down to 15K + TTL which comes out to around 17.5K. Not able to decide if I should pull the trigger or wait since prices are going down. I can wait another couple of months but don't want to wait if I find a good car. What do you guys think? Are there any issues to watch out for 2012 model? Its 10 years already so it may require hybrid battery change and I dont know if they were replaced on this car or not but most likely not. I also read about head gasket issues with gen3. Thanks, guys, for reading.
Ouch! $15,000 is a LOT for a 10 year old Prius. You should wait, as long as your can. Hopefully, you can find a much better price. Very hard to day about the hybrid battery. My 2010 was "put in service" in November 2009. I've run the Prolong system twice. Last year and a few weeks ago. Seems like new.
This is one of the cheapest that I could find here in Northwest. Nothing is lower than 17K-18K around here. 2015s are all around 20K.
She learned driving on Prius, so she is comfortable with it and prefers Prius. But I guess I should look at corollas as well. Thanks
$18,000 ish for a car that has a nimh battery that’s 10 year old and life span is 10 years, set aside $4,000. Head gasket replacement, set $1,000 aside. Potential cat thief, set aside $2,000 and months of down time to as part is typically out of stock. See post #3
Okay, I can understand that. Are you capable of working on the Prius? It's going to need the EGR system cleaned out soon. In "my" experience, if you look long enough, and are patience, you can find a good deal. you said you're not in a hurry, so it may be a good idea to wait. But it's your choice. I searched for about 3 months and looked at a few dozen before I found mine. It was well worth it. I'm just about to turn 286,000 miles. Original hybrid battery, head gasket, brake pump and master cylinder.... Good Luck in your search!
I live an hour south of Seattle and might be able to assist in helping you find a good Prius. There's a bunch of problems with Prius made 2010 thru 2013. Sounds like you're aware of head gasket, but they also made a bad decision on piston rings, that might get great MPG at first, but they start burning oil later on. Also EGR cleaning issues are a problem. In general, the reliability that Toyota Trucks and other Prius have outside of these years is 1/4 million miles without anything but tires, spark plugs, filters and oil changes. That being said, the golden ticket is finding a private seller that had their catalytic converter stolen and then their hybrid battery died while waiting for back-ordered OEM parts and then Toyota Stealership scares them into thinking It's gonna be an $8K repair with all brand new OEM parts. The truth is an aftermarket cat is only $100 and takes less than a couple hours to install. And a much higher quality more advanced aftermarket battery pack is now cheaper than OEM at just over $2K and if you use my affiliate link I can give you a discount on installation and unlimited tech support: https://projectlithium.com/?ref=9qLPw I'll private message you my phone number and I can answer questions about potential vehicles for sale in our region as I do that research often. Texting is my preferred way to communicate...
