Buying 2017 v Five 68k $20900 asking - Yay or Nay

Its a problematic gen3 at a ridiculous price. Run for cover!

At a better price, $5k-$10k of repairs later on might be acceptable.

Too many of these gen3 models eventually exhibit short duration and occasional "cold start rattles" that turn out to be head gasket leakage. Owners either ignore it or clean their egrs, change plugs and injectors and or add pcv oil catch cans, usually a waste of time. Overheating or blown engines can be an end result of head gasket failure.

Buy a simpler used car.

 

I'm still in a bit of sticker shock. I paid about that much for a 1-year old car with 4,000 miles on it in less than two years ago.

I can't imagine dropping that much on a 6+ year old car.

rjparker may be painting it a little worse than I might, but not much. The way I see it, the first 10 years with any prius is very good. Very low maintenance & repair costs. But then they turn, and they turn expensive, and labor rates are going up.

So myself I'd walk away. Just could not justify that much money on a car that old. Especially when prices are finally starting to come down.

You can spend a pile of money saving gasoline with an old Prius- so make sure that's really what you want.

 

68k sounds promising: even if nothing preemptive had been done on the EGR front it’s pretty early. Unless they’ve managed an odometer roll-back, and it’s in fact a knackered taxi…

prices are high now; I glanced at local AutoTrader, and see stratospheric asking prices for similar.

go in with your eyes open, look it over carefully, knock the price down a little; who knows.

 

If it’s the best deal you can find, go for it

 

Just to clarify- that car (absent any odo rollback) is probably in great shape today.

It's just that it looks likely to me that this car will depreciate very fast relative to other cars. This is a combination of the high price, specific age and the recent peak of the used car market.

If you have any opportunity to delay buying for a few months I think you'd do better.

On the other hand if you're going to uber it for 250 miles a day and write them off your taxes, this might be good enough as-is.

 

2012 v Five with all maintenance, 5,000 mile Continentals, and 51,000 miles penciled out at $20,000+…

 

I have a Gen 3 v (2013) with close to 200k. I acquired the vehicle when it had 81k miles. I've had the EGR valve cleaned twice since I've owned it. I change the oil/filter every 5k. Vehicle does not burn a drop of oil. I do not regret purchasing this as a secondary vehicle. My other car is a 22 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid limited. Amazing that the Hyundai gets close to the mileage that the Prius gets. I've been averaging 45 mpg but since I just bought new tires, it is now averaging 41-42 MPG. Still happy. I think the asking price is absolutely absurd.

 

KBB valuations can be suspect but the price is at the lower end of what it says is common for the Boston area.

IIRC, the head gasket issues were resolved by the 2014 model year.

IMO, it might be a reasonable deal only if it has the Advanced Technology Package with Automatic Emergency Braking and Adaptive Cruise Control. Those features became standard on all Toyotas by the 2018 model year and were standard on a few Toyota models (but not the Prius v) for the 2017 model year.

As far as the Prius v being reliable, our 2012 Five with ATP hasn't had one single problem since we purchased it new but it's currently at only 46,000 miles. Always garaged, looks and drives like new.

 

You recall incorrectly.

 

So when was the redesigned head gasket implemented? I know for certain that the 2015 Prius V had it.

Edit: You were correct. It wasn't in the 2014 model year. According to the Toyota parts database, the redesigned head gasket was used on the Prius v from "02/2015 - 10/2018".

 

I don't think the head gasket itself is the problem; suspect it's gen 3 (including the Prius v) EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation). The EGR fixes occurred with the advent of 4th gen. Long story short: if you don't want to blow a 3rd gen or v head gasket, any year, keep the EGR clean.

 

The head gasket failure had nothing to do with the EGR valve.

The video at the following link explains the cause of the problem that the redesigned head gasket implemented in February 2015 addressed:

 

Yeah, that's a lot more like it. Congrats and good luck with it!

 

Other than the oil changes, do you have maintenance records?

 

Religious oil changes won’t help the EGR. Better get on it ASAP.

 

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DON'T DO IT!

 

How is it stock values went down but car prices went up. Just keep fixing the car you have and don't let them gouge you. The car didn't cost that much when it was 5 years newer