Hello, New to the forum...thx! Considering 2015 Prius with 170k miles for ~$10.5k? Its had 2 owners...current owner had for 1.5 years for his son who's off to college. Current owner purchased from local Toyota dealership. Am aware the 2014/15 are generally good Prius years. Was pretty sure of making purchase...but in reading the concerns about a high mileage car (e.g. inverter, head gasket, battery, etc), am re-thinking whether to suck it up and buy one with lower miles (e.g. 120k or even less). PS - Currently have a Subaru Outback with about 170K but its head gaskets are also seeping oil; and trying to avoid some of these issues. Your add'l thoughts/comments appreciated (e.g. go, no-go)?! :^)
welcome! gen 3 is probably not the right car to avoid those issues. while it can't be predicted, hg, battery, brake actuator are all possible big ticket items at some point. and don't forget egr circuit clogging. can you do these repairs yourself, or know a good hybrid mechanic? dealers are expensive, and ripping people off on repairs these days.
Watch out! There was another bay area guy on here recently trying to flip a Prius with the all too common hg problem. A sealer in the coolant can mask the issue for a couple of weeks to a month. Mid 2014 and 2015 improved previous low tension piston rings which was a Subaru problem as well. The brake booster brake by wire system is $2500 by itself and is another weak spot. Hybrid batteries fail as well in the 8-10 year range especially with high miles. Best bet is a 2016 Prius hatchback or newer, excluding the 2016-17 Prius v wagon which is still gen3. Better yet for value is a Civic or Corolla.
The Subaru is a pretty easy engine to put those gaskets on as it's unopposed engine so the heads drop right off pretty easily and you're fixed up and pretty good shape pretty quickly with the generation 3 and it's open deck engine design a little more fun involved might want to just replace that engine when it fails or spend $8,000 and have it done properly Is it worth that on a Prius I couldn't make that decision for folks certainly not worth it for me You're talking about around $1,850 versus 8,000 that's for a JDM spec engine dropped in you're chassis in my part of country. I'll make lotsa miles I don't know what will happen to say yours .. most people are under a lot of different things than I am Y'all will sell and have a new car and have to keep up with neighbors and things like that I don't have any of those problems My car will go 600,000 mi before I feel the need to change and by then I may not be able to change as in too old so no worries car ownership is a lot more than just having a car owning it and driving it there are a lot of mental games at play hence why the car business is so lucrative and crazy people want to change these things like underwear things like that got to keep up with the Joneses your neighbors just bought a car your wife's getting antsy because the neighbor's kids have a nicer car than hers etc etc all that stuff never-ending if you partake or are forced to partake because of other living arrangements and conditions whatever that is some people it's all in their mind. I guess in reality it's all in our minds we just decide to partake or not.
Buying a used car with known problem areas is a different decision than how you repair a car you own already. Buying new is a different thing and most of us saw mpg payback before the major maintenance started around 150,000 miles. Too often repairs of an existing car becomes the expedient thing to do when time and cash flow are the drivers. However one repair can be followed by another, especially in a high mile used car, until most common issues have been experienced at the expense of reliability and frustration. If a high mile hybrid car is a few thousand dollars and running well, as many were three years ago, and you go in with eyes open, go for it. If you are a mechanic and can get a disabled example from an owner that has given up, then it is a flip opportunity by buying a $1000 hybrid. Most normal drivers seek hybrids for their mpg and their Toyota logo, realizing too late Toyota was learning on gen3.
Jump on it! My 2013 Prius has 302k and is purring like a kitten. I had the head gasket replaced about 50,000 miles ago for less than 1500 bucks after two dealers told me I needed a low mileage engine swap. BS! Pick it up for 10k! Already had my Hybrid battery replaced with a 3-year warrantied reconditioned battery. That was at least 100,000 miles ago. Car runs perfect.
But this is pretty much a rarity so you must have caught everything just in time or something luck is on your side whatever you want to call it this is not the normal scope of what goes on in this setup usually so take it however you like me I would take it as I got lucky and I skated by and I'm on my way to 666 hopefully whatever your goal is but I wouldn't call anything BS or any of that kind of stuff because this is not the norm and you don't want people to believe it is.
