Buying a used prime - car longativity/Durability versus 4G prius

Around here the dealers will often let you take the car on an unsupervised test run. It's best to confirm when they expect it back.

When shopping for my current car I used that 2 hour test run to drive home and show the car to my wife. Then I drove it up the local pass at normal freeway speeds. As expected, it was able to make the grade easily.

 

Probably not worth your time.

For the most part, what you really need to know is the remaining length of the emissions warranty that covers the hybrid components which includes the battery.

 

Not at all- in fact I encourage the practice. Getting a car inspected by a mechanic is a very good move.

What I'm trying to say is that there just isn't a test or a report out there that can give you a useful picture of battery health beyond "not failing today."

...Certainly nothing as positive or valuable as the emissions warranty and age of the car, and those details are usually easy to confirm without even being near the car.

The mechanic's inspection (when done properly) is extremely useful to tell you about all the other parts of the car.

 

The exhaust heat exchanger if it leaks can be expensive to replace. There's a way to bypass it as a cheap fix. But whether that is a good or bad idea I'm too lazy to read the discussion here... I figure i'll deal with it if or when i get there lol. Just search Prius chat.

When i was looking for my used prime, I saw some claims early 2017's had inverter problems. Not sure how true that is and being the 1st year that was enough for me to avoid the 2017 (unless you know the person you're buying).

2020 is when the Prime became 5 seater.

Those were the only concerns i had buying used. So far my 2018 prime feels a lot more reliable than my 2010.

Other random thoughts:

- There's more cheap used primes in Montreal due Quebec's generous EV incentives, and they are easier to negotiate.
- Toronto's insane highway speeds gonna seriously cut on your ev range. But then you can sit in traffic for hours and barely see any change in your battery level.

 

oldest prime is 7-8 years. plug in prius came out in 2012. reading through both forums, you will find very few battery complaints.

 

If you can test drive/borrow one long enough to fully charge it, the battery capacity will give you some idea of the battery health. When new mine took a little over 6kWh on a L1 charger and around 5.8 kWh on L2. Now I'm down to somewhere in the low 5 kWhs on L2, and I don't use L1 anymore. Anything above 5 is good, and below 3kWh I'd be concerned. I'm not sure where the tipping point is where the battery starts affecting driving performance. I don't know if anyone knows because I don't think there have been many (any?) Prime battery failures yet. Although if it's bad enough you may be covered under the battery warranty.

You'd need about 3 hours, but if you can arrange to bring it to an independent mechanic for inspection you can probably squeeze in some time to drain and charge the battery before or after that without the seller noticing.

 

The battery pack is designed such that one module at a time can be safely replaced. My 2002 Gen 1 needed a new module a few years ago. They did offer module replacement at my local Toyota dealer when one plastic module case cracked somewhere beyond the 150,000 mile warranty point. I opted to replace the battery pack with a new one(not rebuilt nor refurbished nor rebuilt) that they ordered from their central parts supply source. It was there in a day or two.

Large metro areas tend to have garages that specialize on fixing Prius.

Keep in mind the mantra of the stock broker: "Past performance is no guarantee of future results."

All three of my previous Toyota hybrids have had an excellent lifespan, some of which have exceeded 170,000 miles with no significant problems. My other Toyota cars were built in the 1970s and 80s, and did not do quite as well. Mostly the interior plastic parts degraded from the heat. We currently have a Gen 5 Prius Prime which is quite satisfactory when used as designed. The wife is still driving her 2010 Camry hybrid with LOTS of miles on it.

 

unfortunately, there are no solid answers, just best guesses. and most of the guessing is based on the old nimh batteries. lithium may be different.
so far, we know that the 2012's have held up pretty well.

 

Toyota is really good at building cars that last "about 15 years."

We have a ways to go before we find out if the pluggy versions hold up to that, but it is a useful starting point for financial planning purposes.

 

A little more trivia:

The Prius only uses electric motivation only, after cold-starts, till engine exceeds some warm-up criteria. You can see this in action: in the first few blocks of driving, when you push on the gas pedal, the car accelerates, but you'll notice the engine rpm doesn't change; it's running a fast idle to hasten warm up, but not contributing to moving the car.