Buying used, how low is too low for Dr. Prius life expectancy?

$1000 a year doesn't sound like a very good deal.
For $1800 you could have gotten a NEW battery with a 2 year warranty.
And it's much stronger. Your mpg would go up, costing you less money for fuel.

How much homework/research did you do before buying a used battery?

 

I also tend to agree the health % test is mainly a guide, and you still have to test at the right time (once the car is warmed up fully or that % will be lower). The live data from the APP is much more useful as you tell when it's over or under charging during certain driving scenarios like braking. If it's spiking red on Pack Voltage (>250v) and/or spiking the cells red (not cold, but fully warmed up)..then your pack is unbalanced and either needs a refurb or full replacement. This will put a major toll on your ICE in a short hurry especially when the weather changes for the winter or summer.

 

You make good sense now. I was worried that if head gasket failed and brake booster also . Not what?? . But your advice is very good....because car was avg looking car. Not a real beauty.

 

It's car. It gets you from here to there.
You do what you have to do depending on your finaces.
Even with research and asking several for advice, we can find we make
the wrong decision, or maybe no the best one. We're not perfect.
But if you learn from those mistakes, and other's mistakes, hopefully
we'll make better decisions.

There are several people here that like scaring people. They had a bad experience
with there Prius so they want others to suffer with them. And they keep bad mouthing
the Prius, that some no longer have. It's very sad for them. Move on.....

It cost much less if you can do the labor yourself. But not everyone is able too.

I was told my brake booster was leaking and needed to be replaced...
7 years ago! I did get nervous because I was new to the Prius. It was cycling every
30-35 seconds. And last year it was cycling 28-30 seconds. A year later it's about
26-27 seconds. I know it's going out and eventually will need to be replaced.
And I'll go both unit's at the same time. Not looking forward to it, but such is life.
I have the tools, and the D8 diagnoises unit so it "shouldn't" be an issue.

 

Funny how we all have and love a gen 3, but openly advise people not to buy one at the same time. Either we move out of the Prius game or go down with the ship. Can't stand the look of the Gen 4.

 

Yeah, unfortunately the 3rd gens for sale are way too often the “religiously serviced by dealership”, and more recently “surreptitiously serviced by stop-leak”.