Hi there, I am new here. I've been reading these forums for a little while now, and I'm finally pulling the trigger - tomorrow I am going to buy my first Prius. I'm buying a 2012 Prius V and it looks like its in very good condition. The owner seems to be very mechanically inclined and has fixed a lot of items on the car over the years. He fixed the head gasket leak, he replaced the EGR valve, replaced the water pump, new sway bar links, tie rods, rotors, brakes, ect - it looks like he's maintained it very well and it is immaculate. Says he is selling because he just got a Volvo hybrid. I ran the Dr. Prius app and the battery health says its 52%. He said he recently changed out 14 modules in the battery and it runs perfect. Now the only thing I'm worried about is a fault code that showed up during the ODBII scan that reads P0A80. He had told me that code was going to show up even before I ran the scan and he says its been there for years even though everything works fine. He says it comes back even after he clears it out, but that the car drives perfectly fine for the past 10 years. Is this something I should be worried about? I don't want to this to be a huge money pit down the road. I know it may be battery related, but if I must buy a new battery I will. I believe a new battery cost like $1800 right? Can anyone provide some insight on this? Thanks.
What does the current owner do for a living? Replacing all those parts is fine; the real question is how well was it done. Not all 'shade tree mechanics' skill level are the same. Just saying... Reading this forum; you know gen3s are problematic, so if you don't 'wrench' yourself - this could turn into a money pit very quickly.
Did he disclose any more, say at what miles, details? Any seller with half a mind will top up the oil, but do check the dipstick (on level ground): who knows. A 2012 with that mileage is almost certain to burn some oil, came from factory with “low friction” piston rings, and between that and the pistons, more prone to get clogged oil passages and oil burn. Check for lots of leaves under the hood too.
I was checking yesterday, and I found an online price of $3000 for a new OEM battery. There is an additional $1350 core charge that will be refunded to you when you take the old battery back. This price is just for the battery and does not include any installation. Installation at a Toyota dealership is about $1000 to $1200.
And hopefully he has a VALID core exchange - otherwise he's out the core charge too. Going forward, prices are more than likely to escalate due to tariffs. You can play 'wack-a-mole' by replacing bad modules with used old modules; but if you want it to run reliability without fuss - a new OEM traction pack is the way to go. IMHO
