Looking at a used Prius.

What was the FE of your Insight? Hopefully you won't have too much work to do on the Prius.

 

I am also looking at a used Prius.
I'm in NY
and I just test drove an 04 Prius with 44,000 miles
selling for $11,999.
I found another one on ebay- an 04 with 33k miles
for the same price...and it's blue!

I will be checkingout the blue one tomorrow!
both certified preowned.
clean car fax
seems like a good price!

I will keep in mind the key issue.

is there anything else I should know?
smart questions to ask?
things to make note of when I test drive?

if I do purchase one of these
should I do some basic tune-up type of a thing?

or presumably the car should have already been properly serviced
since it is certified?

:cheer2:

I'm excited!

 

an '04 with only 44k mi for that price sounds like a good deal. you get lots of miles to play on the warranty and a few years to boot.

ask for previous maintenance records and a print out of any repairs/diagnostics from the certified check (160 point or something like that), check the tires and make sure they're new...

if you want the platinum care service plan from toyota I think you can get it through one of the Prius Chat contributors for nearly half what it sells for at the dealership.

 

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I had a 5 spd model Insight and best mpg on highway was 63.5 mpg.

We still own a CVT Insight that gets 54 mpg highway.

Neither one has been driven "pulse and glide" or "hypermile" styles.

 

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Prices you quoted look fine for "Certified Used". I recently bought a 2006 Prius package 5, HOV stickers (nav, back-up cam, bluetooth, fog lights) with 67,000 for $14,300 in the SF, CA Bay Area.

Make sure the car has the correct tires so as not to sacrifice MPG. Wrong tires can kill 4-8 mpg.

Also, be aware of the HID headlights. They are costly to replace. Many threads about these on the forum.

 

Yes, ask for a service printout. There were afew recalls on the 04's and early 05's, make sure they were done, and yes since it's certified they should have done all the maintaince so you shouldn't have to do a thing.

 

I had the opportunity to drive an 03 Prius a few months ago, and now an 04.

The 03 was simple, you take your key, open the door, get into the car, close the door, put key into engine, turn, put car into drive and go.

but the 04 was so much more complicated; get into the car, put the key in the engine, press the power button, figure out how to put the gar into gear, press the park button, turn the power button off.......etc., etc. why did they change a perfectly natural design and make it into something so obscure and more complicated? I'm still scratching my head about why there is a power button if I use the key to turn the car on. and a park button? what if I forget to press one of these buttons? why is there a park button? why is there a park button? why is there a park button?

 

I have been on this site for 2 years before I bought my 09 Prius so nothing really surprises me. Here was my deal: 09 touring package 6 with leather and everything else. It had 20,000 miles on it and I got it for $20,000 with a seven year 100,000 mile extra warranty. They bought my 99 Lexus for $5,000 it had 200,000 miles on it. It got 20 mpg. I love my Prius. It is getting 43 mpg in winter with snow tires. I can't wait for summer to see what it gets.

That being said, I'm not a corporate whore but with some of the recent threads that I have read about people being frightened by things happening to their car you'd think half of the people worked for Toyota! Wth? This is my 6th Toyota. I bought Toyotas because they were reliable and I never had a recall. Not the case anymore, is it? Now we are praising them because they were forced into a recall that has the potential to be life threatening? Are some of you selling your soul for 50mpg? Compassion people, please.