During my usual used Prius search I found something rather interesting, a Prius for $14,500. This definitely sounds like one of those "it's too good to be true" things, but it might also be someone that really wants to get rid of their Prius. You can see the listing at: http://cars.com/go/search/detail.jsp;jsess...47&aff=national Even though it is my favorite color, the little voice that says "it's a flood car", or "it's stolen", is screaming right now. I just thought I'd post this to see if I really was going insane. At least carfax says it's an actual Prius, but anyone can post a stolen VIN.
I heard from a good source that the engine of this car keeps shutting off at random times, like when you're approaching a stoplight, when you're driving less than 40 MPH, and when you're coasting downhill. Other than that, it's perfect.
Don't be tempted. If it doesn't seem right, it usually isn't. I have seen many such vehicles on eBay. They usually carry a salvage title (rebuilt or stolen). Check the VIN on CarFax.
917= New York City. Maybe they won the car and this car is not their cup of tea... but I sure would before I bought it take it to a trusted Toyota Master Tech and scantool the heck out of it and have it fully checked out... Now would be a kick in the pants, it is a pkg "loaded" and there is nothing wrong with the car... that would be a steal...
I have a friend that buys and sells cars that have been in accidents or have assorted other problems. He doesn't fix anything, just buys and sells. He had a Prius that sounds just like this one. He said the title was "messed up" and he would sell it cheap because it would take more time and money than he wanted to spend on it to fix the title. I don't know what he meant by "messed up". He also had a 2005 Prius with 500 miles on it , with a leak in its gas tank , that he was selling for almost half price.
Well, that settles that. I figured it was bad news when it had a 917 area code. Hopefully, at least for people buying a used Prius, a non-wrecked 2G Prius can be had for less than $17,000 at the end of this year.
Right before I read this post I was going to post a reply and suggest that the vehicle might have a salvage title. I've seen a lot of those on Ebay lately in the $10-17K range. Not worth the trouble, IMO.
Probably not that low through any dealers, and only if over 100,000K mi. through a private party. You've probably checked Autotrader.com?
There's a 2004 for $17,500 in Tampa with 30k miles on it. It was a dealer car so they got a discount on it. If it was 9 months from now, I would probably buy it. I can't check Autotrader.com, the pictures won't load for some reason. I use cars.com, they seem to have a good amount of listings, and I can view pictures. I'm mostly tracking prices now so that I won't get ripped off when I go to the dealers this summer.
