Help! Need assistance with choosing the right Prius!

I'm a newbie on here, and through the help of some good people on here, I am now the owner of a 2006 Gen 2 with 144k. The replacement of the hybrid battery pac was installed by dealer at 128 k before I bought it. I have owned it a week, bought it from an individual with records. I paid 5,780.00
I had a little bit of a floating budget, could have gone up to 8500. But really didn't want to.
I was encouraged by more than one Prischat member to go for it, then had a pre inspection at a garage that knows The Prius car, so I was glad I made the purchase . Yes I know it's a older car, but the car is not a poorly designed car at all. The older ones don't break down that much from what I am told, good preventive maintenance is the key. I think it depends on you and your budget, I plan to drive mine and invest my money elsewhere . I see the glass half full. I'm not one of the 1% with deep pockets. Good luck!

 

One more observation, I think some of the post on here to the buyers concerns, may have been addressed a little different, it the buyer had voiced only wanting to buy a older Prius.
We all know any car has the possibility of failing at some point, or having big repairs.
But what about all the older Prius cars that don't rack up huge cost and get more than their money's worth, and put on 300k Plus. Let's not forget about the spirit of the Prius, old or new.

 

See my thread about buying new: How to buy a car | PriusChat

When I bought it was either $2k cash back with cash purchase or $1k cash back with Toyota financing as low as 0%. This was the information provide by the fightingchance.com.

I got my own financing for 72 months at 1.49% which equates to $1,057.68 in financing cost. This was the only way to get all the dealers to quote apples to apples.

The three door SKS and the navigation was not worth $1.5k to me, referencing going from the Two to the Three. Google maps/navigation on an Android phone is better than any on-board navigation.

 

There is a reason I only sell used Prius.............they are extremely reliable and are very inexpensive to service(as long as you don't have them serviced at the dealer) and you can do a lot of repairs for $15-20k.

 

You have to keep in mind the car may "drive" ok after 10 years. But the interior and exterior would have many years of wear and tear. As another poster mentioned, rust can also be a problem.

 

Salvage title car?

 

You can't always trust CarFax to be complete.......regardless of what they would LIKE you to believe.
Look at that actual title and ASK, point blank.
Have an inspection done.

 

You shouldn't trust the mileage reading on Salvage vehicles, especially if the car is 7 years old with 25k miles on it. Being the car is salvage, there is nothing to stop them from putting in an odometer from another car, clearly stated as a salvaged vehicle (totaled and reassembled)

 

Here's what I'm seeing here. I just put down 5500.00 on a new Prius 2, got them to come down 1000.00 off the sticker and have a payment of 330.00 per month. That's option 1. Option 2 is paying cash, keeping it for a year or so while saving up 330.00 per month to add to the down payment for a new one next year. Since the biggest complaint I've seen on these things is that the odometers only go to 299k, most folks with the original batteries, I would go with the used one and take your chances. Being an ex auto mechanic AND a 30+ year electronics tech, it is always cheaper to repair what you have than to buy new. If you bought the 6200.00 used and spent 3000.00 on repairs tomorrow you would still come in at under 10k when a new one will have you paying 25+k over 5 years at .9 per cent.

 

congrats, all the best!

 

Nice buy! Welcome.