I have an opportunity to purchase a 2008 Prius 2 with 56,000 miles. It looks like I can get it from an individual for $11,000. The car is in northeast Arkansas. It's a 2 owner car with dealership maintenance done. It has new tires on aftermarket wheels plus the full set of original wheels and hubcaps with brand new winter tires mounted and balanced. Is this a reasonable price for this car? Are the TPS modules easy to transfer from the aftermarket wheels to the original wheels? What issues should I be wary of? Thank you for your help.
What is the average value from Edmonds, KBB and NADA? The TPS modules can be transferred by any tire shop.
The deal sounds reasonable, although I'd vet the car through CARFAX and Autocheck. The non-OEM wheels and tires combined with the low mileage suggests a kid bought a cream puff, put wheels on it and now wants to sell it privately to keep the dealer from shanking him/her (usually, it's a him) out of the difference between the resale value and the trade-in value. That's always a good strategy BTW.....I would just make sure that that's the only thing compelling the seller to list the car privately instead of a sullied vehicle pedigree. Having a vehicle maintained at a dealership is good. Having a non-accident/theft/flooded/salvaged vehicle with no odometer hiccups with dealer maintenance records is a little bit better. Everything sounds promising so far. Before buying, I would have the seller buy both the CARFAX and AutoCheck reports and promise her/him a refund on these reports if they are clean. Win-win for them-----if the car is clean. If they baulk, I would circle the carcass for a while and see if I could find another deal. The TPMS sensors are easy to place back on the adult rims, but you have to dismount the tires to get to the sensors. A good tire shop can do it in a few minutes for $20-30 and if they're smart (which they will be, if they're good) they won't alter the balancing on the new/old rims however (comma!) you're probably going to have to have the OEMs re-balanced since there was no incentive to balance them if they in turn were dismounted to get to the TPMS sensors. A good way to tell would be to mount them on your car before you do anything and go for a quick spin to see if they're in balance before you do the sensor dance. Like I said. Not a big deal. Whoever is selling this car might be compelled to throw this service in as a deal sweetener. If you don't like the Non-OEM rims/tires sell the tires and keep the rims. It snows in MO, and you can put winter tires on the car. Good Luck! Let us know how it shakes out.
Average of those three (Edmunds, NADA, KBB) from private seller is $12,705. Thanks for your responses.
reset the mpg gauge and take her for a good long test drive under varying conditions, then see what she's getting for average mpg's. all the best!
tell him $10, oooo, if he takes it ur ahead,, if not split it at $10,5oo ,, spend the 0ther 500 getting ready to roll for asensible drive , get the rock stations off the radio, and drive this thing till it drops! 2nd gen was way over engineered. is lasting way longer than they thought it would ,,,just drive it!
Car drives and looks good. It got 43 mpg with my inexperienced driving in the Branson, MO area which is hilly, curvy with lots of stop and go. Carfax is clean with dealer maintenance documented along with hard copies that the current owner received when they bought the car. Also, the car has a new Panasonic 'small' battery just installed. Negotiated price down to $9800 and the seller keeps his aftermarket wheels/tires and has the TPS modules installed in the stock wheels. I'll need to get new tires but I'll have the new winter tires to sell or use later. Thanks...
