Best Prius to buy? No kids No Wife

IMO, 8 to 10 K is not enough for a decent Prius. Think 12.5 to 15K IMO if you really want a decent reliable machine.

Good luck.

Five year old article, but relevant to your post.

Can You Buy A Used Toyota Prius Hybrid For Under $5,000?

 

Well, since you are a college graduate and I am just a old man who is retired with a GED, I am going to say Good luck to you.

Sorry if that sounds rude, but it is what it is. FWIW, that 06 Prius has NO warranty whatsoever. A traction battery failure is a easy grand or two and that is refurbished, not a NEW one.. A transaxle failure, another easy grand or two, but who am I to say what is right for you. If it's worth 6500 to you, then buy it.

But I still stand by what I said originally 12 to 15K for a DECENT RELIABLE machine.

 

Yup, I'd take the $5k and buy the newest and lowest mileage Prius you can get. That will probably be a 05 or 06 model. Don't get a car loan. Save the monthly payments you would be making and in 5 years, you may have enough for a brand new car.

 

As someone who's been looking at the used market for several months, you won't find a good gen3 in the 8-10k range that doesn't have a lot of miles or salvage title. Although rare, low miles gen2 can be found in that price range with a new battery figured in. Rule of thumb I have for HV battery is 10 years working life.

 

Get whatever old one you can find/afford, and just drive it until she blows!

As a new member to this forum, I was pretty shocked to see several hundreds of posts (maybe thousands?) related to mechanical & electrical problems. I was fooled into thinking the Prius was a "technical marvel" that only required a minimum of preventative maintenance. I saw all these Taxi Cab companies changing over to the Prius... and that convinced me to buy one. They gotta be great cars if Cabs are using them!

I'm sure there are lots of success stories, too. But man, I never expected to see so many problems.

 

I would argue there is a lot of discussion repeatedly over the same problems & also a lot of concerns that are not actual problems aside from the individual Prius owner not liking that aspect of the cars operation or design. In a lot of other car forums when a new person posts asking for something that has already been heavily discussed they are either referenced to that thread(s) or shamed for not using the search engine.

PriusChat is somewhat unique in that the same "problem" gets rediscussed to varying degrees over & over. I assume that's a byproduct of the average Priuschat member personality.

I'm going to disagree with your perception. These cars are not invincible, however for the level of tech & relative infancy of the technology my assessment is they are way above average reliability.

The actual number of significant failures that cost several thousand USD equivalent are fairly low excluding traction batteries. And if you read enough about traction batteries there's pack's that fail in 40K & some that fail after 400K+ miles. And a whole lot in between. For example if you don't keep the cooling fan clean & free flowing you can kill a pack. A multi thousand dollar repair due to very simple preventative maintenance.

For me the big takeaway is the ongoing preventative maintenance is actually very low & the car doesn't need to be babied nor does it have a fussy nature that demands certain parts to be replaced on an ongoing basis due to a engineering deficiency.

I would however avoid the first year of any of the Prius generation but that's a valid position for any car made by any manufacturer. In fact the last year of production is typically the most reliable because the factory already rectified all significant known issues. That is especially applicable to the Prius with it's longer than average vehicle lifecycle.

 

If you could be lucky to find a $5000 Gen2 that already had a new replacement Toyota hybrid battery, that would be cool, but non-Toyota or rebuild batteries are not as good for you unless you are inclined to DIY the fixes. Lots of guidance here on DIY. Lot's of orig Prius batteries last a long time, but somehow it seems like the used Prii bought on the open market are more problematic than those of us who just maintain well and hold it ourselves for 200,000+ miles.

The other thing is TX does have some good battery fixers on-line here.

 

The best used Prius for $5k would be a used Corolla.
10K starts to break towards Priuses, but only because you'd have cheaper TCO to break away from the higher buy in.

If you know how to swing wrenches, you can certainly make a G3 Prius go past 200K, but you're gong to be significantly over 100K for a decent G3, and a low mileage G2 starts to get into age related risk rather than wear related unreliability.

Of course all of this depends on what's to come in the job department, how much you drive, and how much of your future you hocked (if any) to get through school, as well as other debt loading.
Depending on the answers, you might need to spend a little more on daily transport - and that daily driver need not be a Prius if you only drive 3 miles to work every day.

Good Luck.

 

I'd be curious to know hybrid battery orig or what status? 65k suggests less wear on tear on vehicle, so it should be nice, but somehow it seems lower miles is not a guarantee of longer hybrid battery life especially in TX. So just keep in mind that HV batt is probably aging by years in hot climate rather than miles. Sounds like you can handle it!?

 

I got an 06 last month with 45k miles (little ol' lady owned) for $6200 so I think you did well. In case you don't know, you can enter the VIN here: Toyota Owners Official Web Site and find out some of its prior history.

 

...I certainly don't think we should be sending 2006 Prius with <100,000 mile to the elephant grave yard. Eco-mindedness means using it up to 250,000+ miles, not just buying less gaso. If you're buying less gas but retiring the vehcile, what good does that do for the environment? All that equipment has a cost to the environment too.

 

I would just try to make sure it hasn't had it's odometer "rolled back" & there's an extra 100K on it.

 

My 2009 Touring Four with leather is in perfect condition and one owner. Dealer trade if I don't sell it. New GY Assurance Fuel max tires BTW and tranny fluid changed once. 97K new rear latch assembly, window film, accessory belt, water pump.
Probably the best car they made as the Touring was a limited production..
Started a sales thread sorry.

 

I purchased brand 2006 (Gen 2 Model III), I liked the car until it crashed by a person texting while driving. What I did not like was the small instability while driving 65+ MPH, and when there is wind instability more noticeable compared to Gen 3 or Prius v.
Since you have budget 8K-10K USD and you wanting to purchase 06 for 5900, you can use some of the budget for repairs and upgrade suspension/chassis.
Is kind of rare to find 06 with 65K miles, that's an average of 6500 miles a year...Since you live in Dallas Texas, and there has been several flooding past years, I suggest you do you due diligence.
As I was told "You are in Texas, you need a pick up truck".

 

Old PU truck would be nice. 1948 Chevy.

 

The Prius I currently drive (2010 III),can be had for about 10k.
It's still a great car.
6 years old is a baby for Toyota.
Don't let anybody else tell you otherwise!