Hello everyone. This is my first post. I test drove a beautiful one owner 2008 Prius that has been perfectly maintained by a local Dealer. She traded it in for a brand new one. I know nothing about they cars, but fell instantly in love. The used car dealer who bought it from the Prius dealer lowered the price to $4500, because my now retired Husband was a local mechanic many years ago. Now what? Is this a good idea? I called the Dealer and was told it would cost at least $2500 when the batteries needed to be replaced. For a car in this good condition, would it be worth it to buy it and plan for batteries in the future? I've looked for others available locally around the same age with lower mileage. They will cost as much or more than I'll have in this one when I replace the batteries and it's pristine cosmetically. I will have a mechanic check it out. What else should I be aware of? Is this a good year to buy? The man who has the car for sale claims you can buy replacements for individual bad cells for very little money. That sounds a unlikely to me. Thank you for your help.
The price for the new battery is about right but IMHO that is the best route should you need one. There are tons of threads on here about problems with replacing cells. There are people who swear by them but I think many of them are people with ties to people that sell them. I personally would never buy any car with that many miles because it is a big gamble.
Number 1 rule is never to trust a used car sales guy. You don't know what the previous owner was thinking when they sold the car to the dealership....they may not even have bought a new car. So just look at what's in front of you. You have a car at 200,000 miles, with a pristine exterior. The car is designed by Toyota to go 180k miles, then they consider the car "past it's sell by date". This meaning anything can break, they were not designed to go beyond that point. If it does (which many have gone past 180k miles), it doesn't mean it goes past that mark without significant repairs. The Prius has a tendency to burn oil at high mileage. The engines run but it starts eating oil, sometimes at an alarming rate. Luckily, used engines are fairly cheap, because there's not much demand for them. Although the engine is cheap, there's still no guarantee the used engine will be much better than what you have now. The battery? Well yes, that'll run you over $2500 for a new one. Then there's the transaxles that might fail, another 4 digit repair. And finally the numerous ECU's on the car, which from Toyota run into the 4 digits every time one fails. So if you ask if it's worth it? If you can stomach all the unknowns and what's to come.....then, yes it's worth it. But I would only buy it if I can afford to say "bye bye" and get maybe $1000 from selling the car for parts when the car fails. So basically only a $3500 gamble (what you'll normally pay for a year on a new car)
Thank you for your input. This car was maintained at a local Dealer. I've seen the printout showing it had every service right on time. Would that make it a better risk? Perhaps if I take it to that Dealer and ask them what they think, I would have a more accurate assessment of its longevity. One more question: The Dealer said the batteries have a 150k mile warranty. Do they really delivery on this promise?
yes, it's not the dealer, it's toyota. however, it's not true for all of the usa, so, since your location doesn't narrow it down any further, we can't help you.
I'm in Massachusetts. I'm surprised it makes a difference. Perhaps it's due to variations in consumer rights laws.
CARB states had a 10 year,150K mile HV battery warranty. Everywhere else it was 8 years, 100K miles. Don't know what a CARB state is? Google it.
With complete service records and all maintenance done, it would be a much better gamble. However, it still has 200k miles worth of wear and tear, that doesn't change. Suspensions, brakes, engines, electronics, all have wear and tear. If you have the money, why not, it's well maintained and the prius has a good reliability record
yes, but with 200k, what does it matter? replacement batteries only get 3 years. but it's still a new battery, and lily to last a long time.
Congrats! For future reference, you can also look up the VIN number on edmonds to do further research and get the carfax.
Is it worth 39.99? I bought it from a Toyota Dealer. The Salesman showed me its history, including it being a rental car the first two years of its life. The Dealer then sold it as a used car to someone who had it for 4 years and traded it in for a 2016. (edited date)
Wow, Toyota is really getting ahead of itself if it has model year 3016 out! BTW, a used battery (which it sounds like your husband would have no problem installing) is $1k-$1.5k, depending.
Hi JC91006, just wondering where you got the 180k number from. I know vehicles have a design lifetime, but don't usually see it published. I've also thought that specifying a lifetime in miles alone is rather odd. It seems like running hours would also apply, but maybe the assumption is that the car will average 30mph, thus 180k mile or 6000 hours. This is what I daydream about when inching along in traffic on a hot day with the ICE off and the A/C on.
ICE - Internal Combustion Engine. We use acronyms so frequently here there's even a glossary: PriusChat Glossary | PriusChat
Thank you. I've been trying to find out the best way to use the A/C without sacrificing too much mileage. It gets very humid here and we have tourist traffic to sit in.
