For the past few months, I've been driving a borrowed (thank you, friend!) 2005 Prius that now has 202,000 miles on it. I've had no problems whatsoever, although the maint req light just did come on. My buddy now has to sell the car and wants $4.5k for it. What do you all think -- deal or no deal? And, if deal, should I take it to get inspected by a mechanic and, if so, I guess it'd have to be at the T dealer, right?
Sounds a bit steep to me, I paid 2100 for mine with 200k (major problems with it, but it runs). My craigslist has one on it with same miles with all the fancy stuff for 3700. But we have prii a plenty around here, so Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
Yeah the price is high for that many miles for 2005. I recently bought a 2005 with about 170K miles for $3000. No issues either.
Thanks, guys. I'm in San Diego, which seems to be Prius central, so I'll look around. I'll probably have to buy from a dealer, since I don't have much shopping-around time on hand. Should I go certified pre owned if I can?
if that is a good price in your market, then go for it, i guess. you won't get a cpo near that price, likely.
If you've been driving it for a few months and are happy with it then it's definitely worth considering. It's due for an oil change so check it now and see how much it's using (you probably should have checked it already by now). If the price is a bit steep then make your friend an offer, say 3.8k for example. I'll bet he already knows that if he advertises it for 4.5k that he is probably going to get a lot of tire kickers and time wasters and a ton of low ball offers before he finally settles for a somewhat lower price anyway. Anyone who has ever had to sell a car before is going to know that.
No deal. Plus...... If you buy a 12-year old car with 200,000 miles on it you need to either BE a mechanic, or PAY a mechanic. Are you? Can you?
No. Under certain circumstances, a FACTORY CPO program can be worth the additional money, but not the cheesy 'not-a-factory' CPO plans. Most of these are just schemes intended to separate a buyer from more of their money. Factory CPO programs require fairly rigorous checks and offer non-trivial addition FACTORY warranties. Generally speaking with Yotas, vehicles that are young enough to qualify for the CPO program will easily pass their alleged multi-thousand point inspection because.........they're relative new vehicles. Like OEM extended warranties, the juice usually isn't worth the squeeze....BUT at least you have the limited value of it being a FACTORY warranty and not some third party coverage. These days, many "Certified Pre-Owned" programs will only certify that the car has been previously owned. If you're shopping for a daily driver in the $5,000 range, you may be better served by getting a non-hybrid, for reasons that are easy to discover with a little searching in the forum, as it is a very popular topic with so many G2 Priuses on the road with lunar mileage. Good Luck!!!
Considering KBB is $3300 very good condition, I wouldn't pay more than that. You could just jump up to 2006+ model that has more features. Buy code reader and check out the check engine light.
Buying a Prius with 200k miles you better have a lot of money set aside for the hybrid battery because your in end of life there for a lot of things on that car, there's not many other cars on the road that require that expensive of a part at that mileage. And the car will not run without a good hybrid battery. There's hundreds of posts here now about failed hybrid battery's all at the mileage or more. Like Etc said hope you have a good set of tools.
I'd agree with @uart : a big plus is the extended try-before-you-buy you've had. Buying a higher mileage second gen is risky, but having driven it a month or two, you've seen it's reliable. Yeah, get a competent mechanical check, offer a little less, see how it goes.
Bought my 05 for $800 needed a hyrbid battery, here in the bay area a little far from San Diego there are people that install refurbished one got one installed for 500 bux with warranty, and detailed the car you can pick up one here in the bay area from 3000-4000 with about 180k clean title
I think a lot has to do with location. In my area I looked for a while for my Prius. Almost all were listed way higher than blue book. The ones that were near BB went super fast or had issues. I got mine pretty cheap but it was ragged. Took a lot of trips to LKQ.
