Looking at potentially buying a 2010 or 2011 Prius

I've had some frustrations with cars in recent years (I live in the northeast and made the foolish mistake of not having a car checked for rust before I bought it!) so I've decided to move up my price range (capping at $9k right now) a little bit in the hopes of securing a more reliable ride. The Prius was recommended to me for obvious reasons and I've been looking at two of them that are currently offered on Craigslist by small-time dealers in my area.

The first one is a 2010 Prius 2 (in a sort of champagne-tan color) with 130k miles that was listed about a month ago at $8k, relisted every week or so at the same rate for three weeks, then dropped to $7k last week. Toyota's website shows the last service of the car at a dealership in 2013, but that doesn't mean service hasn't been performed on it - just not at a Toyota dealership.

The second one is a 2011 Prius 3 (dark blue) with 90k miles, a pretty fresh listing and a price just a hair shy of my $9k limit. When I looked at the Toyota site info about it, I saw that the most recent service (1/30/17) was a tire balancing but many of the preceding service dates (1/28/17, 7/7/16, 3/15/16, 6/4/15, 2/5/15, 2/4/14, 9/9/13) included "RESET TIRE & MAINTENANCE LIGHT". Is this a normal thing to see on these reports? Edit: I found out this car has been sold, so it's a moot point.

I'm excited by the possibility of the car but also I'm kind of a big ol' babby when it comes to cars and I'm scared of goofing up badly (again), especially since this will be my first time getting a car loan and having to deal with all of that business.

Thanks for the help!

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I assume no matter what that rust is going to be a big risk factor for me - hooray for salt - but at least now I'm aware enough to not get screwed on it again - hopefully.

Does the other Prius going for $7k w/130k miles throw up any red flags, generally speaking? The number seems more or less in line with what Kelley Blue Book lists for the year/mileage.

 

Doing more hunting, I found two other 2010s with ~130k miles in my area at the same price point. I'll definitely be trying to be more suspicious the next time I am test driving a car, though.

With further searching, there's a dealer about a half hour away that has a 2010 with 90k miles for $8900. Toyota's site says it's still pending the curtain side airbag recall from last year (safety recall G0U?) but when I called my local Toyota dealership, they claimed they weren't having too much difficulty scheduling and completing those recalls and that they're generally scheduled ~2 weeks out. I'm basically just posting this for reassurance that this doesn't sound unusual or crazy in some way. Thanks for the hand-holding.

 

Does it affect anything that the dealer is not a Toyota dealer but a small local used car place?

 

Not specifically, though I suppose I should consider all of my options. I get a little overwhelmed sometimes, so when presented with the idea that a Prius is a good idea, I've been zoning in on it and trying to make sure it is (or isn't) before I get myself stressed over other kinds of cars, too. I know, I'm a crazy person in my own, non-car-guy way.

I did go check out the 2010 Prius 3 w/90k miles (listed at $8900) this morning. The dealership was a tiny place that had been around for a while with one dude who is the owner/salesperson and a bunch of mechanics. When we got in it, I noticed that the TPMS light was on - asked the guy and he said they had just installed four new tires and that most likely one of them was a little out of whack on pressure. More on that later.

We test drove it and while it did take a little getting used to - I've been driving a 5-speed manual Nissan Sentra for the last ten months or so - I found myself really enjoying it by the end. I did bring it to my mechanic to have it looked at (and in the process got to do some pretty chill interstate driving) and he gave it a mostly-clean bill of health. Very little rust on the car; he confirmed the tires were new and that they had recently replaced the bearings on the rear wheels.

Passenger side mirror can't be actuated by the controls - I gently pushed it into position instead.
Front marker lights are all out. Mechanic diagnosed this as just a bulb issue, figuring it was probably missed since the headlights/turn signals still work normally, but I'm not sure how into the nitty-gritty he went. Should I be concerned about this?
There were no TPMS sensors on the nice new tires. Mechanic hedged his bets a bunch (rubber stems, could be TPMS sensors with rubber stems because that's a thing but unlikely) and said he'd reset it before I left so we could be sure it wasn't something else weird.
He also noted there were no floor mats, but that doesn't really bother me very much.

When I drove away, the TPMS light blinked for a bit, then went solid for the remainder of the (~25 minute) drive. When I got back and told the salesperson that there were no TPMS sensors (and that the mechanic had double-checked by VIN to confirm the car should have them), he looked surprised and said something like, "What, does it have rubber stems?" and I said I believed so. He went outside and checked the tires, then said he would get them installed. It certainly seemed like he didn't know about the TPMS sensors before I told him.

Aside from the issues noted above, my mechanic's other written note was "The car is in pretty nice shape overall." I'm a little concerned about the issue with the lights, but I'm liking the car and am inclined to go for it unless you folks think any of this sounds bad/fishy/whatever.

 

I took note of the mats thing because I thought it was funny he would bother mentioning it and assumed you guys would think so, too. Like... yeah, I noticed that, too.

Can I ask why you are electing to not have the side curtain airbag recall completed?

 

Thanks very much for the advice. I'm hesitant to move up to the 2012 instead of the 2010 just because it means adding another $3k to the loan/up-front cost and that spooks me a bit. I know, as mentioned earlier - "Why not look at an efficient non-hybrid?" I am, as well, I just like the idea of a Prius, too.

edit: I did start my searches on Craigslist but the one that I actually test drove, I found using the search engine on cars.com instead.

Further question: when I see a car listed as "Prius Base", is that a Prius 1? I've read that those are better to steer clear of because they're the least-featured but also that they are usually ones that were in fleets and may not have been treated well. Do I have the right understanding there?