Buying used - 2013 Prius Two vs. 2012 Prius V

Welcome!.

Are any of these from a Toyota dealer? A Toyota Certified used car has a good warranty.

The Prius v is heavier and has larger wheels. This means its mpg will be lower than the others, but have more storage space.
It would be interesting to see if your equipment could fit in a regular Prius. If so, I would probably get the one with 28k miles, assuming it check out OK.

My son got a Prius v because he transports multiple dogs to dog shows. Before that, he had a regular Prius for many years. He & I took my 2017 Prius to a show with 2 small dogs + luggage no problem.

I am sure @bisco , @Raytheeagle and other more senior me==user wll be along shortly.

 

if you need the cargo space, the v is huge.
If you move passengers, the liftback will get 10 MPG better mileage.

 

I know it's more money, but I'd like the peace of mind with the Prius that comes with a traction battery warranty until '21. The others come "as is" with the battery. And there's still some time left on the powertrain warranty.

A low mileage Prius under partial warranty will also give you the option of selling it at a higher price in a few years. That will come in handy in case you decide to buy a low mileage v down the road.

The low mileage Prius is also listed at a competitive price. So while it's expensive compared to the others, it's not that expensive compared to other models with similar mileage.

 

is it tampa prius?

how many years/miles do you hope to keep it?

 

no question the low mile one is perfect, except space and moonroof. if you're going to average 12-15,000 miles a year, you will certainly be getting into major repair territory with the others.
i haven't read that much about v's burning oil.

 

Imagine how thrilled their parts department is.

 

Just bought a used Prius v 2012 with 100k miles, but it was trim level 3. Would have loved to have had trim level 5 but every trim level 5 that came to market around us had fewer miles and therefore the price was much higher. You are really lucky to have that option.

Are you part of a family? We are a family of 3. Cargo space was an important criteria for us as our son goes to baseball tournaments frequently. In our prior car, a Honda CRV 1997, fitting in 3 baseball players' gear was very difficult when we took a couple teammates as well. It's a breeze on the Prius v, and when you go somewhere with 5 people in the car, the back seat is very comfortable.

How many miles/year do you plan to drive? If it's less than 10,000/year, then the difference between a 28,000 mile car and a 100,000 mile car isn't so important. From everything I've read on these forums, few Priuses of any kind have too many issues before 200,000 miles.

Given that our family drives around 7500 miles/year, we purposely looked for a Prius v with 80,000 - 120,000 miles because we knew the price would be lower, and that we could own it for 15 years with few issues whether starting at 100,000 miles or 30,000 miles.

 

Any aftermarket warranty extensions are usually not worth it and isn't easy to collect, should the time comes. Dealership warranties are not worth it, but they'll likely honor it.

My Prius has an extended warranty (close to bumper to bumper), however I don't believe that I'll use it, based on CR's reliability reports. I only have it because I was lucky enough to purchase from an owner that bought an extended warranty and it was transferable. However, these extended warranties don't cover hybrid related parts AFAIK, and that's what I would want covered. The troubled IPM (Intelligent Power Module) should have an extended warranty for 15 years (unlimited miles).

You mentioned that you'd like to keep it 6+ years. Again, you can drive the car for ~4 years, until '21, and then decide if you'd like to keep it after the battery warranty is up. It's nice to have that option.

 

I would be leery of over 10 years (not going to happen with v, the oldest is 6 years) or 200,000 miles. (300,000 km)

My 2012 v3 is going strong at 107,000 miles. Soon I need to invest in third set of tires and second 12 volt battery.

 

I'd say at 10k per year, you'd be in good shape starting at 100k, but always a small potential for something expensive.
One caveat, southern cars may have shortened hybrid battery life, especially depending on how they were treated.
And beware hurricane flood cars!

 

Given that you're single, may drive over 10,000/year, and don't really need massive trunk space, I would think that the 28,000 mile option might make more sense for you, especially if you end up driving even more than you originally estimated. Once you finish college, the amount you drive per year will change based on what you do after college.

I don't know enough to definitively answer your question on what the appropriate odometer cutoff point is. The way I looked at it is that I don't really want to be driving a Prius with over 200,000 miles on it. So given that our family drives 7500 miles/year, buying a used car with 100,000 miles on it made perfect sense for us. Won't exceed 200,000 miles for at least 13 years, which is about how long we had our last car.