Newbie. Need advice on buying a used prius.

Yes, and yes. Try turning off the climate control system and see what happens.

 

You may also want to try some foam pipe insulation to block part of the lower grille to help the engine heat up faster. Toyota actually has active shutters on the new Prius.

 

A simple "YES" doesn't really cover it.
The gas engine needs to run to keep the HV battery warm......in addition to warming other parts.......and YOU.
In a lot of conditions, the slightest little bit of acceleration kicks it on.
Perfectly normal.......probably.

 

I think you'd be pushing it up hill in -5ºF conditions, to be quite honest. You don't need to focus on whether you a running on electric or not, just let the car do its thing. If you need to accelerate take the opportunity to run the ICE, after all you need heat too.

 

Based on what I've read in prior posts this may be indicative of a small head gasket leak between cylinders 1 & 2. A small amount of coolant is seeping into the cylinder(s) causing the misfire upon start-up before it is eventually burnt off. Any good technician should be able to diagnose the dual mis-fire and I would recon the dealership knew what the issue was but claimed ignorance as to not have to honor the warranty with a new engine or digging into the engine to replace the head gasket.

 

The combination of a lazy and/or incompetent technician combined with the fact the original owner didn't press the issue. Where I live the vehicle wouldn't pass the every other year emissions test and the dealership would have been forced to address the mis-fire more extensively.

 

Dealerships don't make as much on warranty work and neither do the Toyota techs. They would rather have your money instead.

If you are going to claim warranty work don't clear the codes.

 

This is the part that confuses me, too. If I had a car under warranty, and the car was throwing a code, I'd make sure it was repaired under warranty. And I would have escalated it.

I've had good experiences dealing with Toyota North America and there are many cases here where corporate helped with traction battery replacements for Prii that were out of warranty.

 

I am on my second Prius bought from two local dealers. The first one ten years old o lyrics saw the dealership two or three times for light bulbs under warranty and recalls and now my new one.. so far I have no complaints.

 

Was the water in the fuel tank or just the engine? Some people have had condensation & oil in the engine intake when the engine is cold.
The best solution appears to be installing an Oil Catch Can to remove it before it reaches the engine. The can needs to be emptied regularly. @danlatu here is our main expert on this.

 

I was able to get a printed copy of the service records from the local dealer by offering up my VIN, they also updated the name on file for the vehicle warranty.

 

I would say, not very common. Especially when the car is driven often. I have heard of to many excuse's from mechanics. They say things because they think people don't know any better. They are just as bad as the finance department at the dealer. They like to sugar coat things to justify the repair bill. Does the knock only happen at start up? How is the level of the coolant reservoir? Some owner's like to ditch their car before they think expensive repairs are in order. When our 2010 prius knocked at start-up around 75k, WT F TOYOTA! Maybe a nissan but toyota? Cars that have blown head gasket's knock like this. Upon digging, I ripped apart the intake plenum, and found wet oil inside the intake plenum and traced it back to the pcv valve. I cleaned the intake plenum, with a rag and made an oil catch can out of a ball jar. 3 years and 118k later, the prius has not had one knock period. Both of our prii have oil catch cans/occ and they run smooth. The prius is a great car, but if it breaks down on you, it's big $$$$ to fix, more expensive to fix than your average car. Look and see how much an ac compressor or a catalytic converter is new from the dealer for fun?

 

Check the spare tire area. Does it have water in there? I had a 2005 and found water in the tire area and the battery bus bars were all corroded. The triangle of death popped up and ended up with 1 bad battery out of 28 cells. I replaced the bad cell for 30$ with a used one and rebalanced all the cells with my quadcopter charger and car drove fine. I bought my 2011 prius for 2k$ with a blown head gasket

 

Gen 2 Prius have a bladder in the gas tank and it doesn't take fuel well in the winter. They did away with it in later generations, it's just something everyone has had to live with. Do a websearch, prius gas tank bladder and you should get all the information you ever wanted.
That doesn't make it any easier but it's just the way it is.

Cold weather affects all cars, a Prius is no exception but worse because it affects the big traction battery too and check your tire pressure, the pressure drops when it's cold.