Hello, I have never owned a Prius nor a used car. I am considering purchasing one soon as my 08' Nissan Sentra is no longer reliable and constantly in the shop. I can only spend up to $13,000 and am wondering a few things. 1.) Is it possible that a Prius costing $13,000 or LESS could be reliable enough to only need general maintenance (breaks, tires, oil change)? I would hate to take out a car payment and then have it in the shop all the time. In general, I am searching for a car with this price tag that will be very reliable and hopefully low maintenance. 2.) If so, which Prius years/models should I look into purchasing? Mileage? If this breaks any of the forum rules (not being a Prius owner) please let me know and I will take down. Thanks for your time, Jena
Thanks! I would plan on keeping the car anywhere from 5 to 10 years plus. If it's something that I will have to take a loan out for (something more than $5,000) then I most certainly want it to exceed the life of the loan before I have to have any major repairs done.
Welcome to PriusChat!! How many miles was that again? Sometimes the math is easier if you know the number of miles driven per day.
Oh, I put on about 15,000 miles a year. I don't know how long I can expect a prius to last mileage wise before it needs major repairs.
Welcome to PriusChat. I assume you are in Wisconsin. One of our expert users, @ericbecky services hybrids in that state. He should be along shortly with some good advice, I am sure.
Thanks! yes, good old Wisconsin. Harsh long winters and salty underbodies galore. Looking for a car that can endure it.
I'm not impressed with our 2010's underbody rust resistance: framing and bolts happily rust, appears to be little resistance. Welds bloom first, very fast. This is on the wet coast.
I was thinking of the salt air from the ocean. I remember in Toronto and seeing a car from the maritimes and being surprised at the damage from the salty air.
I bought a 2012 Prius 3 on sale for $9950 (Black Friday deal at a dealer) with 98k miles. I intend to keep it to 250-300k miles, and everything l have read is that I can also reasonably expect it to be very trouble-free. It is one of the highest rated by Consumer Reports for reliability. I got a great deal, but if you look around and have a little patience you probably will, too. I watched national listings to find the sweet spot. I'm super happy with my Prius, it looks and drives like new. Sweet ride.....
in general, one can expect 150-200,000 miles of reasonable success from a prius. unfortunately, for as many who do better than that, there are those who do worse. prius has more expensive systems than gas only cars, and it's not hard to drop a couple grand on an a/c compressor or brake actuator. at 5-10 years, and 15k/year, you are looking at a new car, or risking that a used car will not have severe repair requirements in a shorter period of time. you might be better off with another sentra.
In my area my 2008 Prius was the only one I ever saw here with a rusty rocker panel. I drove it in the steel mill where I worked many years and the environment there was very corrosive and salt in the winter. Any car you drive in the mill was a sacrifice.
For up to 13k I would recommend a Toyota Dealer used car lot or Carmax and seek the Prius 3rd gen and Prius C. You can have Toyota provide a used car inspection for a small fee which can provide some room for negotiation if necessary. Although reliable you have to be open somewhat to the possibility of other kinds of Hybrid specific repairs/maintenance. If you are set on mainly general maintenance as you described then I would go with what someone else recommended which is a Corolla (or Scion tC as alternate). Good luck
Unless there is mostly city driving, I would lean away from the Prius c ("city"). It is mainly designed as a smaller, lighter car for city driving. I missed seeing what type of driving is done by the OP.
