While I was looking over some threads today, I noticed that quite a few here and have purchased leftover Prius C. I purchased mine (a 2013) as a year old leftover, but actually it was almost 2 years (Oct of 2014). I am curious if there is any downside to buying a leftover of considerable age - 2 years sitting on the lot. Will the traction battery suffer? The transaxle fluid should probably be changed. What about the 12V battery? I just wanted to know if anyone had some advice when buying a two year old leftover hybrid. They are very good cars, but I was concerned with some of the hybrid parts. I imagine Toyota treats it as a brand new vehicle and honors the warranty. If there are parts that I guess the downside would be possible frequent trips to the dealer and the chance you have a technician who is not totally familiar with the repair procedure... Thoughts? Thanks for reading this...
Considering that I have a 2012 with 95k miles on it and the only "service" I've had done to it are: Front and rear washer squirt motors. ($100 extended warranty covered) Front driver and passenger door lock actuators. (Did my self for ~$40 each.) I don't think you'll have any "extra" trips to the dealer. I bought mine in January 2013 and according to my vin, it's a July car, so it sat on the lot for a few months. I grant you that it wasn't ~ 2 years, but the premise should be the same. Sitting shouldn't hurt anything except the 12v and possibly the hybrid battery. To make yourself feel a little better, you could look at your door vin plate and see when it was manufactured. Then at least you could know. If the car is a September/October version, then it sat on the lot for ~1 year.
Don't get too carried away here. NOTHING will suffer from just sitting.......except probably the 12 V battery and maybe the old gas in the tank.
OK. The reason I ask is I found a brand new 2016 Prius on a dealers' lot and it had me thinking if this would be a good deal or if I would have issues (most likely covered under warranty) with exactly what you have identified - the hybrid battery, the 12V battery, old gas and fluids... Thanks!
Our 2010 Prius was built in August of 2009, and we bought in November of 2010. It had been sitting in a sheltered building, not in the elements, and had maybe 10~20 kms. No problems, other than a dead 12 volt battery they tried to mask. The hybrid battery appears fine, no problems now, with just over 74K kms. I wouldn't change transaxle fluid at the outset: change at the one year mark might be a good idea though. That would be my strategy with any new Prius.
I think you are seeing things that nobody said. The hybrid battery and fluids other than gas should NOT be a problem.
Agreed. I mentioned the hybrid battery just because it's a battery. But I seriously doubt that it would die from just sitting, unless it was sitting empty.
Everyone is certainly entitled to their opinion. Most manufacturers give service intervals in both time and mileage (or kilometers). Lack of use can be troublesome to the reliability of a vehicle. If a battery sits in a discharged state for too long, it won't come back.
