Trying to buy my first Prius

Sounds like a great deal. Car fax?

 

Sounds like it could be - can you get an independent inspection to verify that it's good.

Have you driven it - does it drive well?

 

Pending the advice in the posts above, I’d say that the 15K price is firmly in the good deal territory. Especially if there’s nothing wrong with the car.

 

A small clarification: Toyota sponsors the Toyota Certified Used Vehicle program, provides the warranty, and sets the program requirements and inspection criteria, but the dealer buys the used car (at wholesale or as a trade-in), inspects it, and decides whether to pay a fee to Toyota to include the vehicle in the program.

Toyota has the right to audit the inspections, but in practice, only a dealer technician, not a Toyota representative, is likely to have examined the vehicle. Depending on your confidence in the dealer, this may or may not be important to you, of course. If you have any doubt, @alanclarkeau makes a good suggestion to get an independent inspection.

 

In general, it's a buyer's market for the Prius in the USA right now. Relatively low fuel prices combined with the polarizing styling of the 4th gen car equal slow sales. Additionally, the market in general is shifting to SUVs and away from cars. A bit of a perfect storm right now eroding the market for the Prius. If you want a Prius, and you fall into the camp of people who don't mind the current aesthetics, a good time to buy,...especially used, model year 2016+.

Dealers want things that have high churn, i.e., they don't linger on the lot. In most parts of the United States, a used Prius sitting on your lot is not particularly desirable merchandise at this point in time. The pendulum of demand may swing back in the Prius' favor at some point, but assuming the car checks out, the current situation is to your advantage, and it seems like you found a nice deal on one.

 

2 Red Flags...

Rental Car have been abused and barely maintained.
Been sitting on the lot for 50 days? Get a "New" 12 VDC battery with the deal is you do buy it.

 

Not necessarily - yes, that's possible, but most are well maintained. You can generally tell abuse by what the car looks like and smells like inside (smokers).

I know one person bought one which he worked out had been a company car during an employee's contract - driven by only one driver. I wouldn't see the 12V battery as a deal breaker, though - they're relatively cheap compared with the savings you have.

 

Sorry, but I worked at a Rental Agency while in Tech School, and have at lot of experience dealing with them...behind the wall. But...you might get lucky.

Wish you the best.

 

It might be a dealer's daily rental or loaner car. Get them to through in a platinum 125k. warranty and you have a GREAT deal!. With just a few exceptions basically the whole car is covered for 125k. mi. so that takes care of the rental issue. By the way I got my 12 Prius and did that since it was the dealers daily rental. Now it's got 162k., no issues.