I'm looking to buy a new car, found a really good deal on a Prius from a dealership but I'm weary about it. It's a 2005 Prius on sale for about $2700 with 120k miles. Was wondering if I could get any advice in things to look out for in this older Prius (I.e. maybe there's a reason it's on sale). The battery was replaced at 110k miles so I'm not too worried about that. Any help is great!
welcome! if you are buying from joe's corner car lot, you should have major concerns. you need to find out where the car has been registered and how many owners in its lifetime. accident and possible flood damage. clear title, etc. once all these things are found satisfactory, reset the trip meter and take it for a long drive under varied conditions. see what it returns for average mpg, and keep in mind that the display is about 5% optimistic. if it truly only has 120k, and the battery is an oem toyota, there isn't too much else to worry about. all the best!
Yeah, if that was a real Toyota battery this would be an excellent candidate. If not, then this is actually only a down payment on what will eventually be a $5000 car.
For 2700 dollars I’m gonna guess fly by night rebuilt battery that someone installed to get rid of the car. Ask to see whatever paperwork he has on the battery replacement.
As far as I'm concerned Gen2 Prius is one of the most reliable cars ever built and you found one for a great price, so go for it!!! As far as Hybrid batteries go, you can get 3 weeks to 3 years out of a rebuilt battery in the $500-$1500 price range... And you can get 6-12years with a brand new Toyota OEM pack in $1700-$2200 price range... Most people who sell a used Prius with a battery pack that went bad simply say hyrbid battery was replaced, but you need more details.
yeah, that's kind of low mileage for a 14 yr old car, suggesting it parked a while, if it parked then it needed to be started evey 2 weeks which often gets neglected which suggested the HV (traction) bat has been failed and replaced with (something) -aka dealer (too expensive for car to e priced this low),, aftermarket also seems too expenseive for this price which leaves you with : junkyard or rebuilt. there must have been no options on the car for it to be that low with that low of mileage - prius came with 5 or 6 option packages all the way up to leather, custom 15" (or bigger?) aluminum rims, JBL 8 spkr system 6CD/cassette , etc ...
Actually I know lots of old people that drive their car every day or two and only have that many miles after 14 years... Main point is when you buy direct from the original owner you get this information and when you buy from a dealership you don't. As for Prius needing to be driven every couple weeks, in many ways that can be helpful, but there was a truck driver on here who bought a used Prius and didn't drive it for almost a year and hasn't had any problems with it. So it's not an absolute requirement.
****** But wait, i never said drive ? i said START -- it has to run to charge, u can charge the 12v bat, (u could charge the HV bat with fancy charger/$$aftermarket maintainer) , u can disconnect the 12v battery... did the truck driver disconnect the 12v battery to 'shut it down completly' ? because the computer will eat that up and the HV bat will try and charge the 12v and then the depletion.
Can't find the prius chat link to it... He took minor precautions and had no problem... It was a an impressive write up. Wish I could find it... I used Google search tools to search PriusChat posts for the last 6 months of 2018, which is when I read it, but still can't find it. Gotta think up some better key words...
Ok , based on my gen 2 06 Model . I state the following :- Drive the car fir 200 miles with no codes , given ? If it drive and stopped well , threw no codes , then hand over the money ! That’s my best advice , based on having purchased a lemon
