buying Prius for wife, confused on what to get

We have decided to buy my wife a Prius. My wife is a new driver(long story) and for her driving(mostly around our small town) and our longer distance errand running around the DFW metroplex, I feel a Prius will suit well. Ive never owned a hybrid, but have owned 2 diesels: Jetta TDI that got bought back from the emissions lawsuit and a Chevy Cruze that we just traded off as it went out of warranty(did not want to deal with low production number diesel car out of warranty)... After reading a ton about Prius's I dont feel I have to much of a concern being out of warranty.

Anyway, on to the crux of the matter.

We have an appointment to drive a 2020 LE with 22k miles from Avis used cars. Their cars are priced about 2500-3k under market and the buying process seems easy. Im not terribly concerned about it being a former rental car provided the cosmetics arent bad. I spoke to a local guy(Matt with Texas Hybrid Batteries) and he said as long as no warning lights or messages on the dash and cosmetically it checks out he wouldnt be to concerned with a low miles rental. I picked the LE vs. L Eco because it has basically all the safety stuff on it and it seems you have to go to the LE to get the blind spot monitoring, which is important for me for my wife to have, otherwise an L Eco feature set would be just fine.

NOW on to slightly older cars and where my confusion comes in. Obviously only interested in Gen 4's. Definitely want blind spot monitoring. So it looks like I am pretty safe on 2018(2017.5) 2's and up trim levels to get blind spot monitoring... So in a 16 or 17, where am I safe that I KNOW it will have it? 3's or do I have to step up to a 4? I ask because, even in a market like DFW, where there are TONS of cars overall for sale, Prius are still a much smaller "demographic" so to speak and the metroplex is pretty large(I am also willing to go to Austin or Houston to buy a car), but I need to know FOR SURE a car will have what I want before I drive several hours possibly to look/buy. The feature set on a 2, overall, is fine for us, but the blind spot monitoring is a must have. So lets say I want to look at 2016's and BSM is a MUST HAVE... what trim level does that put me at to guarantee? Then a 2018 2, appears to guarantee me BSM.

Any other "must haves" that push me up a trim level in any of the years? I dont think battery chemistry causes me any heartburn either way...

Ive tried to read a ton and still came away slightly confused. Thanks...

 

Thanks... Gives me somewhere to expand my search to.

We drove a 2019 XLE today and it was very nice except it had a lot of exterior cosmetic issues considering it only had 9800 miles on it. So we passed. Im still thinking the 2020 LE from Avis is going to be it unless the car is a huge POS cosmetically when we drive it.

 

Well "around our small town" is not really small, but we live out in the country a bit. I think its 5 miles into town. We will also use it running around the metroplex here in DFW. Even high 30's to low 40's will be great. And my wife honestly could care less about mileage as its not something even on her radar.

 

not sure how you got any of that out of any of my posts.

My wife doesnt know bupkis when it comes to cars. "it looks nice" "its comfortable" "i like the color"... thats the extent. She doesnt understand the intricacies of safety packages, etc... BUT I do. So she likes the Prius so then its up to me to figure the rest out and make sure I get her a safe car with all the safety features and BSM being one that is high on my list.

And im pretty sure seeing as how I stated I was only looking at Gen 4's puts me in your "4 years old or less" bucket. Im not as concerned about mileage as I am overall condition, but I am not looking at any car over 50k miles. One car we are going to look at is a '17 four touring with 46k miles on it, but its a 1 owner sold originally by the current selling dealer and always serviced by them. Its on the higher mileage of what I am interested in, but the rest of the facts about the car make me pretty interested in it vs. a car with 30k miles bought at auction with multiple owners and zero service history.

And I never once stated I had a budget at all, just talking overall price and where the cars Avis sells are priced.

 

DFW is "local" for us and we live a bit out so no matter what its 50 miles for us to drive to look at a car... The only car not in DFW we are contemplating looking at is down in College Station, but its kind of a "if none of these look good to us" kind of things. And, at least in DFW, there are no deals to be had on new Prius's...unless you consider 250 bucks off a "good deal".

Last year we bought a used chevy colorado for pretty cheap for her to drive... she wouldnt drive it even though she liked it and wanted it. It was to big for her. So I just sold it. So no trucks for her.

We also have an Explorer ST I just bought, so we got the SUV covered. Oh, she wont drive it either because its "to big"... size is all relative.