Considering a 2014 Toyota Prius

New pistons in 2014 but used the same old rings. New pistons and new rings in 2015. See information given by Mendel Leisk
partway down on this page, to confirm.

Blown Head gasket rebuild....@297k | Page 35 | PriusChat

 

if your short drives doesn’t get ICE to optimal temps on the daily then you’ll be posting before and after photos of egr circuit cleaning sooner than most.

 

$12,600 is a lot of money for that. Did you go to kelly blue book and see what the value is?
carfax is not as acurate as they claim to be so you can't trust them 100%. Only on things that
have been reported or repaired at a place that reports what they did. Only 60,000 miles? I'd be suspect
for a 7 year old car. They are out there though.

A used car lot will always be higher than an individual seller.

Don't let people scare you with the problems. EVERY CAR has problems. The egr is easily taken
care of and something you can do yourself. And will avoid probably 99% of head gasket failures.
Newer/different rings in the 2014, 2015 rings and pistons, helps slow oil burning. Also, HOW will you drive it?
Like and F1 car? Then expect more problems, and sooner. If you drive it like a Prius, it will last longer.
The faster you drive the more oil you will likely burn. I drive 65mph 98% of the time highway miles (90% of the time) and use
on average 1.5 quarts between 10,000 miles changes. When I drive more 70mph drives, 2-2.5 quarts.
It's been said if you change the oil at 5000 miles, you burn less oil, but the engine doesn't burn more oil the 2nd half,
than if you go to 10,000. But the oil is breaking down, so at 5000 miles, it's in better condition so it won't clog
the rings, as much, in theory anyways. I'm changing to 7500, happy medium.
Reading on Prius chat, inverter failures are rare. And there was a recall to supposedly "fix" the risk of it happening.
The hybrid battery is still under warranty so that is not an issue.

If the car really only has 60,000 miles, egr, oil burning won't be an issue. And how many miles a year will you be
driving it? If it's low, it will be at least another 60,000 miles before you might see any problems. And how long before
you put that many miles on it? If you clean the egr system(cooler, pipe, egr valve, intake manifold) at 100,000 miles,
along with the other service items, you'll be in good shape. I am not saying you won't have any problems, but you've
made it a lot less likely to happen. I just turned 230,000 miles on my 2010. I don't lose any engine coolant.
But I've cleaned the egr system twice. Last was at 200,000 miles.

My personaly opinion is the priice it way too high. Prices vary state to state so check the kelly blue book online.
$5-7000 depending on the which model you had. If you have more features, the price will be higher of course.

 

Why would you want a hybrid with a 10 mile daily commute? It will barely have time to warm the engine before you're there, thus almost no gas savings. And the potential for more expensive problems than a gas engine car. That being said, if you just want it, I wouldn't worry so much about problems in the near future....but I think it's a bit too high. I saw a 15 near my area with 79k for only 9900 but it was from the owner and not a car lot.

 

Trim Level V has the extra stuff, that's why it's higher. I guess the price is a lot higher in SC than Florida.
Still think it's high. And you can certainly bargin him down a few thousand dollars.
You didn't state the type of driving habits you have or the miles you'll be driving,
but the car itself is sound.

 

In hindsight, I now suspect both pistons and rings were changed at the same time, at some point in model year 2014.

 

I thought you had researched the part numbers in the past?

 

I based the earlier info on mcgeorge Toyo part nos. But a rebuilder reported the new rings and old pistons (or vice versa) are not compatible. So it has to be both or none. Again, best guess is sometime through model year 2014, both switched at same time.

 

I’m sure it is high. Used car prices are way up. I got lucky swooping in to buy mine right after the lockdowns went into effect. The dealerships were open by appointment only, and they were nervous.

 

Dang. The next thing we will hear is the egr head gasket conspiracy theory was just fake news.

 

^^^ This.

Strictly from a financial standpoint, the primium paid for the hybrid technology will never pay for itself in your ownership. My rule of thumb is that you need to drive at least 20K miles/year for a Prius to start to make financial sense. And with gas prices as low as they are now, I think it's probably more like 25K.

A less than 10 mile (less than 20 round-trip) per day commute puts you squarely in electric car territory.

 

looks like op will be buying a $37,000 model 3 for his/her commute.

 

We're talking $10K used cars here.

 

^^ This right here! ^^

"new(ish) Prius" is a great answer to the question "I have to drive a zillion miles a year, what can I do to save some money?"

If the question is more like "I don't want to go car shopping again for a long time. What car can I buy for many years of dependable service on short commutes?"

...then my answer is going to be "A really simple car!" and I'd suggest Toyota Yaris or Corolla, Hyundai Accent, Mitsubishi Mirage, Mazda 2 and maybe a couple of others. No hybrids at all.

 

Having just gone through this... We were at the point where we needed a second car (family of four that had been 1-car for 5 years). We live in a small city and most days we either don't drive or drive less than 10 miles total. Spouse is getting a new job, though, and kids are involved in more and more activities. We'll need to drive more often, but still probably most trips under 5 miles and totaling less than 25 miles/day.

Our budget was $5-8k. Honestly, we're a perfect candidate for a used Nissan Leaf, on paper anyway. I researched those quite a bit and while you can get a low-mile one in great shape for like $6k, the range degradation is real. Also, we live in Wisconsin and everything I read basically told me the heater wouldn't get warm enough for us and that range in the winter with heater on might drop to like 20 miles, which is just too risky for my better half. You think Prius owners try to talk people out of buying used Prii? You should look at Leaf owners...

We really wanted to minimize our fuel use and GHGs. But other options I considered: Corolla, Civic, Camry, Fit. For any of those (except Camry), to find one within 100 miles of me, with less than 200k miles, less than 15 years old, and that didn't look like something had given birth AND died inside it, the price was $8k+. Not to mention smaller interior and spouse and I are both very tall and kids come with a lot of junk. I was actually able to find a few nice Camrys with 130-150k for $7k.

Prii on the other hand were $4-6k for 2nd gens and $6-9k for 3rd gens ($8-9 for 2012 and up). I got our 2012 with 157k miles and very clean inside and out for $7,400 which based on CarGurus and KBB I think was a decent price.

Do I regret this choice? Sometimes. But I think the only other reasonable option for us was a Camry, which uses twice as much fuel. It might have been a better choice financially but I am glad to be using less fuel and lower GHGs. FWIW, I don't know what I'm doing right/wrong but I can start our Prius dead cold at 40 degrees, drive 2 miles, and get 45-50+mpg for the trip. I'm planning to install a block heater and maybe do like @Mendel Leisk and use it year-round. And block the grill in the winter.

 

whats the price of gas there?

 

don’t recall the op limiting budget to less than $10k.

 

Still pretty cheap. I think it was 2.80 last time I filled up. Wanting to minimize the use of gas is more about saving baby seals than $$ for me, though.

Oh, and since it wasn't clear in my last post, we drive mostly city miles at 25mph speed limits. So I was comparing Camry's 25 city rating vs expected high 40s for Prius.