is this Gem true? 2014 with 47k miles

Years will take their toll although cooler climates are more favorable. I would rather see you go for a 2016 or newer gen4 with more miles at the same price. Generally major maintenance is after 100k miles. I recommend reading some of the gen3 threads.

 

The Gen 3, the problem child of the Prius world.

I doubt you'll have to worry about the HV Battery, for the most part they are good for 150000 miles or more. But the engine ... not so much a lot of times. Barring intervention.

Oil sludge, clogged ring's, lead to leaking Head Gasket's, leading to motors trying to compression liquid, leading to holes in block's.

I can't say it happens, all the time but it does happen a lot. Here is one of many threads and there are many more.

Oil Consumption 2010 Prius | PriusChat

And the problems for the most part seem to crop up at close or slightly after 100,000 miles. And it seems to be in part, the low tension piston rings. But I think mostly the EGR system, the egr valve, the egr cooler and the intake manifold get a slug build up, the HG fail's eventually and it's bye, bye motor.

But at 47k none of that has happened yet. I would be curious as to what those components look at 47K? But usually people just buying a car are not eager to pull stuff apart to clean it and install a Oil Catch Can?

A higher mileage Gen 4 would be a better choice or a much less expensive if you find one with a bad battery or a blown engine. In the Gen 4 Toyota moved and added water cooling to the EGR valve, so you have to think, they knew something was wrong or they would not have changed it?

It's your call but now you know.

 

I believe the head gasket issue was limited mostly to the 2010 and 2011 models. Wasn't it 2012 where they had the redesign to the piston/ring combo to alleviate that problem?

 

Oh no doubt someone here knows for sure. But I thought it was 2014 to 2015? I still think the ring change was a band aide. If the sludge was not there, the ring's would not know clog. (Is how I view it.)

And I'm not down on the Gen3's ( I luv the new tranny) and I think that is why they get better mileage than the Gen 2's, without even trying? But if people are wise enough to ask first, they deserve to know the pit fall's of a given vehicle. I'm not a hater just a realist.

 

Piston/ring revision apparently happened “sometime” through model year 2014. That was only to address oil consumption AFAIK. There were some revisions to the intake manifold, and one for the EGR valve, but I don’t think that did squat for the carbon clogging, which i suspect is a big factor in head gasket failure.

 

looks like a good one. how many miles a year are you likely to put on it, and how many years do you want to keep it?
the battery should be good for at least 10/150, probably more.
47k is the perfect time to jum on the egr circuit cleaning, and instaling an oil catch can.

that won't guarantee that it won't blow a headgasket, but it might help. also, some are changing the oil every 5k, instead of toyota's recommended 10k.

 

Ok. I thought it was the oil consumption that was the root cause of the EGR carbon buildup. Are models later than 2010/2011 experiencing similar head gasket failure rates? When people have asked me about the Gen 3s, I've recommended staying away from the 10/11 year models due to HG failures, but after that should be ok. Wondering if I should adjust that recommendation.

 

47k is a very low number and I'm guessing that the only necessary maintenance so far has been oil/filter changes (as per the manual). There's a way to log into the Toyota website to see the maintenance history of this particular vehicle. It sounds like this could be a good deal.

You're still under warranty for the hybrid battery. There's a belief around here that the life of the hybrid battery is based on years, not miles. Expect 10+ years. Unfortunately, inactivity is bad for the hybrid battery, but at least for now, it's still under warranty.

From what I've read here, the EGR issues are related to miles. You should have no problems at 47k miles.

 

If it's a Minnesota car, it's probably never had heat issues. That battery is likely a diamond in the rough.

 

Excessive oil consumption caused by the rings was 2010-2014. Not much mystery since Toyota has the vins defined when the new rings hit production in 2014.

 

Yeah I think EGR fails due too constrictive design, and the inlet is so close to the exhaust ports. Fourth gen greatly increases the cross sectional area, and relocated input, to be downstream of the CAT. I take this as tacit admission of the third gens shortcomings,

 

"keep me awake at night thinking about a catastrophic internal/gasket failure around the corner"
What about other catastrophic failures???
No promise the Gen4 headgasket won't fail. It could fail on any car.

Maybe get one of those extended warranties from the ads that keep popping on all over the place and tv commercies???

 

Time will tell but the Gen 4 changed the piston ring's and moved and water cooled the erg valve on the Gen 4. One has to "assume," that Toyota did that for a reason?

I'd take a higher mileage Gen 4, over a lower mileage Gen 3 any day but that's me.

 

It all depends on how much money you have to spend....

 

My 2012 #3 had 42300 miles on it when I traded it last week and the only unusual problem I had was that the headlights were cloudy and had to be restored just a couple of months ago. Other than that all routine stuff. Never had any issues with oil consumption. I just wanted a plugin with newer features.