With a Prius almost 15 years old do You think the battery is a concern? The car has regular service records but is the car more of a risk over a newer higher mileage one?
Yes the Prius needs to be driven for the hybrid to be kept in working order. Sitting long periods is the worst thing for the Hybrid batteries. I believe sitting in either hot or cold weather climates will degrade the hybrid sooner. The low miles is good for the body and gas engine. If you can find a hybrid battery replacement in your area when it dies then it would be a good purchase, since these 2nd Gen Prius runs for ever with good maintenance. My area a hybrid battery reconditioned is about $600 installed. My guess is these hybrid batteries last about 1-3 years maybe more. I'm surprised my 2009 has the same hybrid battery at 200k and still is running strong. SM-A526U ?
It’s only a concern if it has problems Largely depends on if it’s been driven regularly. With even 50k miles it could have been. I know many people with used fifteen year old Toyota and Lexus cars that drive less than 4K per year and serviced well. One question is why are they selling it? Test it with Dr Prius or another app.
Speaking from experience of working with dozens of dozens of HV batteries of all years and miles.... A 2007 Prius, at 50k miles, with the original HV battery is a diamond waiting to be unearthed. Your battery is likely the perfect candidate for a prolong system and will very likely be near 'new' condition after a round of treatment. These are the batteries I love to find, because they end up testing 6500-7200mAh after a round of cycles and are awesome for building a battery. There is NO WAY I would have someone swap a rebuilt battery into that car and take the OEM as trade. They'll walk away laughing.
There's an 08 not far from me with a replaced battery it looks like it was probably replaced in the last 10 months the guy wants $800 for what's left of the car I don't really have use for the battery at this point and the interior and mess that's left I don't really need but somebody might
Buy that car if you’ll be driving a lot! I bought my 06 with 60k miles in the end of 2020 (little older than yours, but little more miles) Long story short, I’ve driven over 30k miles since then. Still a healthy battery to my knowledge, as SOC rarely fluctuates, and my mpg is 45+ still. (calculated with miles driven per gallons at the pump)
ANY used Prius has some risk of the HV battery failing- at some point. It's all about your available budget and risk tolerance. If you want an old hybrid, best to set aside money for battery replacement if/when it's needed. You can get an OBD2 Bluetooth adapter and an app like Dr Prius and Hybrid Assistant, then drive the car to monitor voltage differences between HV battery blocks under heavy accel and decel. Also you can perform a HV battery "capacity test", again while monitoring voltages. If all that looks good then it's less likely that you will have battery problems soon- but it can still happen. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
Or Gen 4 batteries, I'm looking at one from a 2016 salvage with 45K been sitting for 3 years, $700US or a 2018 100K for $900 sitting for 6 months.
Get an inspection before buying. These cars can be expensive to buy and expensive to repair. It is easy to clear a bad battery warning. It is useful to pull the plugs. Bad battery Oil burner
