Opinions on if I should buy

Keep the $4500 to spend on your own car instead.

 

Yep, IMHO your gen 2 is actually more reliable than the gen 3's. If your car is in decent shape, I'd spend the $4.5K on repair cost.

If you buy that newer car, you will be out $4.5K and still need to spend more money on repair cost. There's 206K reasons to expect major repairs are around the next corner. Your car is only at 180K and your expecting repairs.......

Hopefully saying this out loud will help you make a decision......

 

2008 is way better than 2010

 

It's almost identical to 2010, other than being slightly less aged. Any used car is a gamble, especially at that mileage. As others have noted, the 3rd-generation Prius has some expensive weaknesses that your 2008 doesn't.
That said, my 2011 has been nearly trouble-free so far (except its failing clear coat, and disintegrated rubber window trim strip), but has been only about two-thirds of that mileage.

 

If you want to jump ahead to a less-used Prius that has an honest shot of 1) having fewer quirks than your car today plus 2) a good outlook for at least a few more trouble-free years, then you should be aiming for 2016 or newer.

 

I would go with the 2010 Prius, the only big issue they have is the head gasket, it cost to fix, but it's easier to work than the 2008. also the 2008 has 3 big major issues that cost a lot to fix, brake actuator, the cluster light, and the battery and some engine issue

 

2010-15 Prius and 2012-17 Prius v with high miles is a big no.

The hybrid battery is expected and will cost you. The 2010-14 also have low tension rings to carbon up the egr, intake and head. It leads to excessive oil burning and head gasket failures. Some who "wait" because the hg symptoms are not typical blow holes in the block.

Then we have brake booster failures which no longer covered by an extended customer service program, $2500 right there. Don't forget the weak inverter which can strand you without warning. Toyota still covers this but it makes the car potentially unpredictable from a reliability standpoint. On the plus side the transaxle is good as is the ac system. A conventional Corolla, Camry or Civic will give you lower cost of ownership and can be repaired by the good old boy down the road.

 

For any third gen for sale with more than 150K miles, there's a decent chance it's being ditched, due to a blown head gasket. Doubly so when the price is so "good".

 

if you can only afford a few thousand, i think you might get more for your money with a non hybrid, and the repairs will be cheaper too, with more places able to work on them, and less expensive components.
i wouldn't hesitate to do the work your car needs, except the electrical gremlins, they can be tricky, and quite costly to track down.

 

trying to find things you’ve written here about the owners here (like me) driving one of these old Prius v models for past 10 years. Having to pay for the hybrid battery this week.
What can we do preemptively on these other items? Or should we just sell asap?

 

What precisely can we do with friendly mechanic down the street on preemptive maintenance especially on
1) head gasket
2) brake booster
3) inverter

obviously I lost the lottery here with hv battery failure at 125,000 miles. 10 years in

 

Age and heat kills hv batteries. Be sure the battery cooling fan is not clogged or the intake is not blocked. On a v wagon the intake is under the passenger rear seat and has no filter.

The vin on your 2014 v allows you to determine if the engine has updated pistons and rings. If the last six digits are higher than the table below, based on the manufacturing plant, you have updated pistons and rings, reducing your chances for oil burning, carbon buildup and head gasket failure. The v wagon plant digit will be a 3 or a J.



Regardless of rings, oil changes every 5k miles instead of 10k miles is highly recommended.

If you have an oil burner, egr cooler and intake manifold cleanings would be smart at 100k and then every 50k miles. This is not cheap at a shop, perhaps $600 - $1000 each time. No oil burning and maybe you can clean the carbon buildup every 100k miles.

Temperature thermal cycling. Don't let the car idle in Ready for long periods and avoid routine stop and go commutes of 30 minutes or more. Too much thermal cycling of the engine and particularly the cylinders is a likely contributor to hg failures.

No guarantees these will avoid a hg repair. There are fundamental design issues. When the severe metal to metal morning shakes start and quickly smooth out for the rest of the day with no codes, start planning on a head gasket. Don't wait until its every day and you are losing coolant fast. The engines will bend rods or blow holes in the block for some who wait too long.

For the brake booster system it might be worth a complete Techstream flush at 100k intervals. This is a comprehensive flush that ensures all passages of the master cylinder are included.

The inverter needs a Toyota firmware update to hopefully reduce stress on its power transistors. Check with the dealer based on your specific vin.

Keeping the two cooling systems functional is obvious but the most important thing is to shutdown if a temp light or hybrid light comes up.

 

^ Pretty thorough hit list. One more thing: engine coolant pump (aka water pump) has a plastic impeller, worth replacing (along with thermostat) by 150k miles.

 

If you cant afford a gen 4 Prius I would keep and repair your 2008. $4,500 will replace the hybrid battery, full brake job, detail the interior, and get the combo meter fixed at Texas Hybrid Batteries. Might even have money towards a new ABS Booster. But a good used Corolla is not a bad idea.....find a 2012 corolla...not sure about the updated pistons and rings on those.....