Newbie looking at 2013 Prius C 2

Seems like a lot of money for a 10 year old car.

Probably the best way to think of the hybrid battery is that it ages out whether you use it or not. So if you keep driving it, you get the most value out of it. No refunds for unused potential.

Honestly it probably didn't miss much more- flush the brake fluid, check the coolant levels, replace the 12v battery and replace the tires.

The big problem is that the price is far too high for a car that is going to need a hybrid battery replacement pretty soon. Heck I don't know that it's a good price for the same car with a brand new battery installed in it, just seems crazy high but I know the market is badly distorted right now.

Edit:

Adding, the c is is a remix of stuff seen in other models. It's the same engine as the 2nd generation Prius. It has its own transaxle based on a simplification of the 3rd generation model. It's got a feature or two that later showed up in the 4th generation Prius, like the exhaust heat harvester.

In the end, they're the most reliable version of the Prius- but even on the best, the batteries are life-limited and the calendar says this one's going to demand a $3k transplant soon.

 

IDK if this is a recommended service but many of us have changed the transaxle fluid as a be-nice-to-your-hybrid gesture.
I changed mine at 30k and 90k.
FWIW my 2013 C has been extremely reliable. In 97k it has needed: a 12v battery, 1 set of tires + snow tires, 1 wheel bearing and front brakes. But YMMV.

Leadfoot usually gives this valuable bit of advice, but I second it: Check the intake of the battery cooling fan (under the Left, Rear seat).
If the filter is clogged the HV battery will have been running hotter than desired and hence may be expected to fail sooner.

Good luck with your haggling, and/or good luck with your new-to-you C!

 

AND it likely needs tires NOW and probably a 12 V battery too.

My family has had 4 C's and we love them but I just can't convince myself that one of that age is in any way
a good value to buy......at most any price.

 

I didn't offer much answer to this part.

It's hard to judge a battery to begin with. Toyota put a lot of effort into making these cars work exactly the same through the lifespan of the battery until one day it just says "nope."

That makes it easy to enjoy the car consistently throughout the lifespan of the battery. It makes it really hard to figure out how close to the edge you are.

You can get data from the car with diagnostic dongles talking to phone apps, and you can try seat-of-pants methods too. One style involves timing the discharge of the battery. You begin by setting the dash to show the battery charge, driving a bit to get the battery fully charged, then you stop driving and crank up the air conditioner and see how long it takes to draw the battery back down to where the engine starts. A healthy battery can go for a few minutes, a weak one will draw down much faster.

As for how long they last?

These cars were introduced in 2012, and we don't really know how long the batteries will go. We can learn a lot from looking at the big-body Prius and other Toyota hybrids and there are some other clues. The big Prius has been around longer, so there's more history.

We know Toyota was on the hook to replace these c batteries under warranty for 8 years, not 10 years like the big-body model with its larger battery.

My own personal bet is that we'll get 10 years out of our battery in our car.

The gas engines in these are ridiculously reliable. They sound like sewing machines at low RPM and they get buzzy with exhaust notes as RPM goes up. This is to say that they never sound musically satisfying. It isn't a very pleasing sound even when they're perfect. They will knock and misfire with a bad racket when the spark plugs wear out, but that's an easy cure and not a thing you'd casually miss.

 

Yes exactly.

And getting to anywhere near 200K miles is not as easy as some people make it seem.

A used Corolla with similar mileage is likely to be a MUCH better value over time.......just for instance.

 

That makes it an easier math problem.

So lets compare this 2013 Prius c to an imaginary 2013 Corolla both starting from 87k miles and assuming a finishline goal at 200k miles, probably in the year 2027:

A 2013 Corolla is a ~30mpg car, so it'll need 3767 gallons of fuel to run 113,000 miles.

The Prius c at 47.5mpg would need 2378 gallons for the same run.

That's about $5,000 less at today's fuel prices- more than enough to pay for the hybrid battery replacement. But we don't know the price of the 2013 Corolla in this example.

The Corolla would need more maintenance overall, but the good side is that it can be done by the cheapest mechanics anywhere.

With a Prius it can be harder to find somebody willing to work on it or you're stuck paying the top-dollar dealer service rates.

Run the numbers yourself to make sure. You'll see that if your mileage demand is closer to 20k per year, then the Prius is closer to a break-even. With even less mileage demand, the Prius becomes a bad deal compared to many ordinary cars.

 

My older C's were lucky to get 40 under real world driving conditions.
The newer ones are close to 45.

 

I just used the numbers listed on fuelly.com for 2013 corolla and 2013 prius c.

Sometimes I get 60 in ours, sometimes I get 35; I'm sure you've seen the same kind of variation. But I had to pick a number for the comparison, and I figured a public average site like fuelly would be as good as anything.

 

NOT if they are reporting the displayed number on the dash it isn't.

 

IF you tend to drive FAST on those long trips, the fuel mileage gain from a hybrid will disappear or shrink rapidly.

 

>>anticipating some cross country driving trips (back and forth from lower 48 to Alaska) over the next year or two<<

If you are used to the stability and surefootedness of the Subaru, considering what you describe above, I'm not sure a C would be the best choice. Even with good snow tires/chains/studs etc. with the very low ground clearance of the car you may encounter some issues on drives through Canada and Alaska, unless it will only be done in the summer.

 

No, but I do think you are over-thinking this if these trips aren't already locked in.

Sam has a point that if the primary application is long haul interstate, there's less difference between the economy of a Prius and a Corolla (or Matrix).

The Prius c absolutely shines for dense downtown 25mph driving, and is almost as good at 40mph 2-lane secondary highways. It will do a 70mph interstate highway cruise as long as you want, but the fuel savings aren't as dramatic.

Another consideration is that you might have an easier time getting tires and windshields for a Corolla or Matrix. Been a long time since I drove the alcan but that was a real concern back then.

 

The heat harvester showed up in 2010 in the Gen 3 liftback.

You hear more about it in Gen 4, because for some reason the Gen 4 one tends to spring leaks, which never seemed to be a much-reported problem over the six years of the same feature in Gen 3.

 

Thanks for the correction, I didn't realize it was in the 3rds!