Buying a used prime - car longativity/Durability versus 4G prius

I sold my 2012 Prius PHV to a good friend. It's still running just fine. I sold my 2017 Prius Prime to my niece. It's expected to deliver quite a number of years still. With regard to 15-20 years of use, I don't see the point. Upon reaching year 15 or so, a replacement battery with 2 to 3 times the capacity will be dirt cheap. That purchase would allow you to milk the vehicle for quite a number of more years.

 

it's hard to judge longevity because it's so subjective. buying used, it may be difficult to ascertain use and abuse, and proper maintenance.
overall, i'd say you're good for a total of about 20-25 years before needing a battery.

 

The Prime has different battery chemistry than all the cordless models. That means the end of the battery's life is probably going to have different symptoms and timing.

I think 15-20 years is a reasonable time horizon. Toyota is pretty good at getting everything to wear out evenly.

Watch out for mice. Already read of one car totaled because a couple of mice chewed the wiring harness, which is insanely expensive in the Prime.

 

The electric motors and transaxle are pretty much in the "never fails" category. I mean statistically some had to go bad but that's just crazy rare.

The battery started going bad the minute it was assembled, and you just decide how far you want to let that knife drop before you catch it. Seems like you are already on board with that.

The HVAC system in the Prime cars is unusual and sophisticated even by Prius standards. They seem to be durable and reliable thus far, but when one does go it won't be cheap.

The whole economics game with the Prius is down to utilization. If you are driving a lot of miles, the car will save you money. If you aren't driving much, it's the same risk of complexity causing an expensive service visit, but without the odometer bragging points.

 

I would expect a 2017 or newer Prime to last a long time. I only have 30K miles on my 2017, but it has had zero problems since new. 90% of my trips are less than 25 miles, so the engine is seldom used. I would guess that the engine has roughly 5K miles on it now. The battery is warranted for 100K miles, so unless I abuse the car, it will last longer than I will. Since you will have the car so long, I would recommend that you buy the top model (advanced for 2017) as some of the safety items are worth having. The rear cross traffic alert has saved my nice person a few times while backing out between two long SUVs.

 

I vote 'no' because the original Prius plug-in was based on the 3rd generation car, and that version of the car had a significant problem rate regarding engine cooling, ultimately manifesting as blown head gaskets.

Toyota appears to have made significant improvements to that gasoline engine going into the 4th generation models, which include the early Prime models.

Beyond that, the youngest Prius plug-in is what, 2015? That battery knife has fallen further. We still don't know what happens at the bottom, but it's a good bet that there is less time to enjoy the drop.

If you want to keep a single car over a long span of years, a simple low-tech car is the way to go. Counts double when buying secondhand.

Just to say it another way: Any Prius is a significant risk of expensive repairs later. Are you driving enough kms that you will save enough fuel to offset those potential costs?

We're right on the edge with the math for our car. It isn't likely to save us enough to offset the higher future repair costs. But we went for it anyway because we liked it that much.

 

2012 plug in is pretty darned reliable 12 years later, outside of some egr clogging/head gaskets, but the ev miles mitigate a little of that

 

idk the difference
i lost about 10% the first year or two, then less than 5% over the following 9 years. it had 87k on it when i traded last summer, 60k was pure ev. but others in the plug in thread with much higher mileages haven't had much degradation either.
i imagine the prime is even better.

 

It's quite difficult to forecast the lifespan of a new car. It's even more difficult if the car is a new design or is using new materials. The Prime has been using Li-Ion battery packs since 2016. I use the "TOYOTA" cell phone app to get an idea how well the battery is being used. It tells me how much charge is remaining when the charging starts every day. Based on the information in that app, I deduce the following:

The gen4 Prius Prime has only one high voltage traction battery pack. The car will let you drive under battery power until the state of charge reaches what it calls 30%. Then it uses that 30% to buffer the calls for more power or calls to store regenerated power from braking. When charging at home after a 500 mile drive, it will charge the battery by bringing it up from 30% to 100%.

The original Prius design used NiMH batteries that they hoped would last at least 7 years. The engineers did a great job of coddling the batteries so that they lasted a LOT longer than expected. I got about 12 years on mine. By the time one of the battery cells needed to be replaced the car was 17 years old and the price of a replacement traction battery was under 1,000 dollars.

You are not necessarily buying some one else's trouble when you buy used. I say this because I tend to clean up a car before selling it. My 2002 Prius had only 4,000 miles on the new tires. The paint clear coat needed to be cleaned up. The car had about 175,000 on the odo and I was driving it 1000 miles once or twice a month. When I sold my 2017 Prius Prime it had 75,000 miles on it from the same monthly interstate trek. It also had pretty new tires, windshield wipers, 12V battery and such.

I'm hoping that my new 2024 Prius Prime will last a long time. It's starting to look like we will have real self driving cars by the time I'm ready to replace it. Mercedes already has one that's legal in California to drive without watching for traffic hazards.

 

There's possibly a way to find out about the history of something you're buying 2nd hand if the owner has done regular maintenance etc. Ask the owner for a copy of what has been done. Usually if it's done through a dealer then a copy of the record should be available. The owner might also have records.
AS far as what can go wrong you can look at any recalls by Toyota for the type of vehicle you're looking at and add that to the decision process.

 

Be aware that most of the last generation primes up for sale are already past the battery warranty as folks who buy them seem to drive immense miles every year.

These cars also seem to be vastly overpriced selling at 100,000+ miles for virtually the same price as new.

I was hoping “pandemic pricing “ was over but that’s only true if I want to buy a half price pickup and not a car or hybrid.

ah well

 

Maybe somebody found a way to get one moving around for a youtube stunt, but other than that? No... just, no.

A Prius cannot start its gas engine without a functioning hybrid battery.

It also cannot use its gas engine to drive in reverse. That must be done by electric power.

A Prius is a finely balanced system. When the battery gets weak the gas engine will work a lot harder. When the battery dies completely the rest of the car is out of a job.

 

Just a side note to supplement what Leadfoot said...

There are circumstances where a Gen1 will travel despite having a battery with a flaw in it. Mine had a battery with one cell that was leaking. As a result there was a voltage leak to the car's frame. Despite lots of errors on the screen it was driveable to the dealer to get the battery or the cell within the battery replaced.