(I did search to see if there were any previous threads about this) I was browsing eBay to see how many Prii they had and for how much and was amazed at the number where the title was listed as "salvage" and are still getting bids. But the thing I found most disturbing, and if this has been covered before, I apologize, was the article that ran alongside the listings along the lines of : Want a hybrid, not so fast..." I'm not a technical expert by any means but even I could see enough holes in his story to qualify it as Swiss Cheese. Has any one debunked this clown?:brick:
I have noticed the same thing. I have seen many 2007-2008's with less than 5,000 miles on them and they are salvaged. I wonder how much damage must be done to make them salvaged? A bent frame?
Hope you gave his article a vote of "Not useful". I did. I bet this idiot has never heard of terms like "TCO". They hybrid "premium" on our 2009 TCH is about $1500 MSRP. I'll be generous and call it $2000 by taking the deeper discounts on non-hybrid Camrys into account (though I paid $1k under invoice for ours in March, which was very fortunate timing). On fuel costs alone we'll save $800 every year @ 15000 miles/yr (using CR's figures of 24mpg for 4-cyl and 34mpg for hybrid, and $4.45/gal fuel cost). Oh yeah, that's soooo not worth it. What was I thinking?
funny.. we bought ours in '06 for just over 25k (package 6) and got the full $3100 tax credit.. so we paid just over 22k in effect and traded in a vehicle that got us 14mpg for the prius which is now averaging 57mpg.. Hmm.. think it was worth it? LOL
Salvage TitleA Salvage Title is issued on a vehicle damaged to the extent that the cost of repairing the vehicle exceeds ~ 75% of its pre-damage value. This damage threshold may vary by state. Some states treat Junk titles the same as Salvage but the majority use this title to indicate that a vehicle is not road worthy and cannot be titled again in that state. The followingeleven states also use Salvage titles to identify stolen vehicles - AZ, FL, GA, IL, MD, MN, NJ, NM, NY, OK and OR. I looked at a 2008 Prius today for $18,900 and it had a salvage title and the warraty was voided. Good price but I wasn't going to risk the money on it.
Wow, thats pretty wild. I did my part and voted "No" on most of his articles, we'll see if we can't drop his visability a bit. Also dropped him an email (below, had to be terse to get in under ebay 1000 character limit) on the off chance he's interested in some correct info. Seems unlikely, appears to be a big consumeraffaris.com fan, or maybe even contributor. Rob
We bought a 2005 with 20k miles last fall for $15k salvage/rebuilt. At that time you couldn't hardly touch a Gen II Prius for under $20k even used, and ours was booking at about $23-25k. We would have preferred to go new or certified pre-owned, but just couldn't afford it. That said, I'd be very careful about buying salvage. Make sure you know who did the work, how much damage there was, and have reason to believe the work was done well. A warranty from the folks that repaired it would be nice too. Rob
Yeh, he went over to "consumer" "affairs" and copied all the complaints they have posted about Priuses. Then he went back to eBay and pasted those whinges as a series of fifteen eBay guides. This violates the copyright of the original authors and the consumer aff. site. You can report that to eBay by clicking the "Report This Guide" link below the article. I saw no point in writing him because other people have and it made no difference. Mere facts do not change his opinion. I saw no reason to help him trim out his most hysterical mistakes.
Check his feedback....a year between eBay purchases and he stops in to bless everyone with his incredible insight. Drive-by flamer.
there is quite the industry in rebuilding cars. newer ones especially, we personally plug a lot of time into buying super cheap older cars, fixing and selling them. we don't bother with salvage, but there are plenty who do. good profits if you've got the startup cash.
