So right now these are my two options. The 05 has over 98,000 miles and the carfax shows that it has been well maintained and I'm extremely confident in that. The 06 has over 65,000 miles, but the carfax does not show regular maintenance done to the vehicle. I won't know more about either vehicles until Monday, the 06 is a little cheaper, but I don't know what package either car has. Based on these facts which car would you be more comfortable with choosing? (I do plan on having a Prius tech check out whatever car I'm really interested in.)
On my previous vehicle, I did most of the easy maintenance myself including oil changes, fuel filters, air filters, radiator flush & fill, spark plugs, etc. What maintenance does Carfax show? Either car will have new brakes and tires (since purchase I assume). Is there much else that is needed besides belts?
I suggest you go for the 06. Ask the seller about maintenance records, Carfax service records would not show do-it-yourself or other than dealer activity.
I've never seen a carfax that showed maitenance even when done by a dealer for any car and I've looked at hundreds of reports. I'd go for the '06 and get the records from the owner. If it was from the dealer, see if it was dealer maintained. The dealer can look it up and any work done at any toyota dealer will show up in the computers of all dealers. If it was DIY, then it's a crap shoot.
go for the 06. they changed a few things between 05 and 06.. like tire pressure monitors, rearview camera, nav changes, and suspension changes.
Depends on the price of each. There is very little difference between 04 thru 09. I made my decision when I bought mine based on the miles and price. I picked my 04 because it was the cheapest price/miles left to 150k miles. It may sound over simplified but the Prius is a very reliable car so unless it was abused either one would be fine. I decided that I'd take the asking price and divide it by the amount of miles left to get to 150k. That gave me an easy way to figure out which Prius was the best deal. I bought my 04 a month ago and it had 42k miles on it and was only $13K. The only other one that was even close to that value was an 07 that had 11k miles for $17k. The 04 was .12/mile while the 07 was .122/mile. Most of the other ones that I looked at where around .15/mile. I picked the 04 over the 07 because it saved me $4k and it had more options.
