Buying a 2015 Prius 2 with 102k miles advice

In today's market, $11k for 2015 is a very good deal. What's the history on the car? I would run a carfax to make sure the mileage is accurate.

2015 would be the best year of the 3rd gen car. Can't go wrong if it's accident free and good maintenance records

 

Just off the top of my head, can never resist:

Look for leaves under the hood? Typically around the wipers, cabin air inlet. Not a deal breaker, but gives you some idea of the previous owner's attitude. Also check the dipstick, on level ground: pull-and-wipe, wait 5 minutes, reinsert and check level. One side will tend to be clearer than the other.

While waiting that 5 minutes, go around and check all the tire pressures. Check the rims for curb rash; look through to check brake rotor appearance.

Check the engine air filter condition. Have a look at the fuse box, looks clean/complete? Check engine/inverter coolant reservoir levels, brake reservoir level/condition.

Take out the hatch floor tray, have a look at the spare's condition/pressure, 12 volt battery condition, and look for signs of water incursion, general cleanliness. If you've got an electronic 12 volt battery tester, now's the time. Make sure the tool tray has complete jack and lug nut wrench, and locking lug-nut socket, if so equipped.

Look around the door, hood and hatch hinges: are there great gobs of spray-on lube, soot. Check condition of door handles, door sills, carpeting, seat upholstery, dash, columns and headliner. Check the condition of the seat hold-down bolts: do they look at all crusty/rusty? Look under the dash: anything dangling, odd looking?

Look under the car and in the wheel wells: any plastic dangling/missing? Look at the front, down the sides, at the rear. Do a thorough walk-around, looking for dings, whatever.

 

just broken in! if it hasn't seen an accident and drives nicely, i'd grab it before it's gone.

only potential problem might be the brake actuator. listen to how often it comes on, although it probably has a few more years at least, or maybe the 15 is improved?

 

I second this!

If you can pay attention to the hybrid battery at all that would be good. On my gen 2 on the mfd i can see voltages on maintenance mode and see when starting the car how its affected. Maybe explore youtube for that on gen 3 although I am not sure if that will even give you a good idea on battery health

 

Thing is, any savvy seller "can" top up the oil, but it doesn't hurt to snoop. If it happens to be down to the low mark, or worse, just another tick for the "con" side of the check list.

 

At 100k miles, your car will soon need a major service. This will include changing out the following items

1. Filters
2. spark plugs
3. all the coolant
4. change brake fluid, possibly change brakes
5. change transaxle fluid
6. And the really time consuming intake and EGR cleaning.

So there you have it, spend $11k and do a bunch of DIY maintenance and you'll be good as new again

 

Mendel. Are you ill? Have you had all your shots? Where is the urgent egr cleaning advice?

 

You may be onto something. I better avoid operating heavy machinery today. Jab #3 is very imminent...

 

^ I had no symptoms from Jab #3.....so they either hit me with saline or I'm building up a tolerance for the soon-to-be mandated 4th shot.

@egr circuit.
Cleaning it now won't hurt, but it can probably wait a little.
I'd want to know how well the OP knows the 'family' member who is selling the car.......but it looks promising.
I have family members that I would buy a car from sight-unseen for street value ++.

Others would not be able to GIVE me a car if I had to drive it regularly for any length of time.


Other than that.....
All of the above checks PLUS A forensic check of the maintenance records would otherwise be called for, but sometimes a car (like all of mine!) with zero dealer maintenance items is a PLUS.
It might indicate an owner who actually took ONERSHIP of the ownership task.

YMMV

Good Luck to the OP!!

 

Heck I cleaned the EGR at 70K…, kilometres…

 

Get rid of it. Don't buy a 2010-2014 with over 100k miles even if verified. Too many real problems on top of the scam artists. That car could easily cost you 5k in the next few months with an engine lurking after. There are guys promoting odo rollbacks on this forum as well so its easy and you can't trust some of the guys here either.

I tend to agree legal action is slow and ineffective under the circumstances because of the qualifiers on the bill of sale and title. Tell the seller you will return it but can't take that much of a loss. However a hybrid battery or a brake booster is $2200-$2600 each and head gaskets are $2k to $5k depending how bad they fail. The math says get rid of it.

 

Odometer fraud is a big deal. Very common now with used cars. Always pull a carfax yourself, don’t get one provided for you from the seller.

 

sorry to hear it d man, all the best!

 

Minus $500 for what? I probably would have charged them $500 for not suing them.