Buying Gen 2 Prius/Advice/Help

I agree that it is an incredible car, but if it were me, I wouldn't be completely comfortable getting into a high-mileage example with limited resources. Reliability has been very good, but the car is not immortal and the HV battery certainly is not the only concern. There are many other cost-prohibitive issues that could arise as the odometer reading climbs, including the transaxle, inverter, any of the various ECUs, the suspension, steering system, the gasoline engine, etc. I would be more comfortable getting something basic until I saved up enough or secured sufficient income to acquire a less-used (or new) example.

It's a difficult decision, and things could go any number of ways, but sometimes things don't go as we planned.

 

What are your thoughts going forward, with your Prius? Like many GenII owners, my 2006 is not worth very much anymore, somewhere around $5400. Though this vehicle has been incredibly reliable, I know it is not immortal. Mine has 138k and This is still my go to car for long trips.
I need to plan on a HV battery replacement in the next couple of years. $2000 at best for a new battery if I DIY. I'm OK with that repair, but the above repairs you mention could be worth more than the car as a whole.

So I feel like I'm at somewhat of a crossroads. Either plan on the inevitable HV replacement and other repairs that come up that could surpass the value of the vehicle, or sell it while the "getting is good". I certainly have the money to keep my car going as long as I want to, but I also don't want to be foolish, and have this eventually become a money pit.

 

When I bought my 2015 in March, I offered the 2004 in trade. The offered trade in value was so low that I figured I would continue to drive the 2004 to work - so the 2015 mostly sits in the garage and hasn't logged much usage to date - just on weekends primarily.

The 2004 has logged 212K miles to date. I use that vehicle to commute ~25 miles one way to the office. Indicated mpg typically is in the low 50's. The car is working great!!

The 2004 has demonstrated incredible reliability, lasting much longer than I had expected. Minor repairs: replaced the struts/shocks, front brake pads, engine coolant pump, hatch support struts and the driver/passenger cabin visors. The 12V battery was replaced proactively a couple of times. Several sets of tires, obviously. I found that Bridgestone Ecopia offered the best value when considering price, tread life and performance. MFD and inverter coolant pump had been replaced under warranty. Combination meter, traction battery, AC system, engine, transaxle, inverter all original with no signs of issues. No water leaks in the hatch - even though the car had been in three accidents over its life.

The struts/shocks probably could use replacing again soon.

Especially if you can DIY the traction battery, then if I were you, I would continue to drive the car until it required a costly repair that you could not manage yourself. Then have the car towed to the salvage yard and sign over the ownership certificate. That is my approach to the dilemma you posed, and it has worked extremely well for me.

A prospective owner who is looking at a used Prius may not be so fortunate. It partly depends upon how well the Prius had been cared for and luck has a role. Hence, all of the cautionary statements earlier in the string that the OP must be prepared for substantial repair costs on a Prius that has been heavily used.

 

Patrick thank you for your advice. I very much lean towards keeping my old Prius and "driving it to the ground".

Even though the book value of my Prius isn't very much, it is still such a solid car, and drives like new, especially after I DIY'd my front and rear suspension and bought new tires a few months ago.
I have owned 25 cars in the last 24 years ( among them BMW's, Mercedes, and even a money pit of a Range Rover) and I must say this Prius is the car I have enjoyed the most. The car is so solid and comfortable yet gives me 45mpg without trying. I have a tendency to be illogical about car ownership, which makes me OK with sinking more money into a car than I should. Where a $2000 repair might cause many owners to give up on their car, I look at it as still cheaper overall than spending money on a new or used vehicle no starting over. But if I were to see a string of such problems As stated in above posts, that would be a very bad thing!

 

I had a similar vehicle ownership pattern as you. When I was younger and a yuppie I spent lots of $$$ on vehicles including MBZ, BMW and Jaguar. In retrospect lots of the purchases were stupid but I learned a tremendous amount about those vehicles, in particular that the luxury European brands have really outrageous maintenance costs and the electronics are of dubious reliability.

 

European cars indeed are outrageous to maintain, and you don't really get much extra in return, other than a nice looking car. Toyota quality really is something of a miracle. And value for the money is unbeatable.

 

I'm having problems right now so maybe this will help someone.

1) The engine has always knocked. The dealer said it was normal. (HA!) One day the knocking was three times louder so I knew there was a problem. (I have 236000 miles on the car.)

2) Possibly unrelated, the very same day the battery would not charge. More precisely, it would not charge while driving. It would charge in the driveway, while coasting to a stop, or while breaking. The dealer said it was the 12 volt battery ... and it is true, that battery had a bad cell. (After 10 years, not too shabby.) But driving it off the lot the battery had no charge and was doing the same damn thing. So much for dealers. The mechanic said it was "normal" for it to fluctuate. I could not get him to understand that it was NOT normal for it to go down into the purple while driving. Idiots. Best guess ... the traction battery may be starting to fail. Or maybe it is a weak alternator?

3) The dealer said that the loud knock was a problem with the top end. After charging me $150 to diagose the problem and another $200 to do a "top end service", he said it was a bad engine. I asked what SPECIFICALLY was wrong and he said that it was impractical to find out as the labor to open the engine was more than replacing it. He wanted $6350 for a used engine with 108,000 miles on it. I did not even ask what a new one was (in fact, he said they don't make new ones ... the "re-manufacture" them. So basically "troubleshooting' was hearing the knock and saying the engine needed replacing.

4) The price of a new traction battery is $5100.

The mechanic (and my independent mechanic) both said to bag it and run it until it explodes then junk it. I did find an independent Toyota shop that would replace my engine with a used one for $2700 (no details about miles on it or warranty). If an independent could get a new traction battery for a reasonable price it might pay to keep it running, but it would have to be cheap. As it stands, the dealer wants north of $10K to replace the motor and battery, and that is before he adds the inevitable few hundred for incidentals.

My recommendations: realize that this is a small 4 cylinder engine that is stopping and starting thousands of times more than an engine in a conventional car. The battery is WAY MORE expensive than the kind of wishful thinking I've seen in some of these posts. HOWEVER, we have gotten 10 years and a quarter of a MILLION miles on this car and average 46.6 MPG ... this when gas was $4.00 / gallon. I guess what we saved in gas over a quarter of a million miles has paid for the engine and battery.

 

Just got a quote today. It is $5100 for a traction battery, installed. Plus all kinds of extra rip off stuff the dealer comes up with that will add a few hundred to it.

 

Brand new engine short block is available from Toyota.