Looking at purchasing a high mileage Gen 3

yes

 

It is highly unlikely that you will be able to drive another 70K on a 184K car without replacing the hybrid battery and/or the head gasket (common Gen 3 issue).

If 6K is your budget and you need the car to last you another 70K, I would consider a less expensive car with lower mileage. I would start with something that has under 100K so that it will be in the 175-200K range when you are done with it.

 

I purchased my 2010 prius 2 years ago. It roughly had 180k miles. It still runs really good. Now I'm at around 255k miles. When I bought mine i paid around what the one you looked at is 6500$. I have no regrets.

 

Very impressive. What’s your choice of engine oil and filter brand to use on your Prius?

 

2010-2011 definitely seem more prone to HG failures than newer years, especially 14/15+ but I still think it's not the norm. I think it's just what you hear about on forums, the relatively few cases to those who do not experience problems. I'd say if you find a 2010-2011 and it runs great NOW with no issues, then I would have a thousand bucks ready to go for a new cooler/ valve, pipe, gaskets etc ready to be installed by a good indy, or preferably yourself. it'll buy you some time.

i'd also inquire as to the current owner if he/she has had to add oil between changes. also check the oil level and make sure it's good. if it is, ask when the last time the oil was changed. if a while ago, then it's safe to say it's not burning, as long as the owner is trustworthy. look for fresh oil stains and rag/wipe marks which may show the owner is constantly putting in oil. general advice i give people looking at any car.

 

The likelihood of the battery failing is a matter of time, not mileage. If you said you wanted to get 80K miles out of it, and you drive 40K miles a year, I'd say yeah, you might be able to do that. But 6 years??? Probably not a good bet.
Having said that, the battery wouldn't be my primary concern. Head gasket and oil burning would be higher on my list of worries than a battery failure.

 

IF you go high mileage, be prepared for anything. And don't count on it for your only car. I bought a 2012 with 220,000 on it. Ran well. No indication of HG problems. Some oil consumption and a known issue with the traction battery. Drove it for a few months while I learned about Prius and dinked with the battery issue. I had read about "Clean the EGR system" but since the ICE was doing fine, I just put it on the to-do list, and paid attention to the battery. Most of my driving is hiway. Previous Owner was mostly local. The head gasket blew at 225,000 miles. Car ran fine in the morning, and barely made it home that night ... Bummer ... I am swapping the motor now.
When I got the EGR cooler off the old engine, it was so plugged, I could not force water thru it with a garden hose. I guess the car could stand that when it just putzed around town, but not when pushed down the hiway a lot.

 

How are you at picking lotto tickets? Cause I think you are quite lucky. Hope you have cleaned your EGR system.

 

I have the same experience. Bought my prius at 172k miles (about 5 years ago, 2010 prius) and is still running strong now at 262k. That's 90k miles with no issues except egr code which was fixed after some cleaning . I imagine this car would pass 300k with no problems. It does drink a bit of oil but most cars do. I'm very satisfied with my purchase and also have no regrets, my family always been with Toyota for their reliability

This forum got me scared though with how long people think the Prius would last so my next car would probably be a non hybrid

 

I really think the EGR is the smoking gun for your head gasket failure.

No warning lights? There's a trouble code for EGR malfunction, pretty pathetic of Toyota to design it so the warning comes on just about the time your engine implodes...

 

Where are you located ? $6500 for a gen3 with 180K + is a lot especially for a 2011