Looking to buy a used Gen II, questions about the battery...

Well if you are worried about the battery failing, the $1000 estimate you are thinking is a bit off. The new batteries cost upwards of $3000.

With all hybrids, once they older, the hv battery will always be an issue. You would need to save up money from day one to pay for the replacement battery

 

I have 2007 with 244k, original battery.

 

This would go with the story of the 2007 with 125k miles that needs a replacement battery. YMMV

 

I wonder if climate or use ( I drive at least 100 miles a working day) has anything to do with battery life.

 

Well there is our long haul resident courier that went 465k on his original battery, then he traded it in for a new one. But it was still going......

There are many factors to making it last longer.........but I don't really know LOL

 

Nobody really knows, my guess would be 1 or 2 modules going bad. But the others in the pack won't be too far behind. Replacing failed modules is not a reliable long term repair

 

buy a civic or corolla.

 

Make sure the cars have a clean title, not a salvage title. Seems at least in So Cal many Prius under $ 8k seems salvage titled.

 

Welcome!

I'm not an expert, but from ownership experience and what I have researched/read (much of it here):

HV battery failure rates are still quite low (much lower than Honda's Honda Civic Hybrid Battery Reliability Problems - Consumer Reports News). The life of the HV pack seems to be better measured in years than in miles, so if you're worried about it, you might try for the newer model year examples, even if they have gone more miles. Those that are driven a lot (like taxis) have the highest miles on the original HV packs. Those that sit around are more likely to have the pack fail at lower odometer readings.


There are other things that can go wrong, but the HV battery is probably the most "famous". Overall, Prius reliability is very high and cost of ownership is very low. It never hurts to have some extra money stored away though, even if just to keep Murphy's law on your side.

There seem to be various types of pack failures. Some are easily remedied by those who bravely open up the pack and investigate. Another popular route is a salvage pack swap. There are businesses (some come to you) to swap the failed pack with a reconditioned unit, usually at a cost of $800-1200.

There are theories that high temperatures (being parked outside in hot climates) and frequent voltage-cycling, experienced by cars often driven in mountainous terrain, are stressors that can shorten HV pack life.

Those with packs starting to fail usually notice the HV cooling fan frequently running at high speed (intake is on the passenger side, rear seat bolster) and faster changes in HV state of charge than normal, before warning lights eventually illuminate.

I'm a big fan of these cars though. They're great to own. For most, it's just a matter of keeping the 12v aux battery and tires fresh, in addition to the regular oil/filter changes. The only other thing I've run into is a leaky engine coolant pump--look for pink crusty buildup inside the large black pulley, near the bottom of the passenger side of the engine. Dad and I have had our '07s since new and are planning on keeping them many more years. I don't have any particular worries about the HV pack--it still works just like new.

My car-shopping strategy includes seeking cars that are lower-optioned--it often makes for an easier ownership experience. For example, the HID headlamps (paired with foglamps) tend to be less reliable than the conventional headlamps on lower-optioned cars. Also, many prefer the sound of the base audio system to the optional, JBL system.

Option packages are different for each model year. You can look them up in the brochures here: Toyota Prius Touchup Paint Codes, Image Galleries, Brochure and TV Commercial Archives (on the right, below color chart. Click a brochure and then on the red, "view" button).

 

Averaged over time, this car also has about the lowest maintenance cost of anything you can buy. It's just that that low average can come in the form of years of pretty much nothing at all with occasional pricier lumps. If you're able to stash away the money it's not costing you most years, the lumps will be easy to pay for when they come. Buying used, of course you have to evaluate the risk that your first lump comes along before you've saved that much for it.

Obsessing about the battery is what all of us do here, because it seems to be the one thing everybody who's ever heard of a Prius knows it has (and might have heard about first in all the FUD from the early years about how it would fail every 3 years, etc.).

On balance, Consumer Reports finally, just a year or two ago, accumulated enough data to compute a Prius battery failure rate. (Until then, they didn't have enough reports of failures to do reliable statistics!) IIRC, they were seeing a failure rate of 4% by year 11, rising to 5% by year 12.

Note that if you spend a lot of time reading PriusChat you hear stories about battery issues that will seem more frequent than that ... a selection bias effect. Lots of people with Prii never post on PriusChat, but many people who think they might have battery problems will look us up and post here.

If you can arrange your finances to not be too put out by a, say, 1 in 20 chance that your battery expense comes in your first year of ownership, you should be fine.

Don't forget there's also a whole car there. I bought mine at 7 years old with 125,000 and immediately came to PriusChat and started asking about how to prepare for the imminent death of the battery. It's now 14 years with 224,000 and I'm still waiting for the imminent death of the battery, but in the meantime have had two failed wheel bearings, a couple sticky brake calipers, worn out stabilizer bar links, a worn out driver's door hinge and the driver's door lock motor, and had to readjust the A/C compressor clutch (which, you, buying a Gen 2, will never have to do). You know, all the regular car stuff that tends to wear out while you're worrying about the battery. None of it very expensive, spread out over seven years I've had the car.

-Chap

 

Hard call on the used Gen2. Seems to me Consumer Reports here in April_2015 may have dropped most of the Gen2 years (can't recall about 2008) off from their most recommended older used cars list...not that we here give that too much weight to that. But I see what Bisco is saying. Gen3 (2010+) they like and if you're inside of 8-yr old and 100k miles you have hybrid warranty (I assume DFW = TX = non CARB).

 

interesting news.......who were the ones that reported the low failure rates in Prius batteries? was the consumer reports?

 

Yes.

Honda Civic Hybrid — Shocking Battery Failure Rates | PriusChat
Honda Civic Hybrid Battery Reliability Problems - Consumer Reports News

 

If this is your first car, and you just want something reliable with low maintenance cost, I would buy corolla or civic. With prius out of hybrid warranty you need to have a cash reserve of 2-3 k$ for unexpected failure of battery or transmission.
Battery degrades slowly, but up to a certain threshold computer does not care, and after the threshold you suddenly have all dashboard light up. The car will be still driveable, but with very decreased mileage and performance. New battery from Toyota can be purchased for ~$2300 now.
Alex

 

a prius won't save you money over a corolla. you'll pay more for the equivalent prius than you'll save on gas, especially at $2.50/gal.

 

OK...
So you're looking for a college car.
I congratulate you on thinking about an econobox instead of a truck or a sports car.

How far is your commute?
How many miles will you be putting on this thing a year do you suppose?

I wouldn't necessarily exclude a Prius from my list, but it is true that you might be able to get a more dependable car for your 8K budget in the non-hybrid market.
If you commute to school and work and put lots of miles on the car then the Prius might still be able to save you money since you can expect about 15MPG more with it than a Corolla or a Civic.
OTOH, 8K spent on one of those cars would get you something much more dependable.

Your call.
Good Luck in school!

Watch out for those student loans!!!

 

Say, where are you finding all those cars that are "much more dependable" than a Prius?

More importantly, how are you managing to keep them all hidden so Consumer Reports can't find them?

Neither Corolla nor Civic come out as well as Prius in the April 2015 CR used car reliability figures for '09 through '14. (The only models that do match it are the Honda Fit and three models from Toyota's Lexus division.)

That has a good gut-level, intuitive appeal, but it's worth hopping over to some of the online Total Cost of Ownership calculators, such as the one from Edmunds which I've just tried. It puts a 2009 Prius (earliest it'll do) at $25,560 for five years and the comparable Corolla at $28,024. Part of that seems to be, indeed, they haven't caught up to $2.50 gasoline. Their figures seem to imply a price in the $3.10 to $3.30 range. So if you think that range is high for an average price of gasoline over the coming five years, you might want to adjust their figures for a lower fuel price. (I just did that on the back of an envelope for $2.50, keeping all their other figures constant, and Prius was still ahead, but only by about $1100 instead of nearly $2500. Personally, I think $2.50 is probably low for an average price of gasoline in the coming five years.)

This does depend on driving mostly far enough to warm the Prius up ... it doesn't achieve its rated mileage doing all short hops. (I have a Gen 1 where that effect is very significant; I think they've managed to make it less severe in later models.)

But for the OP there is the matter of cash flow. It may be that the Prius has overall the lowest TCO for five years, but if a large lump of that might come in year 1 or 2 and the OP might not have resources to deal with it, then maybe another car with a larger overall TCO but with costs in a steadier, more predictable stream would be preferable.

-Chap