Thoughts on purchasing a Rebuilt Prius

it's a big risk, but no one can tell you which side of the divide you'll fall on. most poor repairs will not show up as defective for quite some time.
prius is especially vulberable to shoddy work with all the wiring and ecu's

 

There are little snaky inspection cameras with lights on the end for snaking into places. Not super expensive these days.

One place I would snake one is up through the little flaps where the cruise control stalk sticks out of the steering wheel, to get a glimpse inside there behind the airbag. to see if anything looks like this.

 

Is it a salvage car - or just a car which has been repaired properly after an accident? If it's been repaired properly, the warranty should stand.

You have to remember that if it's "AS IS" - then that means that they take NO RISK - and you take ALL RISK.

Personally - I wouldn't be buying a car for that $$$ if I was taking all risk.

 

no one can tell you 100% by inspection. there's always risk with repair. but certainly, the more careful and expert inspection applied, the lower the risk.
but there's the rub, most dealers and mech's aren't qualified, or would take the appropriate time and measures to do it properly.

 

FWIW, if given a choice between a rebuild done by someone who is openly in the business of rebuilding Prii and says "here's the before photos, here's after, here's the parts we used, the state police signed off they weren't stolen, etc.", and a private party "used" sale that maybe had some repair work done somehow by somebody maybe, the rebuild would not necessarily scare me away.

 

You can probably pick up a used 16/17, never wrecked/salvaged/rebuilt for $14k. Why are you looking at this particular Prius?

 

Not in the USA. From exclusions section of the boiler plate warranty PDF found on the owners site:

Salvage or Total-Loss Vehicles Any vehicle that has ever been issued a “salvage” title or similar title under any state’s law; or has ever been declared a “total loss” or equivalent by a financial institution or insurer, such as by payment for a claim in lieu of repairs because the cost of repairs exceeded the cash value of the vehicle. This exclusion does not apply to the emission control warranties, including Emission Control Warranty Enhancements, or any open Safety Recalls.

https://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/document/omms-s/T-MMS-19Corolla/pdf/T-MMS-19Corolla.pdf

 

Call your insurer. Premiums are often higher on vehicles with salvage titles.

 

Thanks for posting that. I had heard conflicting things about whether emission warranties and recalls were excluded too.

 

Yeah, so would the VERY expensive gen 2 brake accumulator recall or the gen3 inverter software campaign be considered safety related? I think so but "winning" the battery lottery with an early failure during the warranty period like some have; probably not.

FWIW

 

It does seem to say "any open Safety Recalls". Does the document you quoted from give a specific meaning somewhere to "Safety Recall"?

I'm not sure I've heard of a non-safety recall. If the issue doesn't impact safety enough to require handling as a recall, it seems to end up in the special-service-campaign or warranty-enhancement buckets.

 

No, but in the U.S., Toyota consistently uses that term only for remedies required by 49 U.S.C. § 30120.

Interestingly, the Warranty & Maintenance Guide (PDF) for model year 2020 uses different wording: “This exclusion does not apply to the emission control warranties, including Emission Control Warranty Enhancements or any open Safety Recalls/SSCs/LSCs.”

I think this change is retroactive, in practice. Policy 6.1, “Safety Recalls and Special Service Campaigns,” in the Toyota Warranty Policy & Procedures Manual (available by subscription to techinfo.toyota.com) states, under the heading “Salvage Vehicles,” that “every attempt should be made to complete an open SSC, LSC or SR when circumstances permit, except as otherwise noted in the SSC/LSC, or when it may not be possible.”

Recalls come with publicity and regulatory oversight, and they make it unlawful to sell or lease affected vehicles (49 U.S.C. § 30120(i)), so automakers do them only when legally required.

The threshold is in 49 CFR § 573.6(a): “Each manufacturer shall furnish a report to the NHTSA for each defect in his vehicles or in his items of original or replacement equipment that he or the Administrator [of NHTSA] determines to be related to motor vehicle safety, and for each noncompliance with a motor vehicle safety standard in such vehicles or items of equipment which either he or the Administrator determines to exist.”

 

How long has he been in business?

Does he have pics of the wreck?

 

Even though he's rebuilt it to a condition which you can't even tell that it was in an accident, that alone would still affect the value of the car. $14k just seems too high for a salvage and rebuilt Prius of that year.

Only if you are fine with buying it and living with it because ultimately that's what its going to come down to.