Buying a 2003 with 140,000 miles

[plasakow]

Hi. I'm considering buying a 2003 Prius with 140K miles. Price aside, can I get some opinions on the ins and outs of this? I'm not sure I would consider any other car with this many miles, but I really want a hybrid.

Thanks in advance.

[lowspeed]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bob the Bob @ Jun 21 2007, 10:08 PM) [snapback]466154[/snapback]</div>

Hi. I'm considering buying a 2003 Prius with 140K miles. Price aside, can I get some opinions on the ins and outs of this? I'm not sure I would consider any other car with this many miles, but I really want a hybrid.

Thanks in advance.
[/b]

Don't do it




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[priusmaybe]

Price must be some kind of consideration -But I would not do it.

[barryjkaufman]

By the way, I'm curious why the negativity on a high mileage Prius. My wife just bought a new Prius. I am currently driving a Mercedes C240 wagon and have already racked up a little over 100,000 miles. At my current rate of 35,000 - 40,000 miles a year I will have around 200,000 miles when this car is paid off in another 2-1/2years. I was thinking of taking the wife's Prius or maybe even buy another new one, when that time comes. I average around 24 mpg on the Benz (Premium) and at 45mpg for the Prius (regular) that means a $200 a month saving in gas. Will I have problems if I need to drive the Prius to 200,000 miles? (I was actually considering trading the Benz for another Prius, but I found none of the local dealers willing to give me a decent trade in, so I've deciced to run the car into the ground.)

[seasalsa]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Barry123 @ Jun 21 2007, 07:52 PM) [snapback]466169[/snapback]</div>

By the way, I'm curious why the negativity on a high mileage Prius. My wife just bought a new Prius. I am currently driving a Mercedes C240 wagon and have already racked up a little over 100,000 miles. At my current rate of 35,000 - 40,000 miles a year I will have around 200,000 miles when this car is paid off in another 2-1/2years. I was thinking of taking the wife's Prius or maybe even buy another new one, when that time comes. I average around 24 mpg on the Benz (Premium) and at 45mpg for the Prius (regular) that means a $200 a month saving in gas. Will I have problems if I need to drive the Prius to 200,000 miles? (I was actually considering trading the Benz for another Prius, but I found none of the local dealers willing to give me a decent trade in, so I've deciced to run the car into the ground.)
[/b]

I think the negativity is due to the 2003 model year Prius that OP was considering. The 2004 and later Prius have a lot of features that were not available in the 2003 and the price diferential is not great.

[lowspeed]

I have to explain my reasoning...

1) It will most likely need major service in the next 60K Max 100K If it was a regulr car i wouldn't care much, but it would be most likely expensive on the prius. There were cases of the planetary gear breaking and they were quoted 4k to repair, and thats just for the gears.
2) Its old generation, much smaller car, and less mpg, you're better off with a corolla

[jrmgkia]

I would suggest a test drive before you make any kind of decision. I couldn't live with the acceleration of a first gen Prius. You may be better of biking to work because the first gen Prius is sooo gutless it probably wouldn't be much faster to drive. And for not having any power they get worse gas milage than a second gen Prius, I would definitely NOT get a first gen.

[Tideland Prius]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bob the Bob @ Jun 21 2007, 07:08 PM) [snapback]466154[/snapback]</div>

Hi. I'm considering buying a 2003 Prius with 140K miles. Price aside, can I get some opinions on the ins and outs of this? I'm not sure I would consider any other car with this many miles, but I really want a hybrid.

Thanks in advance.
[/b]

I would consider a 2004+. A few reasons concerning the 03 models...

- they require XL tyres (extra load) because there's quite a bit of weight to carry and they're running on 14" rims

- PSD fluid needs to be changed every 15,000 miles (I believe it's miles, not kilometres). The 04+ is every 60,000 miles?

- the newer models have side/side curtain airbags and stability control

- mpg will suffer "greatly" if you use anything other than LRR tyres. The 04+ models are a bit more forgiving.



Now the pros:

- Extremely tight turning radius

- sedan = trunk

- can exit through any side of the car because the centre console is seat height



go to HERE and click on the Classic Prius info (I think it's under Prius Info?) and read up on it!

[gippah]

You Prius owners should know better than to give such bad advice.

I purchased standard tiresfor my older Prius at a Goodyear, stuck them on my 2001 Prius and it gets the exact same mileage it did before -- 50 MPG.

My 2001 Prius has 120,000 miles on it and drives exactly as it did when it was brand new.

Of course the PSD fluid doesn't have to be changed any more often than with any other car.

The newer Prius doesn't actually have many more "features". It has stereo controls on the steering wheel, a keyless ignition, different graphics on the screen, and is black on the interior instead of beige. Other than that, the feature set is the same. Yes, side curtain airbags, leather seats, etc., were available on the classic Prius.

There are no reports of the Classic Prius needing "major work" after a certain number of miles. In fact, most of you are recommending the 2004 Prius instead as being more reliable -- when the 2004 Prius was the one that would shut off at highway speeds until a software patch was applied.

And since I'm getting 50 MPG on my Prius, obviously it is capable of getting good mileage if you follow the Prius driving rules (pulse and glide, drive for more than 15-20 minutes each trip, etc.)

My advice when looking at a 2003 Prius would be the same advice for buying any used car. Go and look at it, inspect it. If the interior is clean and it looks well-maintained and you like it, buy it. My 2001 model is still running strong, I don't see any reason why the 2003 model would be any different.

[tochatihu]

Since we are discussing changing of the transmission fluid, one might make that part of the used car deal. Test the fluid and buy car if it turns out to be OK.

As more people are looking at this, there are more reports of the fluid coming out smelling burnt, etc. It's time for us to treat this issue seriously.

I believe that with the toyota hand held tester, the sate of HV battery health can be assessed in a couple of ways. You could pay for them to do that during a vehicle checking over.

This is about all we can do for the major systems in this car. The ones you don't want to blow up on a used vehicle purchase.