Buying Advice Needed

No reason you can't get a 2012 or newer for $16 to $18k

 

Given anecdotal posts on this forum, battery problems on a Prius are less an issue than other conventional car troubles. Issues such relating to ECU, brakes, suspension, electrical, and AC are more common than the hybrid battery.

Given the exact same price for two used cars, the only difference being one car is older with fewer miles, I will choose the newer vehicle. This is because I think age plays a bigger role in reliability than miles. In your case, 2010 & 2011 were the first two model years for the current generation. There were gremlins fixed and improved every year. The most reliable vehicle will be the last model year of the generation.

Second, freeway miles are less wear and tear than city miles. While you may not know how the car was driven, you can reasonably infer that one with >15k miles a year spent most of it on the freeway. Likewise, a vehicle with under 8k miles a year likely suffered lots of harsh stop and go traffic.

However, if all you're looking for is 3 years of reliability, a 2010 model will give you that easily. I'd save myself a few grand and purchase a 2010 for $12k or so.

 

OK....so you're in New Hampshiah.

1. Make sure you really want a Prius.
Rent one for a weekend, drive with a friend, etc. You people have this greyish-white stuff that falls out of the sky during the winter, and winters up there are more than three weeks long.
A Prius is good, reliable car.....like really reliable but there are some things about rolling a Prius that might drive you crazy like:
a. Low ground clearance.
b. Antiquated TPMS (more on that later.)
c. Much lower MPG during the winter months.
d. Ergonomically stuck in the Early 2000's
e. Dealership network issues in some regions.

2. Gratuitous Advice.

a. If you need dependable? Buy a newer base model.
b. Make sure that the CPO is really a CPO!!! Sometimes a dealership will sell a Certified Pre-Owned that's just that. Certified to be pre-owned. An OEM or FACTORY CPO can be worth the extra money. The rest is generally garbage.
c. Pre-arrange your financing through a bank or credit union, and then negotiate a CASH deal.....OTD (out the door.) Be prepared to leave New Hampshah for other states. States up there are realllllly small, so you can shop 5-6 of them. New 2015 G3s are going for about 20K. There's no reason that you should get suck with a high mile 2012 with a questionable pedigree, unless you're shopping for options and colors instead of transportation.
d. GAP: No! If they tell you you need GAP, you can't afford the car. Warranty: See also: GAP. OEM warranties "can" be worth the money if you don't like to do your own maintenance, or properly supervise the activities of those that do it for you. Unfortunately, many Toyota dealerships will tell you that you have to buy the warranty when you buy the car.
In many places, we call that a lie, or an untruth. In the world of politics, they sometimes call it a promise.
The easiest thing to do is buy the car and bank some money for repairs (like the $1000 or so that they would have charged you for the warranty!)
e. Snow tires: Buy a set of used Corolla Rims, mount and balance the snows on them. If you don't like the looks of the rims, then put the summer tires on the Corolla rims and the winter tires on the OEM rims for the 3-1/2 weeks of summer that you get up there.
Sinice Toyota's TPMS is kinda goofy, take a 3" piece of black electrical tape and cover the TPMS light when it comes on, or if you park in a Garage, keep the Summer tires near the Prius. Sometimes this will keep the TPMS light from illuminating as much. That will be less expensive than the mount/remount/mount/remount scheme, and it might prevent problems down the road from mechanic failure (which is different from mechanical failure!!!)
f. If you know your prices, and you do a little grunt work you can get a used car from a private sale. If have to go to the dealer, don't trade in your present car. Sell it for a few hundred above the trade-in value.

3. Dependability:
a. When you get your new car, change the oil or have it changed. (check the level first!)
b. There's a whole religion based on oil change intervals and what to use. Don't get wrapped around the axle over thinking that part. The three most important things to get to 250,000 miles with one car are:
I. Check your oil level at least every 1,000 miles.
II. Check your oil level at least every 1,000 miles.
III. Check your oil level at least every 1,000 miles.
No kidding! I've seen cars that smoke like John Wayne roll for another 50,000 miles....but John Wayne did eventually die from smoking.......earlier than he had to.
c. Priuses have a maintenance schedule. Follow it. If you have your car worked on by a dealer, check their work, and anything that's not on the maintenance schedule isn't maintenance.....it's a repair! Repairs require an explanation and a second opinion.
Examples abound. Use this forum to ground truth any requested non-scheduled repairs and read and re-read multiple opinions!!!!
There are a lot of people (like me sometimes) that don't know as much as they think that they do.
d. ONE IMPORTANT EXCEPTION. Transaxle fluid replacement. Get that done soon after you buy your car, and thence every 30-60K. Opinions vary on this wildly, and you'll have to read a lot of loooooooooooong posts (longer than this one even) to find out why.

e. Find out why!
Read. Investigate. Learn.
I didn't buy into the Transaxle Fluid Replacement thing until I scratched around and found out why a bunch of people were doing it.
I was wrong about that - proving both earlier points about why it's important to take ownership of car ownership, and to double check free advice!


Good Luck!
Pop a flare over us when you've identified a potential purchase!

 

congrats, all the best!

 

Oh great now I don't have to make a recommendation. I can say good choice!
Out of curiosity, do you know if it is a New Hampshire car or possibly from a CARB state?
Might be nice if it had CARB pedigree even though NH is not.