Buy or Not? 2010 Prius V ;Carfax Accident; 1st Owner/Great Maintenance

Hi All - we need a car, and would love to buy a used Prius and could use some guidance about a particular car.
Our Needs:
We get a lot of snow - we will stay with 3rd generation (because of traction issues in 2nd gen.)
I need a backup camera.
Bluetooth for hands free phone use is important.
We are committed to purchasing a Prius from a California Emissions State, for the longer hybrid warranty, as most of the cars we have been looking at have higher miles.

We've done lots of research.
For the features we need, a Model 3 and up is needed. We've looked at a few different dealers already. It is hard to find individuals selling 2010+ Priuses. A nearby large used car place that has very good reviews has a few Priuses (Prii?), but most are 2's - we found a 2010 that we really like; it has more than what we need, and it drives quite well. The price is very good, which helps us a lot with 2 kids in college.

One major issue; there was an accident reported in March, 2012 on the Carfax. Nothing about the accident. No airbag deployment or "frame/unibody" damage listed. However, after the accident the original owner kept the car until now, had all work done on time, at a Toyota dealership. Oil changes at 5,000 on the dot. Any major services completed on time. Looks good (other than the accident) on the Toyota Owners' site, and on the CarFax. Always owned in Massachusetts. We can't ask the original owner. It has good miles (70,000) and great features. It looks well cared for, and the electronics work well. We will be taking it to a Toyota dealer to get it checked out.

Maybe the accident wasn't that bad. Maybe it was. I wonder if it may not have been "totaled" because it was a year and a half "old" when it had the accident, and would have still have had a lot of value; It is a Prius V, with the LED headlights/light washers (why?)/fog lamps/17 inch wheels (dealer did not know this) along with Safety Connect and Navigation packages. The original MSRP would have been about $30,000. Or, the dealer priced it low because there is an accident report on the Carfax.

Questions; 1) would you risk this? - would a dealer inspection satisfy you? 2) If there is no "frame" but a "unibody" how is damage determined by visual inspection? 3) I'm concerned that if the airbags did deploy, they could have been replaced by the "bad" airbags. Can the Toyota dealer check for this? There is no information about the accident fix on the Toyota Dealer site, even though all other maintenance work appears to have been done at the Toyota dealer.

If we purchase, we will buy a second set of 15" rims with snow tires for winter, then switch for the 17" in summer. Costco makes this affordable. Good plan? Thank you for your advice!

 

JimN, thanks for the help! Yes, the airbag lights light up. I wish that it had the Radar Cruise Control. It does not have the AT package. But overall it has more than what we are hoping to have, and fewer miles at a lower price.

One more question - would you trust a Toyota Dealer's maintenance department to understand/evaluate body damage, or would you recommend another inspection at a body shop? I've contacted the Toyota dealer who serviced the car for years, and hopefully they will have more information than is in the Toyota Owner's site about the accident, but who knows if they will share.

I will have to look at Daisy's posts. Thank you!!!

 

Well, we are a little sad, but made the choice to not purchase the 2010 Prius V, not Five... The body shop person was fantastic, pointing out where the accident had occurred, where there was a slight mis-match of door versus body, and where there were small leaks because of those mismatches that we had not seen. There was a concern over those leaks and how they might effect the hybrid battery (because of the location of the leaks). There were also mis-matched tires - I'm not sure how much of a big deal that is, but the "service advisor" was concerned.

We could not get any information on the accident from anyone. Our insurance company could not as well.

It was comfortable, but there will be other Priuses out there, and maybe we can get a better deal at the end of the month. Thank you all!

 

Wow, lots of great input from this board. Thanks! I meant the 2010 Prius V, the liftback. I like the LED headlights as well, yeldogt. I've heard a lot about the headlight bulbs in the 4 and lower blowing quite a bit (and have seen many "replacements" when looking at a potential car's service/maintenance records on the Toyota Owners' site). We are looking for at least a model III/3 in a 2010+ - funny how the 2015 model 2 comes with everything we want - backup camera and bluetooth. I actually find the later models much more confusing to "figure out" what they come with - there are so many more choices.