Does this Prius have problems, or is it okay?

Dud..keep looking..try to find something in the 40 to 50 thousand range is good 115k are too many miles you could run into battery issues so if I were you I'd keep looking you will find a deal.
Good luck

 

If your budget is that tight and you "can't afford to make a mistake" then you need to be leaning more towards a base model---with service records.
The G3 is a remarkably reliable car but there are some service items that are due at or before 120,000 miles which you're going to have to make sure are addressed. (plugs, transaxle flush, etc...)
I don't see anything that you've described that's a deal killer in the IV that you're looking at. Make the owner pay for or provide a Carfax record and tell her that if the report is clean that you'll pay for it.
Also the maintenance records are available on-line, IIRC.
If the owner had the car serviced at the dealer, check the oil, and ask pointed questions about whether or not the car is using oil.
Frequently people in cars with a 10,000 mile oil change periodicity don't check their volume and thus they don't find out that their car has a drinking problem until the oil light flickers at them.
On the interstate, it's not uncommon for a G3 to get 42-43mpg unless you're driving below PSL...and hopefully in the right lane....which in the US is usually in the RIGHT lane.

The difference between trade-in value and retail value is usually about 3K.
I'd split that difference with the seller, and she's still better off selling to you than she is trading in....besides.....up-optioned cars are:
"Buying yesterday's technology at tomorrow's prices...."

You don't have to make the same mistake.

 

I'm going to agree with Matt ^^ The mileage on the car, the low mpg, the poor acceleration AND still wanting Blue Book price - ALL would make me keep looking.

 

The only financial reason to pay the 'Hybrid tax' is to lower your bills when driving, so all hybrids tend to have high mileage. Sitting in my garage, my Prius is not more economical than a Hummer. But every mile is cheaper.

If the previous owner is a rural mail carrier, that is fantastic mileage, a paper route or pizza delivery, it is pretty good mileage. The more important issue is what mileage does it give you? I would ask for a 100 mile test drive and drive it like you intend to drive it in the future.

Take it out of ECO mode and see if the dead spot goes away, the whole point of ECO mode is to lower the sensitivity of the throttle in early travel.

 

I happen to have a 2010 Level III which runs the same drivetrain and such. (No funny wheels - the V level, I think, has different wheels that purport to give better handling, but have worse gas mileage.) It's got about 75K miles on it. The only major repair, if one can call it that, was a 12V aux battery. No brake job yet and it doesn't need one.

No computer screen on mine, but the multifunction display does show trip gas mileages and the like. I tend to reset the "A" trip once per tank of gas and the "B" trip every morning.

My daily commute lasts about 40 minutes each way; depending upon traffic and which way I go, it's all stop-and-go up to 40 mph or it's freeway and up to 70 (but sometimes slower).

Winter (and this is New Jersey, we do get snow and temps in the 20's) I get somewhere between 42-45 mpg indicated on a tank. In the summer, running the same trips, it's 50-55. No, I don't hypermile, but I don't jack-rabbit, either. I will floor it when conditions are called for, but not otherwise. Indicated gas mileage is some 5%-10% better than actual, so, if I manage to get 55 mpg on a tank, that's 50 mpg for real. I manage that on a tank during the summer once or twice a year and never during the winter.

So, having said that: In the Great Northeast, going between cities, one can do 65-70 pretty steady and, when doing that, a little over 50 mpg (indicated) is going to be one's lot, if it's summer, with the A/C on. However, the Great Northeast is definitely congested, compared to the Great West. And, the dozen or so times I've been out in Arizona, the speed limits actually observed tend to be north of 75 mph. There's no question that the Prius, like any gas-powered car, gets worse gas mileage the faster it goes, so if the original owner was piling along at 75, then 42-45 would be expected.

Finally: Jackrabbit starts and stops do impact the Prius. So if this original owner had a lead foot, then lower gas mileage would be expected there, too.

Now, if the original owner swears up and down that they're a really cautious driver who never goes above 65 and is always easy on the acceleration, then don't buy that car. On the other hand, if the driver's like all the other maniacs I've seen on I-10, then the mileage doesn't look completely out of line.

Fine with the gas mileage. On to the gas pedal.
I've got a 2010. There's no "free wiggle room" on the gas pedal. If the pedal's depressed and the car's in Power mode, it's a rather sprightly ride.

We happen to know around here that the gas pedal does not have a cable connected to it. Rather, there's a pair of Hall-effect sensors (a pair so there's redundancy and error detection) whose outputs go straight into the box that electronically controls the drive train.

Now, there's been discussion about the level of software error detection built into Priuses and other Toyotas. But I'll give this a wild swing and state that there's two possible reasons Things Don't Look Good down there:

1. The Hall Effect sensor box has come loose somehow and rotates with the gas pedal for the first X number of degrees. Fixable by tightening a screw, maybe. But if it's doing that, putting one's head below the dash and wiggling the gas pedal back and forth with the car off should yield a visible indication of fault.
2. The Hall Effect sensors, some of the wires to said sensor, or something in the engine controller is busted. A WAG says that if that's the case, the engine controller would throw error codes left and right and would be very, very cautious about moving the car. Which would fit with the rest of your description.

In either of the above two cases, especially if there's error codes, a competent mechanic shouse be able to find the problem. A wiring harness/Hall effect problem isn't likely to be too expensive, but anything involving replacing the engine controller would be. And, of course, there's always the possibility that some connector has backed out and become loose, in which case just shoving it back in again would clear the problem.

Good luck!

KBeck.

 

I'm with kbeck on this one. Get the sloppy pedal diagnosed & fixed. The tires were replaced & what's on the car is either the 2nd or 3rd set. Are they Low Rolling Resistance? Without details there is no framework to determine if the displayed fuel economy is "good" or "reasonable".

A IV-Solar is at the top of the line. Since money is an issue perhaps a II or III would make more sense.

 

what are you driving now and how many miles per year? trading for a prius won't necessarily save you money.

 

I bought my 2010 with 90k in the clock. It had all of the service records and a new set of rubber. I performed the trans axel flush and coolant flush. Also 12volt battery was low so replaced that along with new brake pads. When i bought ut trip B had not been cleared and it showed 9999 miles and average 49mpg. In the last 20k miles that i have put on it i usually get 52mpg with 50/50 Highway and city driving... They are great vehicles but mine did not have a pedal issue and had way better mpg recorded then what you are looking for... By the way what are they asking for the one your looking at? Cod always make you a deal on mine ;-)

 

find out what kind of tyres, you need low rolling resistance (LRR) to get 50 mpg's. it might also need a 12 volt battery, which can be another reason for low mpg's. if you're in hilly terrain, that can be a reason. if the owners commute is all city stop n go, that can be a reason. if it's all high speed highway, that can be a reason. plenty of people here get low 40's with perfectly good cars.

 

Or a non-hybrid vehicle that gets good mileage.....like a Corolla maybe.
You should NOT buy a vehicle that you can't really afford.
That includes potential repair costs as well and the initial outlay.

LISTEN to that little voice that is telling you this is NOT a good choice for you.

 

"Driving across her large territory" could mean a lot of things and might explain the seemingly low mpg. However, I agree with others. If your budget is tight, then I don't think a vehicle that is for sure coming up on some needed scheduled maintenance is for you. The trouble is we don't have a lot of info to go on. Questions that come to mind:
-- How many miles do you typically drive per year?
-- What mpg does your SUV get?
-- How old is the SUV?
-- Do you need to replace the SUV because of mechanical problems, etc.?
-- Do you have the $12,500 or is that what you can afford to finance?
-- Are you trying to save money just to pay monthly bills? (Probably too personal, but a question that comes to mind just the same.)

If you drive 12,000 miles/yr and the SUV gets 20 mpg, it costs $2,100/yr at $3.50/gal.
If the Prius gets 45 mpg, it would cost $933/yr, a savings near $100/mo.
So, it would take over 10 years to recoup the cost of the Prius.
If the SUV gets fewer mpg, say 15, then its cost goes up (to $2,800) and the time to recoup comes down (to over 6 yrs), but it's still quite a long time.
My point is that if you don't "need" the savings to pay monthly bills, then it might be possible for you to afford a newer vehicle with fewer miles and better mpg by financing the difference between the purchase price and a $12,500 down payment. Based on what you've told us though, I'd be very hesitant to buy the Prius in question, especially without knowing more.

 

When we bought our Prius in 2009, we had similar miles pa to you and we had retirement about 2 years away. Some factors were:

• We found ourselves avoiding trips because of the gas consumption of traditional vehicles. (like you)
• We expected to be wanting to do more road trips after retirement.
  
• We liked the protection the Prius would provide provided if gas prices rose.
• With interest rates so low, it seemed a good idea to put some money into car that would clearly save money down through the years.
• It seemed more likely than any other car to be something that we would be happy to drive for the rest of our driving lives.

It appears to me that notwithstanding advice you may get that your miles pa is too low for a Prius make sense, it may make good sense for you just as it has for us. The question then is does this particular Prius make sense.

Regarding MPG:
I would not worry too much about the past MPG by itself. It is in the normal range and MPG seems to depend more upon the nature of the driving (hills stops, speed, traffic, trip length) and the driving style of the driver rather than whether they are in Eco, Normal or Power mode.

I would be concerned if I found out that the owner had only been getting that mpg doing long trips at moderate temperatures and moderate speeds with few stops and coasting to stop.

Throttle response:
The throttle response you describe does not sound normal but this depends on what you mean by responding.

Our car starts moving as soon as you press the throttle regardless of mode. That is not to say that the engine necessarily starts immediately or that it needs to. I believe that this is normal for a Prius and it certainly works well.

If the car does not start moving until you have pressed the throttle 1-1.5" then something is wrong. This may well be minor but it also may not be. If the car was a great match for my needs and a great deal, I would look further. If it became clear that fixing it would probably be cheap and the deal would still be OK if the fix turned out to be expensive, then I would go ahead. If not I would keep looking

 

I that case, no more questions about the budget.

That said, I just ran to the store for some bread and paid particular attention to acceleration. My Prius moves ever so slowly as soon as I take my foot off the brake, but that could have been the road. It then moves more as I press the pedal, but still very slowly as I press very slowly. It doesn't really start to respond like a normal accelerator until pressed further and that probably does "feel" like 1"-1.5". However, if I press quicker, it responds quicker, though still not like you'd be used to with your SUV. I think some of this "feeling" is because of the CVT transmission vs the standard automatics used in the Hyundai Sonata Blue and others. As expected, ECO mode makes it respond even slower and PWR mode quicker. If you step on it like normal, there can be a "lag" feeling until both engines click in.

So, based on your description and my observation, I think it's normal and just something you're not used to. To be sure though, I advise doing another test drive to make sure it's just a difference you're not used to. Here's what I would do:
Take it out of ECO mode.
Take your foot off the brake and see if it moves at all.
Then press down on the accelerator just a bit to see if it moves.
Press more and see if it moves more as you press further.
Then stop, put it in PWR mode and repeat the test pressing quicker.

When I bought mine, I knew it would "seem" sluggish, especially until I got used to it, but I don't notice a lack of "any response at all" until the pedal is pressed 1"-1.5".

Anyway, not sure what to say about the mileage. I still don't think we know enough about the terrain and what "drives across her territory" means. Based on how I drive and how I purposely drove the Prius we rented in 2010 to see what the minimum mpg might be, I think the mpg displayed is low, by 3-5 mpg. I got 46.5 mpg (measured) over 1,100 miles all over Arizona; 85% 60-80 mph on highways/freeways, 10% 25-35 mph on gravel forest roads and 5% 25-45 mph city. I think I actually got a little better because I topped off the tank before we took it back, so I probably added 1-2 gallons more than was in it from the start. My first fill-up with our 2014 showed 46.0 mpg on the display, but the actual miles/gallons pumped came out to 53.6 mpg. I should be able to figure out which is more accurate when I do my second fill-up next week at the same station.

There may be nothing at all wrong with the mpg, but I don't know how you're going to figure that out without doing a much longer test drive, preferably with a full tank and a reset trip meter. You can get some idea by just driving around for a half hour or so and then noting what the display shows when you turn the car off. When you turn the car off, the display shows data from the time it was turned on until it was turned off. To get the best possible result, I would drive for 5 to 10 minutes to make sure everything is properly warmed up, then turn it off to clear the data. Then start it up and drive around for 30 minutes of so the way you would if it were your car. Now when you turn it off, the display should show you the mpg for the duration of that trip.

Now, if the mpg is accurate, that's not necessarily anything to worry about as far as something breaking. If the pedal responds as I described, I think that's also okay. If you then decided to go for it, use the fact that it is coming up on the 125,000 mile maintenance to get the purchase price down. You can even call a dealer to see how much the maintenance would cost. If all that works, then enjoy your Prius and the extra travel it will let you afford. Just remember that it does have a lot of miles and there is no guarantee that something bad won't come up.

 

I don't think the two things your worried about have anything to do with a bad or broken car. They would not be linked to thew car having problems. But it you buy it and drive 100k more miles trouble free I would be right. If you buy it and it has a major breakdown you will link that back to the two things your worried about.

 

no, i don't think it should have dropped that low under those conditions. 1-2 bars usually happens in stop and go traffic or major hill climbing. could be a bad 12 volt battery.