Buying a Prius. Help please

No.

 

Most Prius will last well more than 112k miles so depending upon the price I don't see why not.

BTW. There's a fair chance that even at 112k - 130k that you still wont need a new battery any time soon. But even if you do there are places doing reconditioned batteries for much less than the new Toyota price.

 

You can buy a HV Battery new from a Toyota dealer for under $2000, although list is $2400. Labor is generally a high 5 hours as it only includes the cells and much of the internals must be swapped over.

A Rebuilt HV battery can be purchased with the same 1 year warranty for $1700, but installation is often under $300 as it is the complete assembly.
Remanufactured Hybrid Vehicle Battery Packs

Used HV batteries on Ebay are generally from $500 to 1000, labor is your problem, no warranty.

That is all very interesting, but not relevant unless your original HV battery fails. Way more Prius are totalled than have battery failure, or we would not see so many used HV batteries on Ebay. If you made me guess, 175,000 to 250,000 miles might be a common range.

On the other hand, most 12 volt batteries on any car last about 4 years (Prius included) so be aware you may need to replace the 12 volt battery in a used Prius.
Toyota Prius 12 Volt Auxiliary Battery with install kit for 2004 - 10

Fob Batteries also fail, but are cheap CR2032 'watch' batteries.

 

The cheapest car to drive is ALWAYS the one you currently own. I would wait for prices to stabilize before making a purchase. Every new and used Prius has been marked up $1500 to $2000 is the last month. Wait a few months if your only problem is the gas cost.

 

I purchased my Prius 6 months ago with 101,000 miles for $7,000 and now all similarly equipped Prius with the same miles are selling for 11,000 I agree with xpcman unless you find a great deal or you drive a total gas guzzler I would wait till prices stabilize. You could just tweak your driving habits to increase your mpg's. My buddy has a 08 civic automatic that I helped him modify his driving habits and has fuel economy up to 45 mpg.

 

If you're doing it strictly to save money, that ship has already sailed. I urged...practically begged coworkers, family, friends, etc to buy used or new prii in late 2008 and 2009. Most thought I was nuts as gasoline was in late 2008 was about $1.10 a gallon in most of the US. I paid $1.41 on 12/14/2008 in Turlock California.

I'd wait until the market has adjusted and many more fuel efficient choices have entered the market.

 

hold on there cowboy, $1.10 a gallon? 1988 maybe!

 

In the CARB states it is covered under warranty for 10 years/ 150,000 miles or 8 years/100,000 miles elsewhere. Taxi fleets have put about double that on the batteries & haven't reported failures.

 

Yup. Short memories people have. Oil plunged from $140 / barrel to $33 / barrel and gas went from over $4 / gallon to just over a buck. On December 14th, gas was as low as a $1.50 in the SF Bay Area.

 

For reference:

Gas Price Historical Price Charts - GasBuddy.com

Modesto is about 20 miles from Turlock and usually runs about 15 cents higher per gallon.

You can search other states and you'll find several in the low $1.20s right around 12/12 to 12/14.

 

As previous posters implied, you may have missed the boat. Or at least you will be paying a pretty premium on a decent vehicle.

I bought my wife an '05 w/117k miles on it last June. I paid in the neighborhood of $9000 for the next to top of the line model (forget the package id). It was NOT a certified used...Toyota apparently won't do that if >100k miles. I have no qualms about the purchase in the slightest. I sincerely doubt you would get as good a deal today on the exact same car.

On the other hand, there are so-called 'experts' claiming that the price of oil has or is near to topping out. If you see one and his lips are moving then you know he's lying.

I personally don't see the price of gas falling any time soon without a major economic depression to cause it. Demand from China, India, and other developing countries with stronger economies than the US makes it look unstoppable.

 

Really. That's interesting considering the combined economy on that car is 29 MPG. Seems he must be tootling down roads at constant 40 MPH with no stoplights. More likely, he's mistaken. Conventionals do not get 45 MPG at the pump.

 

I saw gas for <$1/gallon in the Los Angeles area around Christmas 2001. It was cheaper than Nor Cal where we had driven down from.

My parents and I were amazed. We didn't even bother shopping around for gas.

 

He runs a scangauge II and he follows hyper milers rules on coasting and most of his drive consists of 50 mph on U.S. 19 in Clearwater at off peak times so no traffic. So believe it or not I know what gauge says and he gets 500+ miles in between refueling.

 

I just bought a used 2006 at, what I consider, a very reasonable price compared to everything I have seen here locally. It has 48k miles and I freakin love it. In addition to using it on a personal level, I also own a small courier business locally so I will benefit obviously.

 

A Prius with those miles is fine. A Prius with those miles for the price you are going to pay now is not.

I would strongly recommend waiting. I've been reviewing each day prices on used Priuses to get a second one and they are absolutely ridiculous now. They were going up and now I would categorize them as stupid. They've gone up massively in just the past month based on my anecdotal researching of prices and I think you'll be wasting your money saving even $100/month in gas if you had to pay $2-4k+ extra for a Prius vs what it was a month back.

Now you're lucky to pick up a 2005 with 100k for less than $10. This is a 6 year old car that didn't cost that much to begin with.

I think the unreal prices on Gen 3s in the past year (until earthquake) perhaps we won't get to again but the current price premium cannot be maintained in my estimation. Let it pass.

I dilly dathered on a second Prius and can almost pin down when the boat passed. It was about two weeks ago in my area. There are still plenty for sale but all at outrageous prices. It's possible another will show up at a historically fair price but most aren't. I've seen a lot of 2010s now going for more used with 20k+ miles than I paid new for ours a year ago. And there are plenty of 2008's in the high teens which is crazy, too.

In the south at end of 2001 I paid $.979 for a gallon, it maybe $.989. Was DEFINITELY under a buck. I was driving a sentra with a 12 gallon tank, cost $10 to fill up, absolutely crazy. I don't think that will ever happen again