Might buy a 2005 Prius..what should I look for?

My take is to first check the fluids. Oil: look for the proper level and color; Inverter coolant level and color (should be bright pink); engine coolant level and color, brake fluid etc. Look underneath the car for leaks and around the engine/tranny for stains left by fluid leaks. Start the car, listen the the engine for ticking/tapping sounds. When you start the car, make sure all the warning lights come on then go off. How does it drive? What mpg is it getting (should be at least 44 mpg city or better). Switch to the "Energy" screen and check the battery state of charge (SOC) (should be blue or green (purple is bad but if purple drive for at least 10 miles or 20 minutes to see if it charges properly). A typical 20 minute drive in the city should give you about 30-40 mpg for the first 5 minutes (displayed on the "Consumption" screen of the MFD) and 45+mpg for the next three 5 minute intervals. How does it ride (if rough, the struts are probably bad). This list is not all inclusive but, its a good start.

When you buy used, you are taking a gamble but, with the Prius, its a low risk gamble. I have found my 06 to be rock solid. I have 102k on mine and the struts feel brand new, original 12V battery, no water pump problems. Spark plugs were in such good shape I simply cleaned them up and put them back in. Maintenance records on the car do not indicate it was well cared for (I bought it used). I couldn't be happier with the car (especially when I gas up for $35-40 once every 3-4 weeks).

My point is: When you come to a forum like this to check on reliability, you might get the wrong impression. Keep in mind, people come to this forum to find answers to their problems. If their car is running fine, that doesn't get posted. As I sometimes say "Any Prius is better than no Prius". There is a good chance you will have to put some money into it for a repair but, I wouldn't let that stop me from buying it providing it looks nice and drives good (all relative terms).

 

Shop around a bit more. If your willing to drive you will find better deals. Search craigslist using searchtempest.com. It will allow you to search for an item in any catagory or a single catagory within a chosen radius.

I found deals that sound like they are much better than that one. I ended up choosing an 08 pkg 6 (loaded with nav and leather) with 75k miles for $11,500. I remember seeing one in the Hudson Valley that was an 05 pkg 6 with only 55k miles for $9000. I decided on the first one because it was only an hour away (compared to 4 hours). I also liked the interior and exterior colors better.


Honestly, Id keep searching if I were you. Plus 150k miles is getting into new battery territory.

 

25.5 MPG == red flag. You might see that on a very short drive, i.e. the car has cold soaked, the gas meter gets reset, and you drive it around the block. You should be able to take it for a 15 minute test drive on a cold soak and get 40+ mpg for the round trip, virtually regardless of the type of driving that you do.

Now, you mention "loud braking", did you have it in B instead of D? That is like using a jake brake instead of the battery for braking and will lead as well to the fuel economy that you observed.

 

Yes 25 MPG is bad. Do what you want but if I were you I'd keep looking. Even IF the battery was replace that is still an old car with a lot of miles. I'm telling you that there are better deals out there. Don't fall in love with it.

 

You can have a dealer look up the VIN for that car and check the service records. If a "new" battery was installed it will be listed. If a rebuilt battery or a salvaged battery was installed, there will be no official record. Ask if the battery was "new" or if a Reinvolt was used. A Reinvolt will be obvious if you look at it (bright red case).

Loud braking is usually due to rust on the rotors (take a look) and usually easily corrected, but may signal that a brake job is due.

JeffD

 

Here's what I recommend to investigate the 25.5 mpg reading. Test drive it again. Turn on the car and let it run until the engine shuts off on its own. Drive it in a residential area for about 5 minutes (do not pay attention to mpgs at this time). Come to a complete stop and if the engine is running, wait for it to shut off. Press "Reset" on the MFD and take it for a 20 minute drive (both city and highway). Switch the MFD to the "Energy" screen and monitor the battery indicator (it should be blue or green and not purple). As your driving, watch the monitor for fast changes in the State of Charge (low to high to low w/in 1 or 2 minutes). At the end of your 20 minute drive, switch back to "Consumption" screen and note the mpg reading. You should see at least high 30's (37-39 just because you're not familiar with driving techniques that maximize mpgs) but I would expect low 40's at a minimum.

If after doing this you still get 25.5 (or less than 35), stay away from that car.

PS: Regen braking is not loud but it does make a different sound than your probably used to.

 

I don't know abou good deals, but where I live (MD/DC/VA/PA area) I can't seem to find anything that is reasonably priced and no more than 2-4 years old and low (under 40K) miles... Been looking for a couple of months now for a 2010 for under 17K (before taxes, registration, and title) and nothing worth a look comes-up (some rebuilt title models show-up occasionally at around the 15K mark but that's it). Went down in model years a bit and the '08 to '09 with under 30K miles or so seem to pop-up from time to time around the 15-17K mark (which means that from a dealership there is another $2-400 mark-up for "processing")...

I'm sure good deals do pop-up from time to time, but they are more rare than hen's teeth in this area... And it is a full-time job almost to research as if a good deal does come-up it is usually gone within hours...

As an alternative, I would consider a used or even a new Honda Insight ('11 or '12 model year). We bought a new '11 Insight last march for $18.2 out the door (car price was $16.6 or so plus all the fees and taxes on top of that). That's better (price-wise) than a well used '10 Prius and the fuel economy difference is on the average about 5mpg or so (more in the city, less if any on the highway). On the second hand market the Insight does not seem to hold its value as well as the Prius and you might find even better deals - but the pool is a lot smaller so they might not be any easier to find used (Prius out-sells the Insight many to one).

I'm not adverse to recommending buying a high-mileage used vehicle but the price needs to be really good to cover for potential repairs down the road. That's how I bought my first prius 4-5 years ago - an '02 at 116K miles. Price was good and I figured even if I had to replace the battery I would still end-up at retail price after repair. So I got it. Only issue with it was the oxygen sensor and the cat converter which I replaced myself to the tune of about $300 or so and some aggravation. The front struts also went bust around 170K - another $150 and a couple of hours and it was as good as new. Sold it at 180K miles and 3.5 years later for only 3K less than I paid for it, so the investment per year was good, considering the slightly over 40mpg average I was getting from it.

But buying a vehicle that is already 7 years old at 150K miles should only be done IMO if the price is really good and you are willing to fiddle with it - the belts (for the fan and pumps) will need to be replaced as would various fluids, which you probably do not need to touch for the first 150K miles otherwise. My front and rear brakes on the 170-180K miles '02 Prius were also approaching their useful life, so you need to consider that as an item that would likely need replacing before 200K miles (these things last a long time on the Prii due to regen braking, if you drive nicely)

The worst issue with Prius, other than the battery, is probably the cat converter - if that fails there are very few aftermarket options and the dealer-part costs an arm and a leg. Don't know how these things age on the Gen II ('04-09 prius) but was definitely a problem on '01-03 models - have heard of a lot of them having similar problems like I had with mine, starting as early as 70-80K miles...

 

kocho,

I suggest you expand your search to include cars with 60,000 miles or so.

A few extra miles on the car aren't going to hurt it, but will bring the price into a more realistic range.

 

Very true - higher mileage, lower price

I'm wondering how reliable are the so called "true market value" estimates from Edmunds... Any observations? There are always the odd-ball really good or really bad deals, I suppose, but on the average - are these reliable #s to go by?

These TMV prices are considerably lower (about $2K less) than KBB values ... Edmunds says they are based on actual sales statistics, which is reassuring. But so do sites like TrueCar for new car sales and there I know I did considerably better than the best local deal they list on the car we bought last year...