Need advice on used prius with questionable service history

If you are saying the oil has not been changed for 8,000 km that is not a problem. You do not say in your avatar your country or area and this does have an impact on service schedules as they differ from country to country.
In the UK the service interval is 10,000 miles or one year which ever is sooner. Your 8,000 km converts to a little under 5,000 miles and this I believe is the shortest recommended service interval used in the US.

John (Britprius)

 

I would think it highly unlikely (although possible) that someone would buy a car and not service it in any way.
Checking the engine air filter and cabin air filters, "both very easy to do" would confirm if any services were carried out. If they are both dirty and clogged with leaves ect then service has been neglected, if relatively clean then service work has been carried out.

At 88,000 km (55,000 miles) in the UK only 4 oil changes would have been done missing one would not have cased great damage.

John (Britprius)

 

Yes I understand the difference, but no damage should have been done considering the oil change interval difference and the car is only just over three years old but as I said in my previous post checking the air filters will give a good guide to what has been done. If your not happy walk away.

My car is at 90,000 miles and has had 9 services (oil changes) Toyotas recommended. without damage. It's the same car you have, but in Canada it would have had about 20 services. I think your dealers are making a lot of profit.

John (Britprius)

 

Checking the engine air filter will take less than a 60 seconds. Open the hood, lift the suitcase type clips on the filter box, take off the lid, and remove the filter. The dirty side is underneath. Reasonably clean (lite dust and particles) or clean everything is fine. Dirty clogged lots of rubbish, walk away.

John (Britptius)

 

At the relatively low millage the car is at no oil changes will show up on the oil dipstick as dark brown deposits. If it never had oil changes "which I doubt" there will be more engine ware than normal but how much is very difficult to guess, but I will stick my neck out and say probably not much. Changing the oil regularly in the future will not reverse this, but will keep down further ware. The rest of the items on the car will not have suffered.

John (Britprius)

 

If you are buying from a Toyota dealer you should get this anyway. If not press for one from the seller. The vehicle may still be under the Toyota guarantee certainly the hybrid system should be for the equivalent of 8 years 100,000 miles is the norm, check it in Canada.

It is very late here so I am signing off, I will be back tomorrow.

John (Britprius)

 

The Prius is incredibly reliable, and I don't see anybody going that long with a brand new car they put thousands of dollars into without EVER changing the oil. And the good quality oils are so good now that they really don't need to be changed that often, so even the time spent on this is essentially nothing.

My Prius won't show any maintenance, because I've done everything myself, and gone beyond what is called for. I'm using Mobil1, which is very high quality. I've changed the transaxle fluid at about 90k kilometers, it is very easy to do yourself, and that doesn't show up in the computer.

In general, the people who own Priuses are responsible, concerned for the environment, and love the car, so they take good care of it. In general.

It is possible to take it to an independent mechanic for a compression/leakdown test, but it might be good to find somebody knowledgeable about the Prius. For example, I think it is a special procedure to do the compression/leakdown test. But with a test drive you should be able to tell a lot.

 

If you have the VIN number you can try register it at
Toyota Owners Official Web Site: Service Coupons, Owner's Manuals, Service Scheduling And More
and find out the service history (if serviced by Toyota dealers).

If my budget is limited and can not afford a very occasional repair bill of thousands of dollars, I wouldn't have bought a Prius. Agreed the car is very reliable and on average (i.e. average over many owners) the maintenance cost is low. But as an individual who owns only one Prius, not thousands of them, I can be the unlucky one that needs a big repair down the road: there are tons of expensive components in the car that can go wrong. Just my 2 cents. Good luck!