What is the oldest Prius you'd buy?

I just bought a 2004 prius with 120k miles on it. The battery better not die lol. Im hoping to have this car for many many years, into the 300k club...

 

just bought it a week ago today. traded in my 02 Taurus with a gas guzzling v6 and engine troubles plus 5500 bucks for this prius.

 

2010

 

we sold our '04 with 95k on it to our neighbor last year for $6,000. i had no second thoughts about it. the battery is warranted for another year and 150,000 miles. of course, the car ran like new and i expect he'll have no problems for as long as he chooses to keep it. it's still going strong at 115,000 miles.

 

The battery is warranted for 8 years 100k in all states and 10y, 150k in CARB states.

 

The answer to this question is highly individual, depending on many factors but primarily on the financial condition and tolerance to risk of the individual.

All Prius' are hybrids and are designed to get above 40 mpg.

"Wouldn't the HV batteries be about ready to die on a 2004 (ten years)?"
The HV battery will not last forever, that's true. But how long they will last I don't think there is enough empirical data to place a solid figure on that. Some have certainly failed at lower ages and some at higher ages but the vast majority continue with little degradation of service. Consumer Reports did a test to get a handle on the effects of age on the HV battery. I think they did a report on a new 02 and checked at again 10 years later and found the difference to be negligible.

It's also worth noting that when these HV batteries fail it is not the entire battery pack that is at fault but may only be 1 or 2 cells that can be replaced with the right process.

"Would you buy anything with good mileage past 2004?"

I don't think anything, but under the right circumstances there are some pre 04 Prius' I might would purchase, though I prefer the second generation over the first.

 

yes, mass is a carb state.

 

Any non-salvaged one. Why do you think the batteries are going to die at 10 years? The warranty is for 10 years in CARB states. But the warranty on your transmission is 60K. Did your transmission explode at 60,001 miles? No...

They are exactly the same except the trimmings. Mechanically they are identically. And the change was MY2006.

 

People have towed thousands of pounds and more with the Prius. The 825lb limit is artificial and from Toyota as a CYA.

5 full size adults in the Prius all the time, probably isn't the most comfortable for the person stuck in the middle of the backseat. 4 people or less most of the time, with a fifth some of the time then no problem. Unless you are talking about children in which case they don't get a vote and should be fine.

 

Have you considered renting a Prius for a week or two. That way you can get the feel of it, plus do your commuting with the five people. If you were to do that, you would then have a good idea of what a Prius will do and also have an idea of how your passengers feel about your new ride.

 

This is also where a Prius V with the third back row seating would come in handy. An email to Toyota everytime this situation comes up might help them change their mind about not importing that style to the states.

 

They returned your car to factory specs which dropped your mpg? What did you do to increase it that resetting the car would erase? Is there a link to this info? Why would they reset it?

 

The #1 thing any service will do is deflate your tires to cushy low 30's. When that happens to me it feels like the whole car is sluggish and pulling an anchor.