New owner - '04 Prius with 33,000km on the clock

Hi everyone!

To cut a long story short, I've ended up with a 2004 gen II base-model Prius in gold. I wasn't intending to buy a Prius, but a relative unfortunately lost their drivers license, has no plans to drive again and was so attached to the car she wanted another family member to drive it, so I paid a very reasonable price.

It was bought new from a dealer in 2004 and has only been driven 33k kilometres (Google tells me that's 20.5k miles) since. I drove it home from the country town in which it lived yesterday.

It's in great condition - some wear on the soft parts of the interior, some discolouration on the driver's side plastic door trim and a few small scrapes on the front side bumpers are the only issues - and drives like I imagine it did when it was new. I'm planning to buy car seat covers and a cargo mat for it. It seems like it's been very diligently serviced and the log book has (mostly) been filled out for each service. The brakes are spectacularly good compared to any other car I've ever driven.

My question - being pretty unfamiliar with this sort of car (although I've read a lot of PriusChat in the last month or so) what are some things that I NEED to get done before I do anything else? Are there issues I can imminently expect? The car appears to have absolutely no problems at all.

Looking forward to the experience of owning one!

 

Thanks guys - JMD, will do.

I'm also looking for a cargo mat - will US-made mats work with a right-hand-drive car? Obviously regular floor mats won't, but is the hatch area arranged any differently between countries?

Also, the dash is pretty expansive and mostly made of hard plastic so is a dash mat necessary? Or do they use better materials that don't crack as readily these days?

It'll probably get a fair bit of sun over the summer here, but it's mostly parked undercover when it's at home.

 

Ha ha, anything to stop paint chips up the front

Thanks a lot! Will do. I think the 12 volt has been replaced sometime in the last year or two and hopefully the big battery still has a while to go, but I'll be paying attention.

Yeah I might get it checked out by a dealer or a mechanic who knows the Prius (if I can find such a thing nearby) when I've got the money to.

 

I imagine the shape of the bonnet would direct a big animal straight through the windscreen too? But thankfully I probably don't have to worry about that because the only animal likely to run out in front of me in the Sydney suburbs would be a possum. Sadly in this part of the city you see quite a few of them as roadkill. I've never really seen anything bigger.

Now that the car's not living in the country though it's probably safe from stone chips up the front too! I touched them up the other day with paint that a local car parts chain had made up for me (the local Toyota dealer told me they don't sell touch-up paint anymore, which struck me as odd) but it appears the paint is a shade darker than it should be. It looks a lot better than tiny spots of bare metal on a gold car, but the chips are still quite visible (if you're looking).

 

Nah I'm not going to worry about a car bra - seems like more trouble than it's worth I think.

Discovered that a small part of the front lower grille that fits around the right-hand fog light is missing, so I ordered one from the US on eBay. Hopefully it's straightforward to fit.

The only other thing that I've discovered at this stage is that the fabric used on the centre console and the side door arm rests isn't very hard wearing - I anticipate it's going to get quite worn down after a few years. I guess there's nothing I can do about that, aside from replacing the lid/door handle if such parts are available down the track.

Anyway thanks for your help Kenmce and everyone!