Buying used from non-Toyota dealer

A very reasonable price. Yes, you are correct that the Carfax record could be incomplete for a variety of reasons.

 

That's not bad. Cheap insurance.

 

Car repair records are only on Carfax if they are done at the dealer. If you bring it to Joe's auto repair, there won't be a record of that service. It doesn't mean it wasn't done, just it's not on a national data base.

 

Well good luck with everything. I hope that all goes well with your purchase and you become a member of the Prius family. If you do, I'm confident its a decision you won't regret.

Phil

 

1. From a negotiation point of view, you should have decided upon a price with the selling dealer, prior to having the car inspected. Your purchase offer would be subject to receiving a satisfactory inspection result.
2. Now that you have revealed that you are willing to pay for a third party inspection (which is a strong buying signal), obviously the selling dealer no longer has any great incentive to give you the best possible price.
3. However if your price is "well below KBB" then I don't think you have great reason for concern, but please learn from #1 above in future transactions.

 

If you look at the entire transaction, $300 for a $12000 shouldn't be a deal breaker. If you financed, it would be a couple dollars more a month. If you really like it, just go for it, it's already below KBB.

 

You have to decide what options are important to you before you can successfully buy the car you want. You are looking at a package 6 and also base model. There are huge differences in the equipment.

If you can decide which options you can live without, that can help you narrow down the package options you should buy. Why pay for something you won't use?

 

I believe the options packages on those years were different. In 2007 they consolidated many options.

Example, in 2006 a package 3 will have all the airbags including curtain airbags. However in 2007, that was consolidated to a package 2 and they included the stability control too. That equipment in the 2007 package 2 was equivalent to a 2006 package 4. Very confusing.

A base model doesn't have a smart key, no backup camera. I would suggest you don't get that.

 

The price of $12000, you should be able to easily find one at a Toyota Dealer. It's not exactly cheap for a generation 2. That way you won't have to take it to a Toyota dealer to do further inspection. You may be able to find one that's certified pre-owned and comes with a warranty so you won't have to worry about it breaking down once you drive off the lot.

 

I don't agree with that logic.

A myriad of things can happen to vehicles at any given time. Unfortunately, I bought vehicles in my youth that looked great with low miles on them and they turned out to have a plethora of problems.

You can mess up a vehicle in 55,000 miles. Even a Prius.

An independent inspection might be analysis overkill. Infact, in most cases you are hoping that it the results are positive and what you hear back is the vehicle is great. In which case you could say the inspection was never needed. But for my money? The cost of an independent inspection is really very minimal in comparison to the cost of buying the vehicle and THEN discovering a major problem. I'd rather be "out" the cost of an inspection that comes back great, than roll the dice and "hope" my test drive and rudimentary visual inspection is telling me the whole story.

Fluids and Oils can be changed...immediately FOR the sale. So checking the "usual" car stuff doesn't always represent the vehicle you are really getting.

My 2 cents...if investing into a relatively expensive "newer" used vehicle, that you don't wish to take on as a project, or do a lot of work on yourself, then get an inspection.

 

This is the same guy that said you can't fix this paint after I gave him specific steps how to do it. Then a body shop fixed the paint doing exactly what I told him to do. Your track record of disagreeing with me is not very good at this point.

 

Based on the options you have, I like the 2007 package 6

 

I never disagreed with you about your opinion on my paint. The truth is as I stated, I'm not a DIY'er in that arena. The challenge in that situation was finding an outside party competent and talented enough to recognize and fix the problem. Not really my fault if when I take my vehicle to supposed professionals, in the flesh and they tell me they CAN'T fix it without a repaint, I believe them over an anonymous internet poster who has never seen the vehicle in person.

A lot of people were WRONG in their evaluation of my problem. It took me a long time, and a little luck, to find someone who COULD handle the situation.

Infact, I always hoped you were right about my paint situation. Being able to remove the spots without repainting was always an outcome I hoped for.

I'm also pretty sure that given my lack of DIY'er skills had I tried to remove the spots myself, I would of probably done more damage than good. Even the shop that did eventually remove the spots told me that the process took quite a bit of finesse and skill. But this is all off topic.

In any case.....99 out of 100 times? If it's a significant investment into a new, more expensive used vehicle in which I want a good level of reliability and future...I'm defaulting to the recommendation of an outside, independent inspection. At the very least it's good peace of mind for less than $200.

 

This is a bit off topic but I don't always believe everything I read online. It may not always apply to your specific situation. Example I accidentally scratched my mfd and went online to find a fix. Went to youtube and google, found people using "cardboard" of all things to rub out the scratch. As this was simply paper and not very abrasive, I figured it wouldn't hurt.

I found out the hard way, it's not something that I should have done. Although it didn't scratch my mfd further, it did scuff it up more. Made the problem worse. I finally just put a coat of vaseline (used as wax) on the display and all the scuffs were hidden.

So the moral of the story....hell I don't even know. And I don't disagree with Phil. Most of everything you read will be the opinion of the person writing it, really no right or wrong to their own opinion.