To Pri or not to Pri...

Rookie here- looking for a little insight.

Several years ago, my wife bought a 2002 Mazda Protege5 wagon. Got it paid off, and she really enjoyed the little thing. 5 speed, 32 mpg on the highway, etc. We drove it on all of our long distance trips, and ran it up to almost 200k, before she got hit by a college student and it was totalled. Now she just started law school, and we are wanting to buy something with primarily just the insurance payout, and not take on a payment right now. After research, we determined a Prius just wasn't in the cards due to our price constraints. A high milegage Prius is bound to need a new traction battery before she finishes law school. So our budget is about $6k. The things I am seeing in that budget are early 2000s VWs (maybe a diesel), Outbacks, Camrys, Volvo V50/70s, etc.

Enter our friend, who is getting rid of a 2005 Prius because she is moving to a city where a car isn't neccesary. She has had it for a few years, it has been meticulously cared for, and it a package 6, with a leather interior added on top. Downside- 225k miles. Upside- she just put a NEW (dealer installed) traction battery in, along with a A/C blower motor, tires, and brakes. She says she'd sell it to us for $5500. Looking at blue book values, that comes in $500-1000 below the going rate, and I would trust it's maintenance record.

Now I am a confident mechanic, have done all of my/my family's auto maintence since I was a teen. Imports, domestics, German, Japanese, new, old, classics, etc, I have pretty much done it all. I have never dealt with a hybrid though. My primary concern is the ECVT, I haven't dealt with one of those directly either, and am not fluent in their tendencies.

Can I have enough confidence to buy this thing, and have it last the next 3 years (while she's in school) without putting another $5k in it? I understand freak, unexpected things and am not asking for a fortune teller. But given our budget, and our other options, am I wrong in assuming a Prius is no greater a liablity than any other car under $6k?

Thanks folks,
D

 

I caught my unintentional pun pretty quickly, and figured I'd leave it for a laugh.

Thanks for the knowledge.

 

We bought it. We had pretty much decided to before my post here, but I was curious to see if there was any negative feedback on here. I had read other threads started by people like me, and while none of them had new traction batteries, the overall concensus was to not buy a $6k high mileage Prius.

Our friend had already left town, so we take possession tomorrow, really looking forward to playing with it a bit. I have been doing endless reading on getting the most effecient economy from the Prius. Unfortunately, it won't be seeing a very long commute to allow that efficiency to shine .

As for our use- my wife and I until recently shared a car, and the cars I drive are antiques and projects, so this thing will be getting put through it's paces. My guess is that we will both use the Prius daily, and let the toys simply be toys. In the last two years we put 40k miles on her Mazda, which isn't an obsurd amount, but it is a good amount of usage.

 

Also, Jimbo- we are practically neighbors- my wife and I are in Oxford.