Buying a used Prius with 85k miles a bad idea?

In FL the battery is warrantied for 8 years and 100,000 miles. The same battery is warrantied in some other states for 10 years and 150,000 miles. (CARB States)

I have not heard of a Prius go more than 600,000 miles on one battery. Very few (but not 0) fail within the warranty.

If you buy a NEW battery, it may indeed cost $4000 with labor, but used batteries are available near $1000 as fewer batteries fail than cars get totaled.

 

If you bought the car for great gas mileage and being very reliable, you made a great purchase. The vast majority of traction batteries last a very long time. Very rarely someone has a premature failure or abuses the car and fear strikes some that all batteries fail early.

You should easily get 200,000 miles out of the battery. A few will fail before that, but not all, and many go 300,000 to 400,000 miles on cars that are driven very high mileage each year.

The battery killers are: charging the battery way up (70-80%) and parking it in very hot temperatures, than getting back in and driving again. (I.e., lots of short errands all day long). And, doing this day after day.

I live in Florida and I drive 35 miles to work in the morning then drive home in the mid afternoon. The battery temperature is just fine. Above 125 F (50 C) battery temperature the car protects the battery by running the engine all the time and resting the battery.

Get front and rear window shades, side window deflectors (leave windows down 1 inch).

Just enjoy our car and don't worry about it. 100,000 miles is just not that big a deal with a Prius.

Cheers

 

good decision, good idea! my daughter has my old 08 with nearly 100k on it. zero problems, just got back from a trip to northern maine. '08 was a great year, and she expects to keep it a long time.

in all likelyhood, 2011 will be even better. its time that seems to kill the batteries, not mileage. all the best!

 

would be too expensive.

 

Don't worry about special coolers or extra fans, just buy front and rear window shades that are made just for Prius (correct window size). If you want to go the extra mile, buy window deflectors and leave the side windows cracked down about an inch when parked.

I do all this and monitor my battery temperatures. It all works out well. See pictures of TB1, TP2, TP3, TB intake, and fan speed. The first picture is from heat soaking from driving, parking a couple hours with high charge, and driving again on a very HOT day. This is not my norm. I usually see temps 112 F (45 C) and less even on the hottest days. I try not to park with my battery charge above 60% on a very hot day. I will sit with the AC on full cold, fan high and lights on to drain the charge down. It only takes about 5 minutes or less. It's probably not needed, but it works for me. Only needed if I go out for lunch on a hot day at work.

Amazon has all the shades and deflectors (about $150 for everything).

The first picture is a heat soaked battery and the second picture is after 15 minutes of driving. The battery cooled down about 14 F (8 C). The car was protecting the battery by running the engine all the time until it cooled down.



See my thread on several days of hot temperatures: First Time Traction Battery in Protection Mode at Over 50 C | PriusChat

 

What software did you use to check the traction batteries temperature? I have an OBD scanner, can I use that with an android app?

 

Not sure about android. Probably could do something. Look up the EngineLink HD app. If it's available on your phone, great.

I use EngineLink HD app for IPad with an ELM327 Wifi adapter for the ODBII port. The adapter and app can be bought for about $25.

 

I bought mine with 110k miles a month ago. The batteries are perfect, I've checked with Torque Pro and an OBD BT connector.

 

I also have torque, sunny really know how to use it to test the batteries. Can you explain the attached picture. Also how did u get that display on torque?

 

One little thing you can do to prolong the battery life is to use the air conditioner on warm days, the fan that cools the battery is fed from air inside the car, so when you are cooling yourself,you are cooling the battery. Prices on new batteries are going down a little $3k installed is closer than 4, and if it comes time to get one and you want a new one shop dealers.

 

Nobody would drive when in car 100F, but when car is parked and parked for the whole day, that may be a real problem. Although I'm not sure when no operation, may be it is not so bad.

For topic starter, may be you paid a bit too much, but enjoy the car. Battery issue is overblown.

 

I tore the car down to clean the HV cooling fan. By the time I did that I did more than 80% of the work required to replace the HV battery. None of it is rocket science. A new battery from Toyota is about $1,800. If mine goes I'm replacing it myself. Should take less than 4 hours. Lots of help on youtube.

 

Sounds like a good buy to me. We're now hearing 2007's batt fails, not much 2008+ yet, so you got maybe 4 years before we even hear any 2011's batts going "south" as we say. well, OK its worse in FL but you'll be OK believe me (as Donald Trump would say).

 

Florida's really not that bad. It's Texas, Arizona, etc. that get the scorching heat. I monitor my battery temperatures and they are OK, except a few days in July, August.

If one understands how to manage the heat, it's not a problem here in Florida.