Need advice: 2005 Prius w 62,000 miles for college student...

OK.
So.....
The original question WAS Prius versus newer Mazda.

That question is now moot since the Mazda is now out of the picture.
The advice about setting money aside to replace the traction battery is rock solid!
You may not need it for a while, but if you can afford a repair fund, then the 12-year-old G2 could serve you faithfully for 10 more years, which would be well worth the initial buy-in!
As far as the battery is concerned, it need not be a 3k expenditure since used or re-manufactured battery packs for G2s are now quite commonly bought somewhere in the $2,000 range.
Of these two I would probably lean away from a used unit due to the fact that G2s and their battery packs are all getting older.

Maintenance: No offense intended, but if you're going to be a Two Prius Family, you need to dig out the maintenance schedule on your G3 and your son's/your soon to be new to you G2.

The interwebs are data rich, but some spots can be FACT poor and there's a huge difference between car MAINTENANCE and car REPAIR.
Also...differences in opinions about car maintenance can sometimes make the recent election seem to be trivial.
The #1 thing that you can do to increase the longevity of BOTH cars is to check your oil volume regularly.....like even every 1,000 miles.
Battles about oil viscosity, oil change intervals - even E0 versus E10 gas blends can leave many people who don't enjoy wrenching around on cars utterly bewildered, and guess what dealership service managers feed on?
Right!
Utterly bewildered car owners who only lift the hood to refill the window washer fluid.
KNOWING what is on the maintenance schedule (and what is not) and just a little bit about cars in general can keep you from paying for unnecessary maintenance, which is................almost any maintenance that isn't on the schedule of maintenance.
Fortunately, most unnecessary maintenance will not hurt your car, just your wallet.
My #1 rule for mechanics is that anything that isn't on the maintenance schedule isn't maintenance.....it's a REPAIR.
Those require justification, explanations, and often a second opinion.
You would be amazed at how many people DRIVE a car into a dealership for a checkup only to discover that their baby has stage-4 cancer and $3000 worth of repairs are required.....STAT.
Be.....skeptical.
While it's true that stage-4 cancers are sometimes found during checkups, most people forget that if you drive a car INTO a dealership, you will probably be able to limp it to the doctor across town to double check the first doctor's diagnosis.

Still with me?
Yeah....I know.
Long winded, but hey....waiting at the dealership for an unneeded "injector cleaning" takes a while too, and THIS IS FREE!!!!
Every rule (except one) has exceptions.
There's a consensus in this forum that the transaxle fluid [sic] ought to be replaced even though it's a "lifetime" fluid according to Toyota, which is a nuanced term if you stop and think about it. You'll see about 12,000 different periodicity recommendations on this forum, and replacing it now and then once again before the 150,000 mile mark seems about right for me.
That's MY opinion, but if you don't do your own maintenance (likely) then you risk overpaying for the work or having the dealer or independent mechanic not do something right and introduce a failure from over or under filling the transaxle, over or under torquing the plug....or using the wrong fluid.
Still.....here's a chance to test your local Toyota dealership for greediness.
The T/A fluid should run somewhere in the $150 range.

Oh....and speaking of nuance, forget about the battery pack.
Caveat: JHMO!
It will take you a little while to get your head around this but the best way to get the most longevity out of your car AND the most fuel efficiency is to NOT try to game the system by tinkering with your battery's state of charge.
The battery is just a spit cup to hold waste energy, and using "B" mode to try to overcharge it....or getting a charger to do the same thing isn't very.........efficient.
Efficiency lies in not generating the waste (heat, inertia, etc...) to begin with.

ANOTHER thing that Prius owners will battle endlessly about!

Good Luck!!

 

Never mind did not read this carefully enough

 

Neverminded

 

Here in Texas you can get a NEW Toyota battery installed for $2200 from an independent business in the DFW area. My understanding is he makes more profit on the old batt by using the good modules to make $950 refurb packs and bundle failed modules into a core pack that is then returned to Toyota.

Also, my understanding is Toyota now sells a slightly cheaper rebuilt pack (IIRC it has a "-84" suffix on the part number).

 

The -84 pack is not worth it. One person that bought one (and returned it) found out that it had really old modules (from a 2006) in it.

 

There are places that specialize in oil changes or transmission repair or brakes. Wish someone would start a chain specializing in replacing, swapping, balancing HV batteries.

Sounds like something disruptive that Tesla ( Elon Musk) might try.

 

The batteries are not suppose to require constant maintenance. Not like a 5000 mile oil change.

Imagine getting 1 customer a day?

 

Hybrid Automotive would beg to differ with you

 

Here are two links to electric vehicle tech programs:

Electric Vehicle Technology Certificate Programs

Vehicle Technologies Office: Plug-In Electric Vehicles and Batteries | Department of Energy

Maybe the market is big enough in some of the major metro areas. There are lots of electric vehicles in the D.C. area.

 

Well, in effect, there is an entire industry all ready in place. They do all the replacing, swapping, balancing before hand and the entire battery is then swapped out at their location or yours. Here's just one chain: greentecauto.com/locations

Trying to do all that to your battery while still in your car is very cost and time prohibitive.

 

O.K. I saw only a dozen locations on that link, greentecauto.com/locations. Many more on this link Mobile Installation that shows mobile installs.

 

The battery refurbish business is similar to appliance repair business. They repair a $2000 refrigerator for $500 with used parts, only to last a year and when you least expect it during Christmas, it fails and all your food spoils. Time to repair again for $500? The real repair is to replace and be good for 10+ years

 

+1....
IF the rest of the car is will last long enough to recoup the cost....and many will.

 

i let my kids by whatever they could afford. it's a good time in life to learn hard lessons. 20 something years later, they all managed to survive.

 

the anti theft is an immobilizer. you see the blinking red icon on the dash display.

congrats, all the best!

 

Sometimes insurance will show features that are options for the car as installed, even if they're not actually present. On my last car, my insurance gave me a discount for stability control even though the car did not actually have that. You basically get a free discount that way, but don't necessarily expect that everything they give you a discount for is actually part of your car.

 

For side curtain airbags, there will be an etched note on the bar between the door and the windshield that says Curtain SRS or something similar. Other side airbags will be labeled via a tag on the front seats.

 

This thread really suprises me. I'm also looking to buy a used 2005 prius but from a private seller. I've done my research and they all say that the prius is a very reliable car and the hysteria about the battery is just fear mongering. This guy in the video below said that the prius battery can last up to 200000+ miles. Plus the op's prius is under 100000. Toyota has a warranty that replaces dead batteries under 100000, which becomes 150000 if you're in california. Toyota has said that the battery pack is one of the least-frequently replaced items across all Prius models.

And it seems like people here are implying that nonhybrid cars are foolproof. Like the tranny on a nonhybrid car can't fail. This makes me think this forum is filled with meatheaded gas guzzlers that want people to stay away from the prius.