Looking for my first car, need advice

Not a fact at all.
It is your OPINION which I think is based more on emotion and bias than any real facts.

The gas mileage has NOTHING to do with the quality or reliability.

 

Odds of expensive (over $1000) repairs on Prius are roughly the same as odds of expensive repairs on Camry or Corolla, based on True Delta charts.

From a personal perspective, all of the cars I've owned have been 7 years old or older at time of purchase, and most had expensive repairs needed. Thus far, the only cars I've owned that cost less than $1000 per year in repairs have been my previous car (Corolla) and my current (Prius). Part of that is the model (Corollas & Prii are known to be reliabile cars), but another part is this: for the last 2 car purchases, I checked the maintenance and repair history and bought cars that had regular maintenance.

If you get a decently reliable model that's been maintained well, your car is much more likely to last a long time and cost you less.

 

My opinion is based on owning high mileage Priuses and never having to do a thing to them aside from change oil...And attending the dealer auction in person just about every week for 5 years straight where I see the prices dealers bid junk cars to. And buying 100s of cars over the years.

I've had good luck with Volvos...they are nice cars. Plus they are extremely comfortable...If he can get a 2004-2007 S40 or S60 for $3400 and poor gas mileage isn't a factor...could be a good choice.

Anyone who thinks a gen 2 Prius is a scary choice obviously has not seen the 200K mile / 300K mile and up threads. From my experience buying a Prius with 250K miles, if you only want a year or 2 out of it, would be a VERY SAFE cost-effective choice!!!!!

 

Not to mention the cult following where the car is highly sought after by not just the buyers but the dealers...Every time I watch a Prius roll through the auction online it will start low...and then a pack of wolves come out of nowhere (online bidders/dealers) start clicking in left/right getting into a bidding war and boost the final price way up....You just won't ever in a million years see that happen with an Altima or a Civic.

Browsing through my account I purchased a 2007 Honda Fit with 185K on it...It's really tiny, pretty much like a chevy aveo hatchback, but that seemed to run superb...I can only go by my experiences though of buying 100s of cars over the years LOL

 

I would NOT buy a 12 year old car of any kind for retail price..
the smart move is buy something newer that might have high miles or a little body damage
for example the I see 2010 and up nissan versa's for under $5000 they get over 35 mpg and are a lot cheaper to work on..
when I bought my 08 it needed the HV battery rebuilt but I only paid $900 for it..
this month the ABS actuator went out, the repair would have cost almost $3000 but was covered by Toyota.. your 06's could fail at any time..
I will not do expensive repairs on a car over 5 years old, remember the prius costs around $120 an hour to work on at the dealer but any shop can work on a regular car.

 

I just picked up a Prius that may have the ABS/VSC light on (I don't know yet because I bought it out of state --- I am basing this off of what I found by searching VIN on Toyota website).

Was reading around and it could be a bunch of things related to 12V...or ABS actuator... What were your symptoms?

I am also seeing part as $200 online and labor as 5 hours

 

the 200 part is used and worthless they will all fail sooner or later that's why Toyota is doing the free repair on certain vin numbers, give the vin to the dealer but don't call it a recall, its an extended warranty program... they will scan the car and if certin error code are stored its a free fix.. if you erase them and they don't pop up again youre screwed

 

Thanks, I found another thread on subject with a screenshot of extended warranty explaining to do that as well and called this morning.

Mine qualifies (through December 31, 2017 and through 150,000 miles)...

This was bought at dealer auction in georgia and running vin I see it was taken in a couple months ago for VSC/ABS...

Now I am hoping it is the actuator so it will be free repair with high quality part...

 

that is not correct its not ALL cars, the dealer has to check the vin number with toyota then scan it for certain error codes... if the dealer sold it cheap at auction odds are it will NOT be covered or it would have been fixed and sold for retail price. dealers love recall work, its all profit for them so they would have done it

 

Must be some misunderstanding from my post...I am a dealer...I bought the car from a dealer auction in Georgia...Before buying it, I ran the vin on the toyota owners website where I could see 2 months ago it was brought in to a random Toyota dealership for ABS/VSC.

I investigated problem and based on my research determined it is probably not a hybrid battery issue...so I was not deterred from bidding on the car...

I called my local dealership in Michigan, gave them the 17 digit VIN, informed them that there may be an extended warranty on ABS actuator, could you look it up...

They said, yes, your vehicle is covered through December 31, 2017 and/or 150,000 miles...Would you like a Monday appointment to which I said yes.

I still have not received vehicle...transporter should bring it in by Friday..I am hoping it is actuator since I am covered under warranty.

 

fyi you'd be surprised how many people fail to get a warranty/recall taken care of and screw themselves out of thousands of dollars.

This person, assuming it is actuator, was unaware of warranty (and I would be too were it not for your comment and others on priuschat)...and dealer failed to know about it either.

My brother scored a 2014 Fiat with 30k on it at the auction for like $5000....listed as inoperable...Complete lemon with blown clutch...blown oil pump, etc....It was all covered under warranty...He sold it for like $10,000 and did really good on the sale..got really lucky. Obviously the person who ended up selling it for probably pennies on the dollar had no idea everything was under warranty.

 

This is not true at all! Dealerships are not in the junk car ($5000 and under with over 120k miles) market...Those are gross and disgusting cars to them that they want nothing to do with...They sell brand new cars or under 50k mile two to four year old cars (for the most part). There are obviously exceptions. Putting used cars with scratches, rust, high miles pretty much infects and poisons their lot. Not a good look for them.

They take these old cars on trade-in and dump them at the dealer auction for us small timers. They don't know what they have or what problems they have...They just dump it. Their trash is our treasure...Although we often times get screwed over if not cautious.

 

ok your the expert here... good luck kid'o

 

so you think the dealer doesnt know about recalls? they pop up on the computer when they enter the vin number, and fiats are junk cars so he over paid at 5 grand.. but i wish you luck in your car flipping carer...

 

Ahh....A guy that can't accept when he's wrong in just about everything he says and gets mad when someone more knowledgeable points it out...I'm the opposite, when I know nothing and someone knows a lot about a subject I'm more than happy to learn. It is tough to admit when you're wrong but it looks like you take it really hard! Sorry!

We sold over 150 cars so far this year it is going great...But feel free to play it down as a kid in his "car flipping carer [sic]".

Ya, he paid $5000 in the year 2016 for a 2014 model loaded with leather, full 4 doors, and only 25K miles on it...Sold for $11,000 in a matter of weeks and one of the best sales of the year. It was lucky though, fully rebuilt motor and clutch all free of charge under their 5 year / 50,000 mile warranty.

Oh, feel free to call your local Toyota dealership and get on the line with a salesmen, and ask if they have any cars under $5000....They are going to laugh at you and tell you that you have the wrong number.

 

Geo Prism? LOL!

 

Um, no they do not. They *should*, but that is not the same as "has to" and the CUSTOMER has the power to decline any repair.

Not. Odds are the dealer did not look up the extended coverage, or did not acknowledge it and the customer declined repairs. Could also have been a trade-in they simply did not want to mess with; happens ALL the time.

While the factory money spends just like the customers money, few if ANY dealers "love" warranty work because the factory will only pay them a certain amount for a given repair, no inflating the bill to the OEM!

 

So a $200 part of a vehicle is worthless because it is used? That's so off-base it cannot be elevated to "wrong". Every single vehicle in the world runs on used parts that will ALL fail sooner or later.

Do you know WHY there is an issue with the HCUs? I do and it is not a design defect as no engineer or material scientist has yet figured out a way to prevent people from doing stupid things.

Toyota is going WELL BEYOND what anyone can expect from an OEM to support their product with this warranty extension. It may have something to do with the fact it affects any vehicle's primary safety system - the brakes.

For the record, you are 100% correct, this is NOT a recall, as recalls are MANDITORY and for a dealer to let a vehicle out of their control with a recall incomplete is a liability no smart business owner would permit.