What to expect from battery when buying 6-7 y/o car

yes, more age than miles. however, some have said that gen 3 batteries will not travel as far as gen 2.

many diy'ers here have replaced their own battery. caution just be used to avoid electrocution and potentially, death. there are many threads and youtubes.
many stand by the prolong charger, but i don't know what scientific testing has been done. it somewhat depends on your batteries initial health.
plug in gets just a few more mpg than non plug in, you read something in error.
no one has had to purchase a battery yet, they are only up to 6 years old so far. there must be some salvage ones available.
yes, they are huge compared to non plug in, and much more costly. also lion vs nimh.

you can expect a lot more expensive repairs with a hybrid vs a gasser as the cars age, but some are very fortunate to put a couple hundred thousand on them without major problems.

 

I don't agree with that. In my experience, repair cost is a function of vehicle quality and complexity, and non-hybrids are getting very complex with turbos, direct injection (sometimes combined with port injection), 8+ speed automatics, start stop systems, cylinder deactivation, etc. Any quality problem in any of those components can mean expensive repairs. And when you have a highly turbo'ed small displacement engine, any problem can have major consequences due to the highly stressed nature of the engine.

However, I will admit that in the "little old lady use case" where a car isn't driven much, the battery in a hybrid may develop problems due to age that won't occur with turbos, etc. Which brings me back to the OP: I don't have any answers, I just find myself wondering the same thing.

 

Unless you are willing to spend roughly $2500 for a new HV pack eventually, a used Prius is not a long term option for you. Other than that the Gen 2 and Gen 3 have proven to be very reliable cars that need almost nothing except an occasional wheel bearing and suspension parts. You might also have the misfortune of buying one that burns oil which is annoying at first and can become a real problem beyond 300K miles.

There are better choices for a mid level price beater than a Prius assuming you are driving less than 25K miles per annum. Just the opinion of someone who bought a five year old Gen 2 Prius with 134K miles on it, put 120K miles on it in six years, and unloaded it because he couldn't justify putting in a brand new pack in a car with that many miles that burned oil. The guy who bought it? He might have splurged for a new pack but I have no way of finding out if he did.

 

Rustang, I had the same strategy when buying used cars. I've had great luck with buying older, gently used Toyotas. The Prius has a different buying process, however.

There are many low mileage Prii, if you look long enough. In many of these cases, you'll be asked to pay a premium over the book value, which I don't think an older hybrid warrants. I believe the traction battery's life is more of a function of age than use. If an older Prius has a new battery, the owner will often try to pass along the cost of that to the next buyer. A new traction battery comes with a bunch of new questions as it could be a new battery with all new parts, or it could be a reconditioned battery that won't last a year- and everything in between.

Just by coming here and reading up on the threads before purchasing is a prudent course of action.

 

I'm still waiting to know just how long that piece of string really is!!!

 

Au contraire!

The Impala I bought soon after moving to this country was... well it was a Chevy. I was poor, but that piece of $%&# made me much poorer.

My Accord was on 2nd transmission, 2nd fuel pressure regulator (latter thanks to ethanol subsidies) when it was totaled.

My Forester was on 2nd catalytic converter ($600 part), 2nd air pump (another $600 emissions part), and 2nd brake job when it was totaled.

My IS is on 2nd alternator, 3rd battery, and has a defective engine design (google lexus is carbon buildup)

Meanwhile I just replaced the 12v battery for the first time in the Camry. The one I just recycled was marked May 2006. I had the brake pads done once too I believe.

I've heard that the break even point from gas savings between hybrids and regular cars is 10 years or more, but I'm sure the break even point is much sooner than that when you include maintenance and repairs, and sooner still when you buy used.

 

From what I've seen in the research I've done, buying a 6-7 year old Prius is usually a good purchase. While Bisco is right that there are more expensive components in a Prius that can have problems in comparison to other cars, fewer of them actually have those problems. Look at reliability data from Dashboard Light, True Delta, and Consumer Reports, and all of them rate the Prius as one of the most reliable cars on the road. Sure, there's a chance that something catastrophically expensive will break. But the odds of that happening are low: 10% or lower overall chances of any serious problems costing over $1000 according to numbers by True Delta and Dashboard Light. And that includes problems with the hybrid battery and everything attached to it.

Currently, according to the charts I can find on the websites mentioned above, 2006 and newer Prii should all have 10% or lower odds of having any serious problems. That number raises with 2005 and older models up to a 14-20% chance of serious problems for 1st generation (2001-2003) Prii. If we extrapolate comparative ages from the data and ignore generational changes, it seems that the Prius is at least 90% reliable for 10-11 years on average, and then reliability decreases by 5-10% over the next 5 years after that. So a 6-7 year old Prius is likely to be 90% reliable for another 4 years, and then drop to 85% or 80% reliable in the 5 years after that. Seems like decent odds to me.

 

I believe we are seeing quite a few older Prii that have head gasket issues or need engine replacement.

 

and that's only the one's reported here. and egr, manifold and oil burning.

 

I had considered buying a used Prius, but couldn't find any, except for the one that was on a dealer's lot for list price. Someone had bought it, had it 3 months, driven it less than 500 miles. Thought the dealer was insane or there was something wrong with the car.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

i'm not sure about the differences, you can definitely put gen 3 cells in a gen 2. but many of the rebuilders here say that ben 3 batteries are a disaster waiting to happen. i don't know why.
yes, i meant longer battery life, in terms of time and/or miles.

that being said, we have just seen a slew of gen 2 battery issues in the last few years, and not too many get 3's yet.

 

Since you live in a mild climate (not cold in the winter) you might be able to achieve 50 mpg. And since you are logging a lot of miles that makes the Prius a better option. The HV pack tends to last longer when a Prius is driven daily and for lots of miles.

I'm a little surprised that you don't get better than 26 mpg with your Camry. Lead foot? 90 mph on the freeway? If so there's no way you're going to get 50 mpg with the Prius - 40 is more like it.

 

yeah, if you don't get average in a camry, you won't in a prius. but it will definitely be better.
as far as crags list is concerned, caution is the watchword.

 

33 THOUSAND miles per year city driving? R U a Uber or Lyft driver? Yeah, a Prius is definitely THE way to go in that case.

 

If the miles are highway miles, then setting the cruise control at 70 will net 50+ mpg. If it's local Uber type driving with extra passengers and luggage, then probably not. But it'll be a lot better than the Camry in the same conditions.

 

I would use 45 mpg as an estimate for the Prius instead of 50. In my opinion, you need to have a few things consistently going your way for a long-term average of 50 mpg, at least for a Gen 2 or 3. I've gotten 50+ mpg on a few tanks of gas, but my overall long-term mpg is lower.

Also, contrary to MelonPrius' experience, I tend to get slightly better fuel economy with city driving compared to highway driving.