2017 Prius v never had oil change

Nah, that would be the least of my worries

 

The Prius v OCI is 10,000 miles for synthetic oil, 5,000 miles for conventional.

Go to the Toyota Owners site: Toyota Owners Official Web Site

And input the VIN to see if there is any periodic maintenance information on file.

 

Plug the vin into Toyota's website to see the service record, carfax may not be current.

 

There is no way to know. I change my own oil. It would not show up on any service records.

 

I suppose if you are concerned now, pre-purchase?
Then I would pass, because there is no way of really knowing or settling definitively what you are concerned about.

At the core?
Less than 14,000 miles, and simply assuming no Oil Change has been done, well, I do think their are BIGGER red flags than missing oil change data.

I'm assuming when you say "Dealership" you aren't talking about a Toyota Dealership, because to my knowledge Toyota dealerships do not go to auctions to purchase auctioned vehicles.

The base fact that it is a lease returned vehicle with 13,725 miles on it, that has ended up at an auction would be my biggest concern. The fact that I couldn't track down Oil Change or maintenance history would be secondary.

If you are determined to purchase?
I'd want an independent evaluation and check.

 

Even if you do your own or have a non-dealer mechanic do your maintenance, you can enter that information via the Owners Site...

 

OTOH, if the dealer is willing to give it a "Toyota Certified Pre-Owned" imprimatur and warranty, why not?

 

The assumption I'm making here, is that it is NOT a Toyota Dealership.
I don't think Toyota Dealerships go to "Auto Auctions" to purchase lease returned vehicles.
The bigger concern to me, is why a lease returned vehicle with less than 14000 miles would end up in an auto auction.

If I'm wrong, and this is a Toyota dealership and a Certified Pre-Owned warranty is being offered? That changes the equation somewhat.

But my bottom line, is you shouldn't really enter into a deal that you have worries or concerns about BEFORE you've even done it. If not knowing the maintenance history is a concern?
Then pass.
Used Prius are not so rare. You should be able to find one with a maintenance paper trail. Perhaps one that did not end up in an Auto Auction.

 

Personally, at this point in time, I would be more worried about it being a concealed flood vehicle than about the OCI.

 

I don't know of any auto dealer that doesn't go to auto auctions, they sell their trade-ins and buy anything they can make a profit on, business is business.

 

So how did the dipstick look? I've seen >13k mile oil that easily passed a simple appearance & odor test, and I've seen 4k oil that looked like a chocolate milkshake & smelled like straight gasoline.

Records are important, but look closely at the car.

 

Generally, you want to be sure that there is no evidence of water intrusion to electrical connectors outside and particularly inside the engine compartment and chassis, say, under the rugs. If water infiltrates connectors or harnesses, bad things happen. I don't know if Tennessee requires titles be branded in the event of water/flood damage.

 

Not all the metal on a typical car is treated for corrosion resistance.

Generally everything on the exterior & undercar, but it's expensive to do everything. They never do the seat springs. So when I suspect a flood, I wipe a clean, soft white rag under the front seats, touching the steel springs.

If it comes back orange, I know to walk away. There are other tests, but that one has served me well.

There was a car up for somebody's consideration on this board the other day- they'd found heavy rust on the engine mount. Road salt never comes up that high, but floodwater can.

 

Years back I noticed on a car (my son was shopping) the seat holddown bolts were all rusty. We weren't really interested in it, but it's little clues like that.

 

Just ignore the "Nah, that would be the least of my worries" comment, glad you found the service history, that model gets grabbed and used to become a taxi, say you put on 50- 100,000 miles, you can sell it to be a taxi then.
Enjoy.

 

They may wholesale out some of their less desirable trade ins, BUT a 2017 Prius with less than 14000 miles? That's a trade in/sell it deal, for a Toyota Dealership. So there's a red flag as to WHY it was sitting at an auction.

I'd actually be MORE suspicious now as to why it ended up at auction and a world away from where it was leased, now that the maintenance records have been determined.
Typically newer used vehicles with low miles DON'T end up at auction.

 

RUN!!!