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2007-80k miles $7500 Good Price?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by SailorMan, Jan 5, 2019.

  1. SailorMan

    SailorMan New Member

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    Cars in good shape. Would anyone like to comment on $7500 for car with good battery??

    Good deal? Thoughts??

    Thanks!

    Sailorman
     
  2. oldtechaa

    oldtechaa Active Member

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    I would be concerned about this car's battery. The general consensus here seems to be that 10+ year Prii with low mileage (less than 120k maybe) are at greater risk for battery problems than higher mileage cars. The batteries don't like periods of inactivity.
     
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    agreed. and i would be concerned about the brake actuator as well.

    and the price seems really high to me. what is the kbb?
     
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  4. oldtechaa

    oldtechaa Active Member

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    Looks like that's pretty close to KBB. You might be able to find a 120k+ for a couple thousand off that will have just had a bunch of its larger maintenance items done.
     
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  5. Skibob

    Skibob Senior Member

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    Was the battery replaced?
     
  6. MilkyWay

    MilkyWay Active Member

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    It is a good deal if you are specifically hunting for a lower mileage Prius and plan to keep it as a museum showpiece because "it has low miles".

    Otherwise price is high and why bother with the odometer reading when you have 100s of thousands of people driving around in priuses with 200-500k miles still running like-new. Not exactly a lemon car that requires low miles to be reliable.

    You can find a really clean Prius with more miles that will be half the price.
     
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  7. SailorMan

    SailorMan New Member

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    Not that I know of

    Good point. I am going to do that. Thank You! :)
     
    #7 SailorMan, Jan 10, 2019
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 10, 2019
  8. MilkyWay

    MilkyWay Active Member

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    You far from Blue Mound, Texas?
     
  9. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    I'm beginning to see many low mileage Prius come up for sale. I think buyers have to check all service records and make sure the mileage is true and not changed. With failed combination meters being easily programmed to whatever mileage you want, you can easily buy a car with a ton more miles.

    I just changed the Combination meter on my 2005 with 205,000 miles, I was able to get a used combination meter at the local junk yard for $100 and now my car shows 96,000 miles.
     
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  10. Skibob

    Skibob Senior Member

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    Yes but your honest and would not cheat someone. The guy that smogged my car told me that scam is quite common these days. Dirtbags find used high mileage super clean cars then swap out the instrument cluster and pass off the car as low mileage. New owner finds out about the switch next time the car is smogged.
     
  11. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    They don't really switch combo meters, it's too much time. They just reprogram it while it's in the car.

    The scam is very common on Craigslist, they buy 300k+ miles Prius for $2000 or less and then reduce the miles to 110k and sell for $3500 (which is a bargain and will sell fast to the first person that sees it). All without even putting the car in their name. The title is usually already signed by the previous seller.
     
  12. Skibob

    Skibob Senior Member

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    I think my smog guy was talking about cars that have much easier to change instrument clusters, like Camrys.
     
  13. Skibob

    Skibob Senior Member

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    That’s probably the only good thing about Carfax (at least in California). The mileage at smog check is always recorded on a Carfax
     
  14. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    Carfax usually doesn't come into play, the car is such a good deal, there's the "Fear of missing out" if you go home and check with Carfax. The sale is usually very fast and the regret comes only if you check afterwards. DMV doesn't care about these sales as the car is over 10 years old and the mileage is usually not recorded when it's transferred.
     
  15. Skibob

    Skibob Senior Member

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    They seemed quite concerned at DMV when the lady messed up the mileage on my wife’s car when we bought it. And every title I have has the mileage recorded on it.
     
  16. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    I do nearly all my DMV transactions at AAA and when a car goes over 10 years, they don't even bother recording the mileage.
     
  17. Skibob

    Skibob Senior Member

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    This was at DMV. Roseville I believe.
     
  18. egg_salad

    egg_salad Active Member

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    I will happily sell you my '08 with a verifiable 99k on the clock for $7500. All day long and twice on Sundays. I paid $7200 for it in October of '17 :)
     
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  19. padroo

    padroo Senior Member

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    I always go against the grain buying a high mileage Prius. If you buy a car with high miles means the rest of the car has high miles and if you are only looking at the battery longevity it doesn't even make sense. Give me a low mileage car any day. Any old car the same age has the same age battery no matter how many miles.
    And, just because it has low miles doesn't necessarily mean it wan't driven.
     
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  20. MilkyWay

    MilkyWay Active Member

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    All my cars have high miles. Getting very close on my 2008 to 200k...

    Had my 2008 from 140k not much more than a year ago and crossed 197k yesterday....Zero issues aside from starting to burn oil and since about 150k a "very small evap leak" check engine light. Other than that it runs like new.

    Wife has 2007 with over 190k as well. Both little cheapies where our cost is around $3500 on each.

    I also have a 2012 Prius Plug-in bought that beauty with 220K miles! Did a few normal things to it (new egr components, 2 wheel bearings, all new brakes/rotors)....My cost on that thing is outrageous (probably around 7500?) when adding the maintenance...But moral of the story is I am so confident in the Prius that 2 and a half months ago I rented the 2012 to an uber driver so he can put a gazillion miles on it. Haven't checked recently but I'm sure it has over 250k now. When he got it it had 232k which you might as well consider it brand new right now...I think it will go somewhere between 400 and 500k miles.

    Figure I'd put my money where my mouth is...And also didn't feel like dealing with lowballers by listing a 2012 with 230k miles on it for like $5500 or $5000....Uber driver has been paying $165/week for about 10 weeks now.

    I've probably owned and sold a short time later (drive for 6 months to 1 year and resell) about 8 priuses. Never had a battery problem or any serious issue. Most are zero-maintenance vehicles. The only "issues" I've had on all of my priuses is my 2008 (profile pic) a check engine light came on for "very small exhaust leak" and hearing a wheel bearing noise on the 2012 and the shop later saying "you need to replace all brakes/rotors". Normal stuff. Also, the EGR on the 2012 within a few days of first purchasing it. And typical high miles "need to check the oil periodically".

    As far as I can remember out of the thousands of days now that I have been daily driving Priuses I have really only had 2 days (out of thousands) where some random mechanical failure occurs out of the blue. A subtle wheel bearing noise and a CEL for minor evap leak.

    Matter of fact, about 5 months ago I bought for $1500 a different prius that the owner "replaced a few cells on his own...but the hybrid light keeps coming on...and it has now been just sitting untouched in my driveway for almost a year"....I went there, needed a jump....drove fine and I didn't notice anything but he told me the hybrid light will come back on within a few days.

    Drove the heck out of it...battery light came back on...cleared it with snap-on scanner. It came back on within the next week (this was about 5 months ago).....Cleared with snap-on scanner a second time.

    My dad has been driving it for MONTHS now and light has not come back on LOL...So literally the only experience I have had with a gen 2 with bad battery the problem corrected itself. And I do know a guy that will rebuild the battery for $500 with 1 year warranty or $400 with 30 day warranty but never had to use him. That's actually the reason I went and checked out that prius with supposedly a bad hybrid battery.

    I would say, "no, I'm just lucky" but you can see in this forum (particularly the 200k and 300k plus club) where owners just do not ever run into serious or expensive issues.