2007 Prius - should I back out?

Relax... You bought a great car with no issues of concern as far as I can tell. The Toyota Stealerships are dishonest as the day is long and don't do affordable car repair on older cars. They are warranty specialists who are trained to maximize cost of repair to help stealership have cheaper payments to Toyota.

My advice is to enjoy your car and not worry about anything and buy a bluetooth OBD2 reader and use Dr. Prius App and Car Scanner app to get more information so you can plan to care for your car via yourself or a friend or family member, or at the very least an honest local mechanic who will work with us. Here's buyers guide for OBD2: Hybrid battery diagnostic and repair tool for Toyota and Lexus

Specific to your concerns:

-- My combination meter has been dying for several years and every time it goes out I make plans to deal with it and then it doesn't go out for another 6 months to a year so I never get around to it. The combination meter is simply replacing a capacitor on the circuit board after pulling it from the dash. The easiest type of circuit board soldering there is. Not as easy as soldering two wires together, but fairly close. And it's not a $1K job. An honest mechanic would charge less than $200. Or you can pull it yourself and ship it to these folks: Prius Speedometer Replacement

--Cat shields are as cheap as $40 these days: Prius Cat Shield Catalytic Converter Security Protection For 2004-2009 Toyota US | eBay and not counting the time & hassle to get the car a foot off the ground, most people can do the install in an hour with only having to purchase some new drill bits and a rivet gun.

--The hybrid battery is not new, but rebuilt and even if you get it replaced under warranty the replacement pack is still only gonna be good for 3 months to 3 years and that $20 a month adds up compared to upgrading the MPG and overall performance of the car next time the battery goes out with a Lithium upgrade. And if you use my affiliate, I'll give you unlimited tech support on all your Prius needs: http://www.projectlithium.com/?ref=9qLPw

-- Because the car generates electricity when you press the brake pedal you can go a really long time without wearing out the mechanical brakes. I'm just about to hit 280K miles on original brake pads and as an experiment have worn them all the way down and planning to replace in next week or two. Also, the biggest scam mechanics do out there is sell brake jobs for Prius because with certain driving styles the brake disks will appear rusted from lack of use. But put it in neutral when hard braking off the freeway and it will turn off the generator and your disks will lose all their rust.

-- Original brake boosters are still going strong with Gen2 Prius at 500K miles sometimes. Also, brake boosters fail gradually. When you walk up to the car after a long time and open the door and sit down you'll hear the brake booster run. That noise on a failing booster will happen more and more often and once you hear that recharge noise every minute or so its time to replace. They'll be plenty of warning lights to remind you as well. But from the way you describe that's not an issue at all yet.

 

Run, don't walk, away from this car. Get a non hybrid. Unless you want an unreliable project car on which to spend money.

 

Buddy you're in North Carolina are you in the Raleigh-Durham area or up near the Queen City? You can do way better Why do you need a Prius It's 40 mpg super important and something you will be needing to utilize almost every day I doubt it most people here in North Carolina aren't really doing all that kind of driving that's why they live here they move from Massachusetts and points north where they drove 40 minutes one way to work now they drive 14 Do you really need the mileage and the driving of the Prius If not why are you not looking at the Yaris or a used Corolla It's just going to sit in the parking lot while you're in your fancy IT job working seriously Tell me where this car came from and I'll tell you probably all about it just kidding but I've probably already looked at it You haven't brought this car home to own it yet right? Are you in the 919 area code I'm in Orange county If you don't know where that is it's not important Good luck It sounds like you might be from not around here be careful.

 

I think the car is overpriced for the issues it has. Low mileage on these cars is not worth a premium. But before you buy an old hybrid be aware repair cost at a shop will kill any gas savings. They are very reliable but there are several high cost repairs that happen and are unique to hybrids. ABS pump and battery are the worst. You may find a better deal buying a non hybrid that get 30s mpg but has less issues.

 

You are one of the very few buyers who research before you buy the most complicated and difficult to fix cars.

A rip off for reliability. You will be fixing this every six months instead of ten to twelve years with a new $2500 battery.

Accurate costs but not optional. Sometimes you can’t start or stop the car.

It may happen again. Another strike against reliability.

$2500 and a real safety issue. Sudden hard brake and extended stopping distance may make you the cause of a crash. Most likely totaling the car because of high cost of repair. Increased insurance later. Willing to risk it?

95% of regular mechanics can’t diagnose a Prius or tell you much. Most won’t work on them. So it’s diy or dealer for most.

Especially with a weak hv battery.

They also frequently burn oil in their declining years.

You know the answer. But most fall in love with the idea and buy anyway thinking mpg will compensate. Maybe it helps at $4 a gallon but the brake booster alone will drain those savings.

 

Unless you're a can do person and you're using used parts You've got to realize now that a lot of these cars heading to the junkyard I've already had the brake booster replaced The hybrid battery came along and snafud food the whole car. At least that's what seems to be happening down here in the dirty south people are putting these expensive parts on these cars and then the battery goes bad or they put in a battery and then the brake booster goes bad so now I'm getting a fairly new battery and a bad brake booster car the next car will be opposite so on and so forth so it just depends on your situation really I bought two cars just recently have I don't know $1,300 in the two vehicles sitting here at my house one vehicle needs a brake booster the other vehicle needs a balance battery setup It's on its original I think other than that everything on the car works great so I got a balanced battery rack install that and put 5,000 mi on the car without a hitch The car that needs to brake booster I was just at LKQ the other day and got a brake booster for pretty much free 50 bucks or something and I can return it if it doesn't work It looks like it has been dealt with in this particular car so I took it I'll get around to putting it on in the next week or so if it works then I have my time and the $50 for the brake booster pump and then that whole car is in very nice shape with leather interior and it's battery is working and doing fine It just needs to be driven it's that green color this is the one I can't get the title for but I don't care about that makes no difference here I can put it in rotation and put whatever tag from another Gen 2 on it whenever I want to drive it It's on my insurance so financial responsibility isn't an issue and where I live cops don't really care about license tags other than something's hanging out back with a number on it.

 

welcome!
how long in years and miles would you like to keep it?

how large is your repair budget?

have you checked underneath for rust?

can the 87,000 miles be confirmed?

 

Get out while you can.

These are sophisticated cars with the potential to go full money-pit when they get old, and a 2007 counts as old.

The off-brand battery with a transferable subscription deal screams red flags to me.

It really comes down to what you want: if you want a fixer upper Prius, the low miles on this one are appealing. It's just that you're very likely to be doing a lot of the fixing upping.

If the point is to have reliable transportation with few dollars spent, there are better ways. Many better ways.

 

Why even participate in our community if you're gonna give this kind of advice? Wouldn't your time be better spent doing something else?

Gen2 Prius, regardless of repair needs, once fixed, are the simplest and most reliable hybrid car you can buy! What's more this website can walk you through every possible repair that needs to be done.

 

Yes it will be costly initially that is probably a fact with the things that you're mentioning and if you can't do any of it then it's even more expensive when you look at what it will cost for a Toyota Yaris say a 2009 with 150,000 mi on it you would be much better off with that and be able to drive it any way you want to including not driving it without any consequence when you walk up to it it will start and drive and easily get 30 plus miles to the gallon It's not worth it for your situation to spend more money to get a few more miles to the gallon when most people in reality are trying to get out of their car not stay in it for extra miles most people today are trying to get out of the car ride their bike whatever be outside more whatever the situation is drive their kayak to the river so they can be in the boat right only youngins want to spend all their time in the car delivering for Domino's Pizza for the most part. The Yaris basically is a Prius without the battery and the funky transmission with the electric motors The reliability of a Corolla with a great engine It's just a decent all around setup to some people that's kind of funky looking I would take the Yaris over the Honda fit any day That's just me I like the 1N engine. Until it got updated for use in the Prius c then it becomes like the 2Z and probably not really worth your time.