2017, 63,000 miles, showroom condition

They CALL them MORTgages for a pretty good reason......translating LITERALLY to 'death pledge.'
The difference is that if the pledge 'dies' by you satisfying the loan, then you have REAL durable property at the end.
Cars are almost never like that....NOT if you really use them for real transportation for 300,000 miles that is.

The heart wants what the heart wants....

Best!

 

@Leadfoot J. McCoalroller voices a similar sentiment. FWIW, our '10's got around 67k miles (~107k kms), and I haven't noticed any degradation in the battery.

tested just now:

 

budget for a battery, it can change overnight. hopefully not.

 

Depends how it is used. If its used several times a week it will be cycled properly. If someone goes more than one week at a time without using it on a regular basis then that can cause degradation.

Dr Prius battery snapshots are a poor indicator and only get slightly better when using the paid version. You then attempt to measure how quickly it discharges under load, the theoretical definition of battery capacity.


Even then its a crap shoot from an engineering viewpoint. I doubt sellers would go along with the forced charge required or the driving needed.

From a buyer's standpoint, having a scanner capable of reading all ecus for current and permanent codes makes sense. Dr Prius lacks in that department.

 

Still, as a "data point", ours seems to be behaving like new. Our usage tends to be at least weekly, mostly longer drives. Of late we've been running it a lot, family issue.

 

The used car market has steadfastly refused to price-in hybrid battery condition. Could be a brand new pack or it might be all used up- the car is going to be priced as if the pack is in great shape either way.

I'm not saying that this car is appropriately priced because I've never even seen it- but to my way of thinking? There is absolutely no reason for the seller of a clean low-mileage 2017 v to accept anything less than top dollar, especially if the reason for selling is truthfully "giving up driving."

There is intense demand for those cars. You see one affordably priced, you can bet it's somebody trying to make a problem go away.

 

Is a 2022 Rav4 with 60k miles, a factory lithium battery and standard safety features a better move for some? Yes.

But it might require financing $10k which many oppose.

Buy your dream and move on.

Scan for codes, be sure you are reading 20 odd ecus (more if it has advanced safety features like lane departure and pre-collision braking) and check for permanent codes.

Toyota warranted these nimh batteries for 10 years 150k in most states back then and in every state for very similar newer models. They fully expect the hv battery to last and are the most conservative battery system designers out there.

Heat is only an issue when the battery is being used and usually not an issue if you use ac in hot weather, even with two to three times the mileage of the 2017 v in question. The system is well monitored and will throw codes if abused.

A friend has a 19 year old gen2 with 155k and the same battery modules with no codes ever. It has always been blazing here in South Texas for 9 months a year and we drive high speed highways with 75-85 mph speed limits. High load to say the least. The same results can be expected on a 9 year old v with lower mileage. Factor in the v's higher capacity ac, superb engine cooling system and the air cooled hv battery will do fine.

With that said, by 175k-225k battery replacement can be expected. There are statistical outliers but not enough to worry about.

Getting $1500 knocked off the price with that money placed in a cd will cover a brand new set of modules when that time comes. Which resets the hybrid battery clock to a fresh 10 years 150k miles.

 

Ecus are the number of networked computers in a typical Prius. It is a lot and even your 2011 had about that many. Most cheap scanners miss 75% of them.

There are two underlying software platforms in good aftermarket scanners, the Autel platform and the Launch platform. Kind of like Apple IOS and Google Android.

When it comes to affordable scanners that work on a phone or tablet most point to the Autel AP200 but it is limited in features at a low price point. It can not do most "bidirectional" writes (controls) but it does read live data and codes from all ecus. I bought one and returned it due to this limitation, it's relative difficulty to use and the lack of graphical trending. Autel does have top notch higher priced versions included the top rated value in the video below.

Within the Launch infrastructure it is now possible to get bidirectional and lifetime updates for almost the same price.

This recent video from a respected diagnostician listed four top values.

Unfortunately the steep Amazon Prime days discounts are gone but the lowest cost recommendation can be bought from the manufacturer on ebay for less than $70.

Since there is a learning curve, Amazon would be quickest. If you don't like it you could return in 30 days.

Having a good code reader can save you a dealers base diagnostic charge of $150 especially if the code allows an independent evaluation online.

Current Amazon pricing with 10% discount available

 

I still like my v very much. Mainly because I use the cargo space all the time. I was bummed out after they did the inverter recall to downgrade the power output. After that I felt i wasn't getting the good power boost I got before. But still good enough for me. I have my own strategy to keep it running as long as it can. I changed the bus bars to nickle plated so i don't have to clean them. I use my own set of engine/gas treatments and filters.

Here is one feature I wish my v had. It is the collision avoidance system. If that car has it, then I think well worth it from a safety advantage.

Also that seller said he can get 15k from the dealer. You can always offer something like 15.5k if you really want it and then decide how much higher you want to go. I don't think it will sell that fast for that price because it's almost 10 years old.