Considering buying used Prius - what to look out for?

I just bought a used 2007 Prius to join the 2007 Prius I already own (and bought new). This was my thinking, though YMMV...

1. I decided to get a "Certified PreOwned" vehicle through a Toyota dealer. One pays a bit more for that, of course, than one would if buying a used car from a private party. But Toyota will stand behind the car. A Certified PreOwned car comes with a 3month/3,000 mile "everything included" warranty and a 7yr/100,000 mile powertrain warranty. the "7/100,000" is from the original purchase date of the car when new, not when you, the new owner, bought it.
2. AFAIK, the original 3yr/36,000 mile warranty transfers to a new owner. If the original owner had an extended warranty, I believe that can transfer, too, with a small fee.
3. A certified preowned Toyota is eligible for an extended warranty, as well, but it has to be bought from the dealer who sells you the car and only at the time of the car purchase (the new car extended warranty can be purchased at any time during the 3yr/36000 mile original factory warranty.
4. If you buy from a dealer, insist the dealer show you the CarFax history and the complete service record.
5. My own experience is that a Prius pretty much needs to be serviced by a Toyota dealer, not by the neighborhood mechanic. I consider that a negative, as prices at the dealership are more expensive than my local mechanic.

Good luck! I love both of my Prii, new and used!

 

Among many other things. Transaxle oil service! The Transaxle is very sensitive to low oil level and needs to be changed (at a minimum) on the factory recommended schedule. If the trans oil service was done by jiffy lube and they didn't put the right fluid in, or didn't put enough fluid in it can ruin bearings.

Also, The Toyota Techstream diagnostic system has the ability to retrieve historic data from the car. (yes, its true). These systems are NOT owned exclusively by Toyota dealers. (I have one). If you can get the dealer or an independent Toyota repair shop to pull the history, you can (with assistance interpreting) see SOME of what has gone wrong with the car in the past and how it was treated.

We use it on wrecked Prius cars as part of our process of checking out the subsystems.

Also, you can hook the car up to it and get live data from the traction battery during a drive test. Not a definitive assessment, but pretty darn good data about the health of the battery.

Collision history is important on any car, so a Carfax will tell you (well, probably, unless it was fixed by an 'under the radar' shop and not paid by an insurance company) if the car has been wrecked.

Just because it has been wrecked, does not mean its a bad car. It just tells you where you need to look closer. For example, on a Prius, a front end collision can crack the case on the inverter. It will run just fine but may allow water intrusion over time causing a failure or worse yet an intermittent condition that will send you to the shop multiple times.

We rebuild broken/wrecked Prius cars and have seen all kinds of interesting things.

PM me if you find a car and have specific questions. I'd be happy to help.

Eric
Adopt A Part

 

I purchased a Toyota certified 2005 Prius in March. The previous owner had an extended warrantee which was transfered to me. I am extremely happy and I have had no issues. Toyota was able to print out the maintenance and repair history of the car.

The previous owner did have a recall on the steering fixed and a water pump changed under warantee.

After I bought it, I found this site and started to look into reliability information. Normally this should be done before purchasing but fortunately I was pleasantly surprised that these cars have very few issues; they are extremely reliable with minimal maintenance.

Check out the 100,000 mile and 200,000 mile threads for yourself. There are several gen2 Prius that have been used as cabs with over 200,000 miles with no issues.

An easy check of the car is to reset the fuel economy trip on the display and go for a good long test drive. You should get 5.5 litre per 100 km or better fuel economy.