Is it worth is to buy a used Prius?

There are people with over 200,000 miles on their Gen II Prius. Reliability is not an issue. Maintenance is the same as any other car, if not less. Around 100k miles you may need to look into replacing the standard 12V battery.

$13k is a good to great price for that car.

 

Bought a 2005 last year with 82k for $12,000.
Bought a 2008 this year with 74K for $14,700.

Cream puffs, no issues with either.
(the '08 stickered for $26,000)
Save money, buy used.

 

Now, $13.9K is too high, but the miles are right and it having only been a one-owner vehicle- at $12K, if it were me, I wouldn't wait until tomorrow. The Prius is probably "the" best used car you can buy.

 

Hal is a 2008 Gen II (not touring).

He had about 31,000 miles when I bought him for $14000 a couple months ago. Best car purchase ever.

Depending on how your Prius was used (mainly, did it ever sit for extended periods or did the owner ever leave stuff turned on when it wasn't running) you may need a 12V battery any time. Hal's was borderline so I went ahead and swapped it out. If the 12 volt battery goes dead, you are pretty much stuck -- you do not want to wait until it fails.

Here's how to check your battery using the cars self-diagnostic system.

Test the 2004-2009 12V battery using this procedure, no tools required (thanks to jdenenberg):

- Without brake pedal, press the Power button once and release to enter ACC mode

- Press and hold the MFD Info button, then turn the headlights on and off three times to enter Maintenance mode; release Info button

- Press “Menu†(on screen)

- Press “Display Checkâ€

- Press “Vehicle Signal Check†- the battery voltage is shown and should be about 12.4 to 12.8 Volts (normal for an unloaded battery)

- Again without brake pedal, press Power button and release to put a current load on the battery - the voltage should stay above 12.0V (if less than 12.0V the battery is not well, or there is a fault or unusual load somewhere)

- Press brake pedal and press Power button once to enter "Ready" mode - the battery is now charging at about 14V (if less than 13.6V or more than 14.4 there may be a problem with the charging circuit)

- Turn car OFF to leave Maintenance mode


If these procedures cannot be started then the battery is either dead or there is some more serious problem.


If you need one, you can get a much better battery with installation kit on this site. Took me about an hour to install on Hal.

12 Volt (12v) Toyota Prius Auxilary Battery for 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 with installation kit

 

bdaisy, get them to throw in the longest used car extended warranty available(make sure it's a Toyota warranty), then pat yourself on the back for getting a great car and a great deal

 

I found my 2004 "Sora" on CraigsList.

Bought it with 92k miles, clean title, great condition for $8,800 back in June.

Hasn't given me any problems, runs great.

 

Just got my 05 with 82k for 10K runs perfect I put in some Amsoil and it gets easily over 50mpg with my best of 64.09 on my 3rd tank but there is a learning curve to get 60mpg but 50 is no problem.

 

Seems like a fair price point. As for problems, have you seen if this has Autoleveling Headlights? My '05 has a bit of a glitch from time to time. To replace, they are over $700. I've got 203k on mine and have only ever done plug replacement (and I didn't even need to do that!!!) Check Tranny fluid and radiator fluid changes, the CVT itself, if neglected or in poor condition, could be a major cost issue. That's it. Drive it, love it.

 

I didn't want to pay for new Prius, so just got '08 Prius, Nav, leather, 43K miles, dark grey, looked great - $14.2K. Driven for 2 weeks - no problem (minus taking a while to figure out the proper way to start a Prius (I don't like reading directions!)). MPG seems to be in the mid 40's. Overall, very pleased with quality of car.