2006 Prius 97,000mi

If you have the VIN you can check the Toyota service records here.
People seem to worry too much about the "what ifs" after 100k miles. Every car has a couple parts that become iffy at about that mileage and cost a few thousand dollars. Based on your miles, the Prius would pay for itself in less than 2 years compared to the Jeep. That's with you keeping the Jeep, not even trading it in or selling it. You could do a major repair every year after and it would still be cheaper than the Jeep. Most repairs don't have to cost as much as the dealer charges, and some aren't even necessary (dealers like to throw parts at problems). If you can do at least your own rough diagnosis, the Prius should be very cheap to maintain. If you can do the work yourself, it'll be even better (there really isn't anything too scary or complicated about working on most of the Prius).
I'm not sure how good the price is, I would see what the going rate in your area is and go from there.

 

Check the vehicle history, ask about the recall replacements, drive the car and see what kind of current MPG you get at 55mph. Is the engine cycling off at stop lights? That's a good thing. Driving below 41 mph with the cruise on does the engine cycle off and the MFD show electric only for about a mile? Another good thing. As a not so great indicator but may be interesting, what does the Average MPG readout say?

I wouldn't worry about the miles. The car typically has many more miles of reliable use with reasonable care. In 3 years you'll have 150k. You may or may not want to consider selling and replacing it then but it will still have a great resale value while you saved lots on gas. Repairs? No one care foretell the future. But statistically the car is one of the most reliable and maintenance free on the road. The incidents of large repair bills happen but they are rare. 1.5 million of these cars in America today. A few have had large repair bills. 1% of 1.5 million is 15,000. But that is still a relatively low number. And the cost of many of those repairs is continuing to go down with the use of salvaged and remanufactured parts and more hybrid capable mechanics.

This price is something you will have to compare with others in your area as price can be locational. But expect the price of these cars to go up with gas prices.

You have caught the vision of 40+ MPG and maybe have even allowed yourself to wander now and then into the 50+MPG dream and we are here to let you know, it is very much at hand.

 

welcome to priuschat! the warranties are all up, so a new battery would be on you. you can find them used or rebuilt for a lot less. same with a transaxle. i suppose you can compare it to an engine rebuild or tranny on a regular car, they don't come cheap. heck, i had to drop $1600. for a headgasket on a chrysler minivan at 80,000 miles. still, prius is pretty reliable when compared to most. the price seems a bit high, i would look around some more and search here for more buying advice before jumping in the pool. all the best!

 

run, run as fast as you can.

 

If it was me, I would be looking for an alternative deal. There are far too many choices on used cars in this world to have to resort to buy a car with this type of history. Try another dealer or simply wait until the next Pri shows up. There will be more as time passes by.

 

This looks like a reason for a significant discount under a similar car that has not had this level of repair. Without a deep discount I wouldn't even consider it. With a deep discount I would still have it checked out by a good independent shop. Probably best to keep looking.

 

While a collision that needed the engine removed to repair is a good reason to look elsewhere, this happened in 2009. If you have the carfax and it indicates a single owner between then and now, it is unlikely they would have held onto it for four years if it was giving them problems. It is likely the biggest impact would be on resale value in the near term as everybody else could see the accident in it history as well. On the other hand if this car has had multiple owners in the past four years since the accident then stay away from it.

Check cars.com for comparison prices/vehicles to decide if the discount relative to similarly miled prii is worth it. It looks like availability might be low in your state relative to other locations. It can be hard to find prii below 14k$ in many areas.