Preparing to buy one, want opinion...

Greetings, and Welcome to Prius Chat!

First thing I would do is to register on this site Toyota Owners Official Web Site: Service Coupons, Owner's Manuals, Service Scheduling And More then record the VIN of the Prius you are interested in. Then you can review the maintenance records to see how it was taken care of.

If it looks good there and the Carfax shows no collisions, then if you like it and it fits your budget pull the trigger.

If the opportunity is there, you might take the Prius to a local dealer and ask them for a complimentary inspection. If they say no, pay them a one hour labor rate and ask them to do a inspection on it. Depending on the dealer, they might be nice if they are not swamped and have one of the guys do the normal inspection when they do the oil changes. I think they call it a 27 point inspection or something like that. Or get your trusted mechanic to look at it. A hybrid approved mechanic should be the one to inspect it though. Not all mechanics know how the hybrids work and what to look for.

That price is very LOW for that car with the package you mentioned. Either the guy doesn't know the value, or something is amiss somewhere. That car is worth considerably more than that I believe.

Check the car very carefully and make sure everything works. If you are not familiar with how a Prius operates, sounds etc. I would suggest you recruit someone who does to go along with you. The Prius is totally different from the traditional car like a Ford or Chevrolet is. I am suggesting this to help you. I wish I would have done that the first time I bought a Prius. At least now I really know what to look for and listen to.

Let us know how it all works out for you.

Gen II is a great car. Gen III is even better.

Best of luck to you!
Ron (dorunron)

 

Had a moment and looked at KBB with your options and it was $12,200 so its right on the money actually.
He looked at KBB to I bet and probably won't budge too much on that price. That was under Excellent condition PP too but not sure what the Interior looks like or if it has a any dents or scratches.

 

learn everything you can about these cars by searching around here, then go take a new one for a test drive so you have something to compare it to. be knowledgable about the cars instrumentation before you test drive it, so you can watch all the meters and check your mpg's. take it for a good long drive under various conditions. all the best!

 

With alot of Prius's approaching end of warranty on the Hybrid battery if I was buying a used Prius and really interested in the car I would spend $100 ( or one hour min labor at your city) and have the dealer hook up there Techstream laptop and interrogate the Hybrid Battery health. Its quite comprehensive and can tell you how the battery is doing and if any modules are having issues. Make sure you get a paper print out. Your paying for it. A year later if the Hybrid pack went out it would be a very expensive repair bill negating all gas savings for years. Replaced at the dealer is around $4 to $5000.

 

In GA the hybrid warranty on the batt is 8-yr/100,000 miles, so you would have a few miles left.

 

Wow! That's nearly $2k less than I paid for mine (see threads passim) for nearly the same package (sans BT sans Nav) do the research and go for it if it looks good!

DROID4 ?

 

I agree sounds low, but I did just pick up a 2009 Touring with leather, nav, jbl, bt with 47k miles for about 14.5k. So it does sound like a great price but not overly suspect.


iPhone ?

 

There are good deals to be had out there, just have to jump on them quick!

I purchased my 2008 Touring model in Nov 2013 with 88K miles for $10,500 from a private one-owner. I'm sure I would have paid at least $2K more from a dealership. So far I've had no issues and I'm up to almost 94k miles. I'm looking forward to at least another 50-100K miles on my car!!

 

I absolutely agree with these guys suggestions. I didn't know about this forum until after I bought my '05 Pckg 6 with 56k mi in July and trust me when I say if I had known then what I know now then everything would have been a lot smoother. I would like to add though, make sure the filters are clean. It is very easy to check, one is behind the glove compartment and the other is in the engine in a big black box. Should take no more than 5-10 mins. Also, turn the a/c up to max and check the the coolness. If your hand is not like ice then run! Air cond. fixes are not cheap, $800 and up. Good luck!!