Buying 250K Prius C?

Far too many miles to not start getting significant costly problems. This from my own experience and from reading a lot of posts on here.

From what I understand after about 150,000 miles Priuses become maintenance hogs. Some will disagree, and that’s fine.

A prius with 250k+ miles would have to be really cheap to be worth gambling on. You might be lucky of course. And the car market is still crazy. Good luck.

 

The c is somewhat underpowered, noiser, harsher riding and is far less safe than your 2019 Rav4 hybrid. So be sure to drive it and understand those compromises.

You can count on the hybrid battery failing rather quickly unless it was changed with a new cell battery in the last 75k-100k.

Most mechanics and even Toyota have no way to predict failures except for guesses based on miles and age. The hv battery in that car is overdue on both counts. They can more accurately evaluate the conventional systems on the c such as suspension, tires, brakes and corrosion.

Hybrids are not magic 300k-400k mile vehicles. Taxis sometimes rack up those kinds of miles but they think nothing of expensing hv batteries and engines to keep one of many revenue generating vehicles on the road. Having one down for a few days is no big deal.

Hybrids are very complex combining most elements of a conventional and an ev vehicle. With that said, the 2012 c has a better engine than a 2012 hatchback or v. But a 250,000 hybrid is still a gamble and they will nickel and dime you at $500-$1000 a pop even without a major failure.

One of my car trading rules is never buy or sell to a friend or neighbor. Makes for a dicey situation when problems occur. Finally, just a couple of years ago a ten year old Prius with 100k miles would sell for $5k. We may soon get back to that market as new car volumes increase. Those numbers are already matching pre-pandemic volumes and new car discounts are back for GM and other vehicles.

 

The c is harder on its battery than some of the other models, mostly because the battery is slightly smaller.

This means you should expect that it is more than "diminished" at age 11- more like an any minute now situation.

Remember that the primary way a Prius provides value is by giving good gas mileage. If you are only driving 6000 miles a year, this car can't possibly save you much vs. other choices, especially when the cost of a battery replacement is added in.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the Prius and especially the c hatchback version. But every tool has its best and worst uses, and a Prius is very bad at being an old, lightly used extra car.

 

I absolutely agree with this.

In fact, I would not consider ANY vehicle with that many miles to be a good gamble.
Especially not a hybrid that has more things to go wrong.

Unless you also want it as a "project" and to learn about hybrids,
I suggest that you pass.

 

Good post but this part is WAY off base.
ALL of my C's.....4 total.....got about 50 MPG if driven conservatively.
The Rav4 I rented last month was struggling to get 30.

 

A wild guess that I think is invalid.
It also has an engine that is slightly smaller.
And I believe that it uses the battery somewhat
less than it's bigger cousins (but that is a guess too)>

 

under 6k for a car with a quarter million miles? what planet are we living on? dealer is offering me 8k for my 12 with 86k

 

Wholesale value is about $1600.00, so the asking price is way too high. No more than $3000, and even then, only if your neighbor can provide a complete maintenance history. Otherwise, you called it right - a gamble. A big one.

 

Wholesale value is about $1600.00, so the asking price is way too high. No more than $3000, and even then, only if your neighbor can provide a complete maintenance history, and the body is in reasonable condition. Otherwise, you called it right - a gamble. A big one.

 

In todays crazy car market it’s probably not reasonable to try to buy a car by taking a hard line approach like that. While you are totally correct, that doesn’t change the market.

 

The Prius C is known to get to far higher mileage than the non C, and it has proven to be far more reliable. 250,000 miles on a Prius C, still safe to buy, i have seen them with 300,000 miles and more.

 

The Prius C is not harder on the hybrid battery, the Prius C actually cools it less due to cabin noise, i have tested it, if i do not turn on the fan with an OBD 2 the hybrid battery gets too hot to be good for its lifespan, like 90° F and up even with the A/C at full blast. The modules that are on the center get even higher, like 96° F.

 

I've suggested that the c is harder on its battery. Why? Because the published curb weight of the c is almost as much as the Generation 2 Prius, which has a very similar hybrid system including the same 1.5L gas engine. But that car has 14 modules in its battery, where the c only has 10. That's a 40% difference.

I look at those numbers and conclude that they're trying to do more with less, and when that happens the parts often need to work a bit harder.

Also, Toyota offers shorter warranties on the c battery. If they don't think it will last as long, I'm willing to believe them. They've done this more than me.

 

That might be the reason why the modules on the Prius C get hotter, and hence last less.