I have never owned anything other than vehicles that run on gasoline. I'm somewhat mechanically inclined, but I want to buy something that doesn't have any current problems. I'm considering 3 different Priuses, and I wanted some opinions. All of these are on Market Place and do not come with a warranty. Which one should I consider and why? 2009 Toyota Prius Touring - $4,999 - Green paint. Approximately 120k miles Looks like it has leather interior. This one looks pretty good, but it does have some slight damage on one of the doors. If I bought it I would take it to a local body shop and see if they could make it look better. 2007 Toyota Prius Hatchback 4D - $3,700 - Red paint. Approximately 201k miles Looks like it has leather interior. Body looks to be in good shape. 2007 Toyota Prius Hatchback 4D - $2,800 - Black paint. Approximately 175k miles Looks like it has cloth interior. The body looks a little rough. Mostly it looks like it has some chips in the paint. If I bought it I would replace the front bumper cover, because it looks a little cracked.
I wouldn't buy a Prius without first checking it for codes and the state of the battery. If it needs a new pack, and you are paying somebody else to install it, that could be $4k or more. The dongle has to be able to read all the computers on the car, many cannot. If the seller is nice they would also let you run the HV pack test in the Dr. Prius app - there is a list of dongles on its web page which are known to work with it. There might also be mechanical issues, so rather than doing those tests yourself, it is is probably worth it to pay a mechanic to do so, and also put it up on a lift and do a general inspection. The Autel MaxiAP AP200 is a common choice here for a dongle to check the car, but it may not work with the Dr. Prius app, only its own app. Rust is a problem for cars from certain parts of the country. Unless you can prove it has spent its whole life in Texas, minimally get down on the ground with a light and look for rust on the bottom. Flood cars are also a problem. Look for signs of that. Which to buy? For me, a big plus is when the owner can hand over the service records for the life of the car, or at least as long as they have owned it. 120k miles is low for a 2009. Suspiciously low unless there is a good reason to explain it (like it was a grandma car). Rolled back odometers are unfortunately still a thing, so that 170k could really be 290k. If they won't give you the VIN before you go to see it, that is a red flag. Definitely pull the CarFax (or equivalent) to confirm the odometer (at least rule out major roll backs).
@pasadena_commut I appreciate the tip about the Autel MaxiAP AP200 I checked Amazon and they are reasonably priced. I looked at the 2009 Toyota Prius Touring - $4,999 - Green paint, they failed to mention it had lights on the dash. I used my Elm327 and Torque Pro and scanned for codes. I got Code P0A80 Anyway that one is a hard no for me. Even though it may be fixable I don't want to start off with problems. I will keep looking. Thank you all there is lots of good advice in this thread.
Are you saying people do a complete dash disassembly and swap the combination meter with one that reads lower mileage?
I've never done that; but I think they re-flash the eeprom to display any number they want. This also breaks the odometer, so it no longer advances. That's the tell tale signs it's been messed with. There are legitimate software for fixing gauge clusters and programming the correct miles in it. But that's what I've seen so far. YMMV
Maybe. Or maybe they have figured out an easier way. Whatever method they use, odometer tampering has been reported on some Gen2 Priuses, so you have to check. There are videos on youtube showing some methods of rewriting the odometer. The two I saw involve pulling a circuit board, isolating an EEPROM, and rewriting it. Probably easier for the crooks to find that board from an old wreck with lower miles and swap it in. This would still require the dash to come apart, but maybe they have a shortcut of some kind for that too?
