Seeking advice on buying a Prius v

Discussion in 'Prius v Main Forum' started by Viviparous, Jun 15, 2026 at 12:18 AM.

  1. Viviparous

    Viviparous New Member

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    Hi everyone. I am seeking advice on buying a used Prius v. I know that the general advice on this site is if one is in the market for a hybirid, consider a RAV4 hybrid, and if it has to be a Prius, consider a 4th generation. With this in mind, I have leads on four Prius v’s:

    * 2014, trim Five, with 77K miles and 2 year warranty (May already be sold by the time I write this).
    * 2014, trim Five, with 175K miles and 1 year warranty.

    These two are being sold by a local dealer that specializes in hybrids, mostly Toyotas. This dealer has high ratings on both Yelp and Google, higher than other hybrid dealers in our area. However, I have not had an opportunity to test drive these as I was on my way to work when I stopped by today. However, they look in great shape. I will go there tomorrow again.

    * 2015, trim Five, 90K miles. For sale by another dealer which has mixed dealer reviews. Dealership goes under two names (but same street address). One name has poor reviews on Google and Yelp. The other has great reviews.

    The above three were found through Autotrader. In addition, a friend of mine is selling one of her Prius v (she owns two, and wants to keep her 2013 Prius v), so she is selling:

    * 2016 with 135K miles, trim Three,

    My friend bought this Prius knowing about the head gasket issue and she had a new engine put in “about 5K miles ago” — her words. She doesn’t drive it much because she works from home. I had a chance to drive it briefly last week. It seems to drive okay, but there is a low, soft ticking sound when the brakes are initially applied. (I only drove it for about 20 minutes and did not get a chance to drive it longer nor on the highway. On another Prius website, some posters mentioned that the ticking sound might be the CV joint; other posters said it was normal but they were responding to another person’s query, not mine.)
     
  2. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    You can spend a lot of money trying to save gas with an older Prius. Be careful.
     
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    get the receipt for the engine and post it here. new? used? rebuilt? miles? lotta differences.
    you could get lucky, or unlucky. impossible to know.
    battery, egr circuit, another head gasket, brake actuator, who knows?