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.)
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?
Yes, I know. Buying an older, high mileage Prius v that needs costly repairs negates all of the gas savings. But I am having a hard time finding a used, low mileage, late model, from a reputable source. If I go with the 2016 and 2017, which supposedly have more reliable engines, most are uanavailable. I tried Carmax, and all of their 2014 through 2017 are marked “Reserved” from here up to Oregon. For my local Toyota dealer network, they have no used Prius v’s within 250 miles, which is as far a their search radius goes. Of the three local hybrid dealers, only the first dealer has a Prius v in stock. I did find a few on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, but I’d rather go with a source that I can return to if I have problems with the recent purchase
Yep, that's a very highly sought-after combo. I was interested in one myself, not long after we bought our 2018 c model. We wanted one small car and one larger car. What I found back then was that the only ones worth buying were stratospherically priced, and (at that time) fuel prices weren't high enough to make the operational savings worth it. Ultimately we bought something else for the larger car need. In the years since, we've seen a pretty steady stream of Priuschat visitors looking for the same thing for the same reason, and quite a few have been surprised by exactly how far supposedly reputable dealers will go to pass off a used-up v as one that still has a viable future. I'm not specifically trying to discourage you- if anything you should be awarded points for figuring out how desirable the v is as a fuel-sipping utilitarian family car. I also don't want to see more people get hurt, putting their last $10k into something that needs another $2k in repairs just to get back to basic utility. It can be done, but it won't be easy. Good luck!
If the Prius v’s on some automobile sale sites are any example, they still are stratospherically high-priced. (Carmax is a good example.) Even though the war witih Iran is supposedly ending, I expect fuel prices to remain high for a while and we want to offset our gas-guzzling minivan which is giving us problems any (see below).[/QUOTE] That’s why I am leaning towards getting one from this dealer that offers a longer “used” warranty (1 year on this one) and who has a rating of 4.8 stars out of 5 on 100 reviews on Google. The other dealers had low ratings on Google and Yelp (e.g. 1.5 stars out of 5) and only offered 30 day warranties. And if we buy from a private, third party, there are really no warranties at all. [/QUOTE] Take our Dodge minivan. It was bought from another friend’s brother. They both pestered me for months to buy it because they knew we needed a van and he wanted to get rid of one of his three minivans. I finally relented even though I really wanted a hybrid (e.g. Sienna Hybrid/Prius v wagon) back then. The price was great, but in the 16 months since we bought it, we have already had to replace the water pump and the thermostat and now there are (possible) problems with the transmission. And there is no warranty so we pay for all repairs or do it ourselves. And the van only gets 18 combined mpg. Ouch! But if we buy this Prius v, we get a warranty and better gas mileage. I just do not know what is covered by the warranty. I will go into the dealer today to talk to them. Also, I put a lot of miles on our car (~330 miles per week), so the high mpg will help. Hopefully, we would never want to be in this position.
If you are locked in on a Prius v, you should only consider a 2015-17 due to a. Revised pistons and rings for the oil burning issue b. Revised structural to improve the driver's side crash test results I would make sure the dealer warranty covers parts and labor for an engine-replacement if blown, a head-gasket if failed, a clogged catalytic-converter, a replacement hybrid battery or a brake-booster assembly replacement. Each is at least $2,500 installed. These problems are very hard to predict during a pre-sale inspection even for a dealer. There is a 20 year class action suit warranty on the inverter which is a plus from a cost standpoint but very disappointing if you are stranded away from home. Most likely the 2015-17 inverters are a better bet. Yes the Prius v is capable of 40-42 mpg, has a very good body, transaxles are bullet proof, the ac is stronger than a hatchback, they ride better than a standard gen3 and generally they have good 12v electrical and ecus. Mileage will dip at high freeway speeds, or with a weak hv battery (which is not enough for warranty) or with clogged catalytic-converters. The 2016-17 Prius v's are rare because very few were shipped to the US after the 2016 Rav4 nimh hybrid became available in late 2015. As an alternative, I would consider a Rav4 hybrid, a Prius c nimh or ideally, a 2019 up Rav 4 with a lithium hv battery, The best Toyota values in this price range are conventional Corollas, Camrys and Rav4s. Any shop can work on them and almost all parts are affordable at the local auto supply. While a few hybrid parts are now available aftermarket, most like hybrid batteries, egr valves and water pumps are inferior and short lived. Oem is often the only safe parts option and many small shops with affordable labor rates won't work on hybrid issues.
