Seeking advice on buying a Prius v

Thanks. I did not know that. I am still reading all of the manuals that came with it. I just got back from the insurance office; it’s now fully insured.

Okay. I just ran another OBD check using the standalone Autel AL629 reader. No stored nor hidden codes. I just got the Veepeak dongle in the mail this morning. I will use that with the Dr. Prius app. This morning, I also ordered the AP200 dongle from Amazon.

I am going to buy Toyota 50/50 pink coolant to have in the vehicle in case of emergencies. I checked the oil, it looks honey gold in color, so it has probably been recently changed. For motor oil, maybe buy Valvoline Restore and Protect 0W20? Or use what I have already, which is Costco Kirkland 0W20?

 

The car has a lot of miles: 177K. According to CarFax, it had 158K in August, 2024. This same independent dealer put in a new head gasket and new head, new water pump in November 2024, and new brake pads and rotors this past February.

An AutoCheck and NHTSA check showed no outstanding service recalls on this vehicle. But, maybe I should have a Toyota dealership look at it.

 

We are in Southern California for now. Two of our best friends own Prius v’s, and they both use the same independent shop. In addition, HybridPit is also a service option; they are about 8 miles away from us,

I am excited to have a car that gets decent gas mileage and can still haul stuff when needed, without hauling too much of itself. In contrast, our gas guzzling minivan weighs 6050 lbs empty, so no wonder it only gets 18-20 combined mpg.

I should qualify what I wrote earlier about the car’s mileage. The Carfax report printed and dated 6/16/2026 says the car has 158900 miles but this nearly matches an earlier odometer reading (158679) from July, 2024 state inspection. At the dealer lot, the Prius’ odometer read 177437 on the day of the Carfax report was printed. So, somehow Carfax was off in its odometer reporting. I assume that these are miles and not kilometers.