2007 Touring 87,500 miles, opinions please

Hi! I need some advice from the experts here. The bank says I currently own a 2010 Honda Insight. I have done a lot of eco mod and even added a 4 kilowatt enginer phev kit. I get from 52mpg on average driving it like a rental car and up to 96mpg with all the hypermile techniques.

Long story short and lots of boring possible legal issues too, I am looking to trade for the above mentioned prius. My car is currently undrivable due to a loose trailer hitting it on the interstate and its being held at the body shop as neither my or their insurance wants to pay to release it. 3 body shops have refused to service it at this point.

I wanted to get some opinions. It seems to be a rather basic model that requires you to insert the key fob into a slot in the dash like an 8 track tape to start it. That is a first for me. The sticker said 17 grand, but they knocked a thousand off.

The interior seems clean, leather, but the drivers seat is not height adjustible. I do not see cruse control, but I do see buttons for the AC and radio. It has the back up camera and the rear cargo cover.

Although I have driven a prius 2 many years ago and frequently rented a prius 3, this car seems very different. For one the hybrid battery meter said it has 2 bars of charge. I managed toget it to 8 while riding the brakes, but it quickly returned to 2 bars a few miles later.

Driving it averaged less than 40mpg and everything the car rolled I could hear the engine rev as I accelerated gently and feel it fire up once I started rolling. I am using to no gas motor til about 30mph with my past prius experiences.

I did not see any error codes and was wondering if maybe its the 12 volt battery that needs replacing? With the Honda IMA system a bad 12 volt battery can cause the IMA system to be little to no use in powering the car.

The dealer said they will warranty it to 2 years or 100k miles. Basically thats 15000 miles left on the warranty and some days I drive 300 miles a day. The warranty maybe up fast with my driving I do. I asked about an extended warranty and they said they would check. I asked for the car fax and they too said will check.

Thanks for any opinions or anything else to check. :grouphug:

 

Thanks. Its at the Honda dealer used car section. It seemed to handle nicer than the one I test drove a few yeasr ago, no boaty feeling.

It has some toyota mag wheels with 5 lugs. The rear hatch looked a bit different than I recall the prius 2 had or I have been soo accustom to my insights lid.

I was basically handed the key fob and a dealer plate and told if I can start it, I can drive it for a few.

They said only one guy could get it started and he was not in that day. At first I thought the 12 volt battery was dead as only thing worked was the power door locks and key fob buttons plus trunk release. I tried to start the car, but no go. I then inserted the key fob in the dash slot and it worked.

I drove it like I am a little old lady and could hear/feel the gas motor on. Driving it more agressively you could hear the motor rev like in a tradiational car.

I had the ac on low, outside air and blower speed 1. The stereo system sounded nice and had JBL logos everywhere.

Ill see if I can get the car fax tomorrow and give you the vin number. So far, no one seems interested in the car other than me.

Any idea the mpg potential as is and with a 4 kilowatt enginer plug in kit? I drive either 45 or 55mph with cruse control set.

My Honda Insight when it ran got 52-73mpg. I am just worried the hybrid pack in the prius needs replacing, or maybe some little old lady drove it 5 miles twice a day and it never had a chance to "balance" the pack. I understand the prius does this automatically where as us IMA users need to trickle charge our packs at 350 ma for 2 days. :rant:

 

I am in Virginia. I see how to enter diag mode and read the battery voltage. Ill try that. I doubt the dealer would let me poke around with an ohm meter to check voltages.

 

I went to the Honda dealer again to test drive the prius 07 touring model for 14 grand in change. I averaged 38 mpg for a ten mile run and the battery never exceeded 3 bars. Soon as I parked it it went back to 2 bars. The gas motor ran the whole time I drove the car except at stops.

I then visited the Hyundai dealer next door. After messin with 2 civic hybrids they said they had a prius and let me see it. It too have 2 bars on the hybrid battery and a terrible smoke smell in the car. It was an 08, 46 thousand miles for about 18 grand. It had cruse control and it didnt matter where the key fob was to make the car work. Both of the civic hybrids had a low charge and the one I drove gave little to no assist like many of the you tube videos out there. It averaged 46mpg.

I took the second prius for the same ten mile trip and averaged 52mpg. The battery filled right on up as I drove and changed colors from green to blue and back several times. At times it was silent like the prius 3 on electric only. The car felt tighter than the touring model.

My biggest issue since all the cars showed a near dead hybrid battery was the warranty. I know its like 2 grand for a rebuild and a few weeks of down time. I asked and according to the Hyundai dealer, the original warranty is not transferrable. Their warranty is 2 years or 100 thousand miles on the clock and theirs and the extended warranities do not cover hybrid parts or batteries.

I mentioned I thought that at least the IMA system was considered part of the emission part of the car on the Hondas, they said there is a paragraph excluding the hybrid drive, electronics, ipu and battery from coverage.

Id printed off the procedure to access the screen to read battery voltage, but lost it while out today.