2008 Prius - 189,000mi- ???s and Concerns

The first thing I would do would be is establish yourself an account at Toyota.com and do a VIN search for the vehicle's service history. Any dealer applied service will be listed there and if the vehicle was owned by a studious previous owner(s) they could log their service history on Toyota's site as well. Short of having a well documented service history from the seller this would be your best starting point supplemented by an independent mechanical inspection.

 

also, just plug the VIN into google -- and maybe duckduckgo or one other search engine of your choice.

Mostly, esp. from Google, you will get a passel of places such as CarFax that want to charge you for a VIN report, which depending on your mood might not be the worst idea -- sometimes independent repair shops show up on those reports.

But, you also may find things for free,tucked away on easy to access databases such as a reported accident -- a picture of the car sitting in an auction yard three years ago, etc. Worth a shot.

 

If you keep this Prius for at least 35,000 miles it is likely you will need to address the high voltage battery.
Get a feel for oil usage, as most high mileage Prius burn oil to some degree.
Take a look at the brakes just so you have a baseline.

 

welcome! i agree with all of the above. it's a high mileage car, like any high mileage car, and you should be prepared for anything to break at any time. can we tell you that something will break? no, but the odds go up with mileage and age. some people have great success for several hundreds of thousands of miles. all the best!

 

re: ". . . I'm only getting about 40mi/gallon "

With brand new tires and Winter gas my 2005 boasts of 40+mpg around town and over 50 on the road.

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My now retired, '98 F-150 was down to 10-12 mpg around town and 17 on longer trips. It was the innocent victim of two careless drivers.. . . . One cell phone addicted driver rear ended it at a stop light. Their Oldmobile was totaled. And the F-150's gas mileage went down. . . . Two months later, a brand new, teenage driver broadsided the F-150 in a parking lot.. And gas mileage went down again.

 

For what it's worth, during warm months my wife consistently gets 44mpg with every tank in our '08. During the winter months she's getting 37 - 38mpg. I attribute it to colder weather, winter mix fuel, and studded snow tires (non-low-rolling-resistance).

She travels for work, so those numbers are for mostly highway miles @ 75mph... definitely not driving for max efficiency.