2009 Prius with water leak/wheel needs -- repair or replace?

at 5k a year, wouldn't a non hybrid make more sense?

how many miles on her now?
a rebuilt battery is iffy, if you go that route, due diligence is especially necessary.
warranty coverage is the most important thing since they often need to be replaced multiple times, and many companies will say it's not the battery.
the water leaks are usually in the rain gutters or hatch points. removing interior might be a waste of money.

 

I live an hour South of Seattle and these folks claiming it costs $6K are crazy... Probably a Toyota Dealer. We call them Stealerships...

Because the car is 15 years old you gotta stay a way from them and find a local shop, get your parts from Pick n' Pull to keep your going. Even little things that are broken in the interior. It's easy to go pull them off wrecked cars and then there's one less thing to fix on your car.

If you have a friend or family member who likes to work on cars, or you'd like to learn this website can walk you through every major repair and it'd cost very little of that $6K to complete. Alternatively if DIY isn't an option:

Hybrid2go.com is currently offering $200 off their $1700 rebuilt pack, which comes with free installation and lifetime warranty. They're trying to outcompete Green Bean and Greentecauto right now.

As for the wheel bearings, every auto shop does those so if you shop around you can eventually find a great price. Just be clear that you aren't going to let them sell you any additional work and that you'll get other work done elsewhere. Also wheel bearings you can wait on if you need to, hybrid system has to happen right away.

As for the leaks, that's a known problem in Gen2 Prius and that work is best done when deep cleaning and inspecting the whole car. To start, you pull up the black roof strips and after cleaning look for cracks in sealant between the body parts and put epoxy in 'em if you find em, then work your way back down to the back of the car. Perhaps calling around and finding a mobile car detailer could get you a good price on cleaning everything and then maybe they'd be willing to earn more by doing a dab of epoxy over the problem areas?

As in, I'm glad you've decided to fix up your Prius and keep it going! As far as I'm concerned, the 2004-2009 were the best Prius ever built. Least maintenance hassles of all the Prius.

And like I said I'm an hour south and sometimes work for people up there but there's a lot of traffic Jams between me and Seattle, so it's a bit limited.

 

Yes everything you look at in your price range up in that area is going to be a downgrade to the Prius for the mileage you're driving per year unfortunately a Yaris would be a lot better option for your setup and require almost no maintenance ever or none to speak of and get 8 mi to the gallon less gas mileage at most so there's always that and you should be able to buy an '09 Yaris for about $3,600 in a non-rust state not rusted out not ruined not on its third motor with 500,000 mi or any of that and on top of that that Yaris should go about the same mileage as the Prius five or $600,000 would not be unheard of at all I work on a $450,000 mi Yaris right now that's clean as a pin. And this person bought this car they thought they were going to buy a Prius like an '09 Prius and quickly realized they're not in the wind enough to make that valid. So they bought the Yaris and they are happy as all get out that they did that is one car like original early Corollas that never seems to need anything and when it does it cost $40 like I said a spark plugs this is the same engine that would be in the Prius that you have now not detuned and ready for full gas duty without all the hiccups that can be Prius so you might want to consider that this $9,000 business I can't imagine a $9,000 '09 Yaris truly I can't maybe if it had 113,000 miles on it or something basically barely broke in brand new looking maybe possibly but the mark or the model doesn't hold that kind of value I don't think.