2016-2022 gen 4 plug in hybrid . Some problems, or buy?

I got a 2019 Prime fairly recently. I love it.

Since you're not in the US, I guess you don't need to bother with the tax incentive here.

Some considerations:

The traction battery lives under almost the entire rear hatch area. You'll notice the floor back there sits a little higher, like it's got a mattress under it. That leaves no room for the spare tire - so the plug-in doesn't have one. There's a little air pump but that's it. The rear window glass is sculpted, which probably means it's a fortune to replace. It also means that there's no rear window wiper. Adding to the cost of getting hit in the rear is the fact that the rear hatch is carbon fiber.

It's got a pretty low ground clearance, traction is not much of a problem for winter, but deep snow and blocks of ice can be a problem.

I don't know about car shopping in Europe, only the US. Some general things: Toyota started going to the 10,000 mile oil changes. I like changing more like at 5,000 mile intervals. Especially the first one - which is usually done by Toyota as part of their initial service plan, so they're more likely to push that one out past 5,000 miles. Hopefully you can find one that's been serviced more often.

There's a bunch of features that are included under the heading of the Toyota Safety Sense. I like almost all of those, but I haven't had to fix a sensor yet.

The dealers I went to didn't know much about a Prius in general, much less one with an EV mode. They also won't charge it so you can try the EV mode for your test drive. Even if they try to charge it, the previous owner's charge scheduling can keep it from charging. Plan on them not having any charge that lets you run the car in EV mode.

For me, I felt like I was buying one of these "on spec", hoping to be able to take advantage of the EV mode for at least part of my driving. I really do like that part, when my wife lets me drive it. We got it mainly for her as she drives over 100 miles to work each day.

It's best if you know about the three mode buttons before you go for a test drive.

The manual is available online at:

https://techinfo.toyota.com/techInfoPortal/appmanager/t3/ti?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=ti_home_search_docs_page
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You won't need a login to download the PDF of the owner's manual. Pick one for a Prime in the middle of the year range and at least go through the mode selections.
You can hang onto the middle one (HV-EV) for a few seconds to go into the hidden Charge Mode (Green CHG will appear on the display). It's not really that useful for driving once you have the car. One of the real uses for it is the test drive. Go through the first part of your test drive in HV (regular hybrid mode), but change to the CHG mode to charge the battery enough for part of your drive in EV mode. You should see the EV miles remaining start to build up a little.

The displays are customizable in the vehicle settings. As you try different cars, you'll find them setup in different ways. Don't worry if one car had a better display setup than another. You'll be able to get the one you liked better in the one you buy - and maybe adjust it to something you'd prefer more.

The larger 11.6" multimedia display doesn't handle Android Auto, but the little one might. At this point, I'd almost prefer the smaller display.

 

the biggest problem is the exhaust heat exchanger leaking coolant and a blown head gasket/engine which hasn't been diagnosed yet. i think that's only the first couple of years