Advice on buying 2007 Prius

welcome!
hard to say if likely, but definitely possible. some of it depends on the car's history for the last 10 years, which is impossible to know.
saying that they last 150 or 300 just means personal experience. they are designed to get beyond 150 for warranty purposes. if someone gets 300, that doesn't help you if yours dies.
testing can only tell you the health today, not tomorrow.
can you find a small gasser at a reasonable price?

 

No car is going to cost much on gas at $2 a gallon and 9000 miles annually.

A Prius makes wild good sense above 25,000 miles a year, you can save some money.

If gas goes to $7 gallon the Prius will seem wise.

If it was me, I would buy a Camry, unless you need a hatchback.

 

Even if gas goes to $3 a gallon, the difference between the Prius at 43 mpg and another car getting 30 mpg amounts to less than $300 per year if you're only putting 9,000 miles annually on it. If you're going to worry about the battery, the Prius may not be for you right now. JimboPalmer is right. For a decent price you might be better off finding more peace of mind with a good used Camry, Corolla, Civic or Fit

 

true, a gasser with 150k probably won't be as reliable, but repairs may be less costly, idk. i wonder if $4,000. would buy a gasser with less miles?

 

It will. A quick search turned up multiple Corollas around that part of the country. It helps even more if the OP can drive a stick shift. I didn't have time to look for anything else. I have to take my daughter to summer school right now.

 

Don't count on a Prius getting 50 mpg. Real world reporting from fuelly.com and fueleconomy.gov show the 2007 (and all 2nd generation Prii, for that matter) averaging 43 to 44 mpg. 50 mpg is definitely not the norm. Those who do get that kind of gas mileage show what may or not be capable with the car you are considering subjected to your driving conditions. Don't expect it.

 

FWIW the Generation 3 is at 44 to 47 mpg. The real world averages don't go over 50 mpg until the generation 4 in 2016.

 

Without doing a bit of analysis on the Fuelly figures to find out why they are so low, I think that 47 - 50 MPG is quite achievable, especially if the driver is at all interested in putting some effort into adapting to a higher MPG style.

My sig shows one real world figure for the last 4 years (lifetime of current car), so it is possible. My last 12 month figure is better at 52.7 MPG.

 

You're doing well in your car but we really don't know the history of that particular vehicle, the particular driving style of the OP or the majority of the drives he will be using the car for. My guess, having lived in the Indianapolis area around 2000, is that the car will subjected to a lot of shorter hops where the car will not perform nearly as well. I prefer to stick with overall averages since we can't tell easily from the Fuelly figures what the cars still being reported are achieving. It may well be higher. It also may be degrading over time. More details are indeed needed.

You happen to be one of those "50 mpg is definitely not the norm. Those who do get that kind of gas mileage show what may or not be capable with the car you are considering subjected to your driving conditions..." I was referring to in post #9.

 

Short hops need not be a problem (except for 1 trip of less than 10-15 min in the morning and the same again in the evening) if a "Pulse and Glide" style is adopted around town.

I agree that we don't know the history or driving style of the car in question, but as you made a blanket statement that was particularly pessimistic, I thought I would present a blanket statement of a more optimistic view. The trouble with using Fuelly for historical data is finding a dataset of currently live data with a long history. You will see typically 10 tanks or less of poor figures and then nothing for the next 8-9-10 years. Unfortunately these all go in the average so doesn't really represent what is the true average.

A simple test to see what the car in question and proposed new owner can achieve right now is to find a nice piece of secondary road (speed limit of 50 mph) that is flat and at least 10 mi in length. Drive the car for 15 minutes to warm it up and then head to the secondary road get up to 50 mph set the cruise control (if available) and the press the "Reset" button on the Consumption screen to reset the current average and milage. After 10 miles or as long as possible, see what reading you have. If it is anywhere around 50 MPG, then its a keeper. If it is less than 45, I'd flag it as you will never achieve great MPG in the car. Personally I wouldn't accept anything less than 47 MPG.

 

When I made the reference to the Fuelly figure I also referred to the two cars still being reported at fueleconomy.gov , neither of which is up to 50 mpg standard. My own 2nd generation isn't as well as many others around here. Your test drive is a very good way for the OP to see the potential in the car he is looking at.

There is a huge difference between realism and pessimism. I'd much rather look at it with a realistic expectation, make a decision and be pleasantly surprised than look at it through rose colored glasses and end up disappointed.

 

True, except if the pessimistic view sways your decision, but I take you point. I'm the same.

 

Sure the Prius saves on fuel but it has lots of other features that make it great to own as well.

A new car depreciates 50% in it's first 3 years. Afterwards its much less so it makes sense to buy a car just before it comes off of warranty.