"as is" in the sales ad scares me.Help &Encouragement please?

If a major repair really would "kill" you then you'll need to listen to your wife and defer the purchase. The "as-is" condition, unless modified by warranty terms, means you are on your own with regards to failures.

The good news is that Prius is generally reliable. The bad news is that an individual car for sale may be available due to a problem, so have the car inspected by a competent Prius tech before purchase.

 

An adding to Patrick's comments, even a Prius in perfect shape can suddenly suffer a four digit failure. Prius are very reliable, so it's not likely, but any Prius at any point can have a transaxel failure, inverter failure, HV battery failure, or one of several other systems, each of which will be very expensive to replace. It's really not that different from any modern car: they are more reliable than cars from the old days, but a single failure can be costly.

Tom

 

i don't really understand what 'as is' means on a certified. go over the cerified warranty with the sales and service managers together. 'as is' should not apply to anything covered by the warranty during the warranty. outside of and after the warranty period, if anything goes wrong, you're s.o.l. just like a non certified or private sale. the 'as is' is probably just a cya in case you threaten a lawsuit.

 

I find it hard to believe that there are used Prius on Toyota dealer lots without warranties. The balance of the factory warranty is still in effect unless the car was damaged. If the cars you are looking at are older than 10 years & exceed 150000 miles then save up until you can afford a new one. If you are buying privately then the car is "as-is" from the seller but still carries the balance of the factory warranty.

Read New car buying guide, avoiding dealer scams, new cars, used car buying for their opinion on Certified Used Car programs.

 

depends on the mileage of course but i would think you should be able to find something with around 50-60,000 miles for that kind of money. certified will cost you more, but there's nothing wrong with a good clean car from a private seller. as jim said, you always get the factory warranty. although it only covers hybrid components and there are some expensive systems that fall outside that definition. check to see if your state was a carb state in the year the car was originally sold. then it gets the 10/150 over the 8/100. all the best!

 

you'll probably pay 150-200 bucks for a good inspection, but they're not likely to find the lurking defect that might cost you a few thousand to repair. but as patrick said, these cars are very reliable, you really have to hit the unlucky lottery to get a lemon. a good inspection will tell you if there's been an accident and what the ramifications are and possibly any lack of standard maintenance which isn't much.

 

The definition "Certified" may vary from dealer to dealer. Ask to see the check-list that the technician goes over when "certifying" the car. It could be as simple as kicking the tires, flipping on the lights and wipers, and making sure the A/C blows cold, no more.

Either way, an inspection will only tell you what's wrong with the car, as bisco stated above. An inspection can NOT tell you what will go wrong with the car in the future. There is no crystal ball here.

Even to tell if maintenance has been deferred, you'd have to tear the heads off and have the cylinders inspected, have the fluids analyzed, etc. All things that would rack up many hundreds of dollars... which you wouldn't do on a $10k car that you might not buy.

On the cheap, you can tell a lot more about a car by inspecting the previous owner(s) than by inspecting the car itself.

 

the "as is" statement is required for any pre-owned vehicle sold here. it also helps to remove any confusion including any warranty coverage for anyone other than the original owner

 

If you are a AAA member have you looked for a car through their website? The problem with pricing used cars is that they are all different. Are you going to be happy with a car on the lower end of the options list or are you going to want everything?

Any idiot can plug a ScanGauge into the OBD port & I'd be surprised if a car for sale displays a code. The purpose of the inspection is to look for things that don't look right. Is there gunk where it shouldn't be? Is something clean that would normally be dirty? Is there rust underneath the deck? Is there overspray?

I agree with maestro. I'd trust Felix Unger's car had regular maintenance before I'd believe Oscar Madison's did.

I also agree that anything can fail at any time without warning. I may have zero indication of a problem for 60000 miles and the inverter coolant pump can fail on you before you get the title to the DMV office.

There's nothing wrong with buying used cars. Every one of us drives one. The key is to pay a fair price for the one you want.