At what point would you consider to retire your Prius?

Your car is barely middle age... Gen2 are lasting way longer than Gen3. Many have more than 500K miles on'em.

What's more this website can help you or a friend or family member make all the repairs your car could ever require. There's not many cars that can offer that level of long term reliability, affordable care.

Of course the nature of auto repair business is unpredictable these days, as you mentioned in headlight price change, so if you can't find someone who's honest, who values Priuschat info, then yes, sell it.

 

Well I can't see in your profile where you're located so given things like this I'm going to assume probably a younger person here and probably hasn't owned or been 500,000 miles and well anything yet so you may never know of any of that kind of thing most people and most cars today people are getting out of them at $120,000 mi just to make double sure that they're not going to have to do a thing that's the way today get a new payment another vehicle start all over again but just to be certain I don't have to replace a headlight or a door lock because somebody's telling me it's going to cost $1,000 and that's what they want me to pay $400 for a headlight well the headlight on eBay from all the manufacturers that carry crash parts right in your town to the body shop that headlight is about 65 to $84 now if you can get to $400 from that 84 for 45 50 minutes worth of work then you've done something maybe in your market this is reality where I live most people would look at you like you were crazy so regions and things like that have a lot to do with it if you're in an area where the weather is eating your car alive every minute it sits and you don't own anything and have no garage no house no place to put the car in this bad weather area then you're like young people with Teslas having to pay premium to charge the car and they're spending almost what it cost to run a gas car because you don't have the infrastructure at home to keep things inexpensive so now you're subject to all these charging companies that are popping up overnight that are charging you $24 to charge your car or better. My Toyota's for the last 45 years almost every one of them is gone over 400,000 miles I've been with Toyota for about 45 years now so there's always that I've never had a Chevy or an Oldsmobile or any of that last half that amount of time or mileage so there are things like that I'm talking regular daily driven cars here no garage queens no show cars nothing crazy these aren't dreams these are everyday vehicles used to help create the American dream maybe.

 

But the answer for me is Rex animal damage and wrecks where metal is folded stressed crushed and the car is going to have to sit in the body shop with people banging on it with hammers It's faster for me to change it to another rolling chassis I generally have many I'm in the southeast United States with beautifully conditioned old cars All I need to do is accept one and take it y'all are paying three and $4,000 for these things I'm keeping it 700 to 2000 at best big difference.

 

Clearing a $1,000 repair could keep that car on the road another year.

Meanwhile that's about six weeks worth of payments & insurance on a replacement car.

So without any other info? I'd say that the second $1,000 quote within 3 months would do the trick for me.

 

87,000 miles and a blown head gasket, but mine was a gen 3

 

In fleet management, we retire our trucks when their market value drops to 10% of replacement new vehicle value. For a Prius that should be when the KBB private sale price drops approximately to $2,700 (10% of $27000 MSRP). This means it is not time yet for most cars in average condition. Only some high mileage and fair condition working Prius should be retired with this strategy.

Obviously If cost of repair is high enough, it is time to get rid of it. For example, on my $4300 Prius, it will take a couple of large repairs like a $1800 brake actuator and a $1200 HV battery at the same time.

 

The options on your poll are too narrow and limited. You might as well as have if anything breaks will you trade it?

Exceeding $5000 in repairs in the same year would do it for me. Depending on the current value repaired I might fix it and sell. Cars with major maintenance needed are worth almost nothing as a trade and perhaps $1000 private sale.

 

I support @rjparker on this... You literally created a poll on a web forum for people who love their Prius and only three options to choose from are based on giving up your Prius for ridiculous and fearful reasons that no one who loves their Prius would do. And I just voted for "car unexpectedly dies" even though it was a fake vote just to see that nobody other than a couple weirdos have voted.

And because you didn't like or reply to my previous comment I'll try again: "...this website can help you or a friend or family member make all the repairs your car could ever require. There's not many cars that can offer that level of long term reliability, affordable care."

 

Oh my. I'm going to be an outlier here. First, I only know Gen1s. I did look under the hood of a Gen2 once while scavenging an oil pressure regulator at the junkyard and they look similar, but whether they're as reliable, IDK. I currently have 10 Gen1s.

Gen1s have a significant value difference to later models - there were way fewer sold, which means that, at this point, there's a small market for used parts, which is going to get smaller because dismantlers have quit buying salvage Gen1s for more than just cat + scrap value. They'll pay about $300 for a wrecked Gen1, sell the cat and scrap it.

Without their competition for parts, you can buy a wrecked Gen1 for $600-$800 after auction fees. Cat values fluctuate, I've gotten as high as $800 a year ago but $650 last month. They got as high as $1200 during the pandemic. The scrap metal after stripping parts is worth about $200.

Sadly, the engine and drive train - even running fine with low miles - are worth nothing. I've thrown away several, and have two right now that I'd have no problem driving across the country (except for missing lights/mirrors/windows, etc. LOL) that I'll be throwing away soon. The labor cost to swap them out and into another car is just not worth the value of the working car in the marketplace, and I'm too old to do them myself. Also, they're just so reliable, no one needs them. The old1.5L ICE is like that across Toyota models, I've read. A dime-a-dozen because they never break.

IMHO, the real issue is the perceived market value of Prii, and I expect later Gens have some of the same issues. I think it goes back to KBB, NAIDA, et al. They value the cars below utility value - the ROI you get from driving the car. But, it's not their faults, they only deal with sales data. It's really the dealers who have decimated the value of these cars. I'm a good example.

I bought an 01 in 01, although slightly used (12k miles) and with a salvage title although it looked/ran perfect. I got a great deal. But soon the HV battery had issues - they all did. The dealer wanted $5000 for a replacement (no warranty with salvage title). So, I parked the car, for 3-4 years, until aftermarket batteries became available for under $2k. But, many owners back then traded the cars in, just as the dealers wanted them to do. And KBB/NAIDA valued the car at that non-running trade-in price.

I think that scenario has played out again and again with these cars - first with HV batteries and now with stolen cats. A significant number of these cars are sold/traded in non-running condition, and often after sitting unused for months, by frustrated owners who don't want to spend the dollars to replace batteries and cats. And, today, if I lived in a CARB-compliant state (CA, WA, NY, CO), I definitely wouldn't own a Prius. You have to replace stolen cats with OEM/CARB cats at a cost of over $2000, knowing that there's a high probability it'll be stolen again shortly. Now, in those states, insurers total out Gen1s for the slightest issue, knowing they'll be facing another claim soon. It's really sad, but I've got great deals on Gen1s in those states.

I expect a lot of those issues will be hitting Gen2s soon. The difference being there were so many more sold, the dismantlers are still buying them for parts value.

Thus, to answer the OP's question, I'd tell you that the highest and best use of Gen2 cars is to drive them into the ground, then sell them for cat+scrap+maybe HV battery+maybe a few popular parts. I've had more than 20 of these cars and never had a major engine/drive train problem. While most of mine are very low mileage (unlike later models, I think Gen1s will be a collectable soon), my daily driver has 240k and I have another with 250k. I'd jump in either right now and head to Alaska without worry. I actually do that - I've driven my cars from Houston to LA, Minneapolis, St Louis, Atlanta, and Colorado in the last year. If they did break, I'd tow them to a recycler, and fly home.

Disclaimer: the scenarios OP cites are all based on dealer repair costs. If I had to pay techs to work on any car I ever owned, I'd always drive beaters or new cars under warranty. There's no way to affordably drive a car, IMHO, if you have to pay for service labor over it's life. That's the value of this forum - many routine repairs can be made by most people, most repairs can be made by someone with DIY experience and some tools. But, I understand that many people, for different reasons, can't work on their cars. Drive throw-aways or warranty cars if so.

If I had a Prius with 200K that was clean and well maintained, I'd have no problem spending up to almost its KBB wholesale to keep it going - if I was going to drive it enough miles to pay for it. For example, KBB says a Gen1 is worth $2500-$3500, I expect. Say yours has a bad battery and a stolen cat - dealership charges you $4500-$5000 for those parts/labor. Most people throw that car away. Instead, you can buy an aftermarket cat, hack it to clear the CEL with the advice from this forum, then either band-clamp it to the resonator or, better, have a shop, if you can trust one, weld it to the old resonator. Total cost <$250. A guaranteed aftermarket battery is $1200-$1500. I'd spend that and expect to get at least 100,000 more miles over 5 years without major engine repairs from the car. That ROI at 40mpg is hard to beat.

However, if you're not going to drive it, if you just go 10 miles to work and back every day (like the owners of the low-mileage cars I have did), you're going to have a hard time getting your money back in 5 years. KBB isn't going to give you that value (unless the Gen1s become collectible).

People don't do that because they don't want to be seen driving a 25-year old car. But, if you have no ego (me) and the cars don't look 25-years old (mine), no problem.

 

Oops, I left out another big impact on the value of these cars - at least the Gen1s because I track them - but I highly expect the same for all hybrid vehicles. The Nigerians don't want them. Watch Copart live auctions to see whether they bid on later Gens, but I doubt it.

However, they snatch up every other Toyota Camry and Corolla they can. I've delivered cars and other equipment to the Lagos freighter at the Port of Houston. Amazing how much ships out EVERY WEEK, a huge boat full of surplus cars/equipment direct to Nigeria. I used to buy Landcruisers - back when I was buying new cars just to drive, not collect, I've had 8 of them. Brokers bought two of those going to Africa/Middle East.

I assume Toyota has a great parts distribution system in Africa, but there are fewer shops trained on hybrids, and yeah, the replacement battery price is a bigger deal - I expect they all buy planning to drive the cars into the dirt, so a future cost is not doable. I also expect that by the time the cars have sat in a US auction for several months, then shipped overseas over several weeks, there's a high failure rate on used hybrids..

 

The big difference between USA and the used car markets abroad is the labor cost. $150 per hour in USA and as low as $10 per hour there. So cars that we retire in USA or that have depreciated, abroad are still valuable since continued repair cost is much lower.

 

Of course, Aegean, there are currency values in play, but in countries were tech labor is $10, that's still a lot of money to those people. Just that, overall, old cars are cheaper is, I expect, the bigger factor. Many countries don't care whether the vehicle is salvage or non-repairable title, or has minor CELs, so those old, cheap cars can still be driven legally.

But, from what I've seen, those last-use buyers aren't bidding on hybrids. I may be wrong; I'm no expert and don't spend my life watching auctions online, but I've done a lot of it. Maybe that changes for later models, again, I just know Gen1s. But Gen1s are as basic hybrid as it gets.

 

Based on your experience with online car auctions, what are the best sites open to public?

 

Eek, I feel like Marisa Tomei testifying about ignition timing on the 1957 Chevy Belair with the 327 engine and a 4-barrel carb.

"Best" is hard to find among car auctions. It's a real slugfest. If you want to limit this to the "best" site for finding Gen1s, it would be the biggest sites with the biggest inventories from all over the country because there aren't many of these cars. Those would be Copart and IAAI. But, those wouldn't be where you'd necessarily find the best prices, because those also have the most buyers who might want one of these cars.

Overall, however, the effort and time to search the smaller local/regional auctions may not be worth the effort because these cars aren't worth a lot to begin with - there's not much net profit even if they're free.

The bigger auctions, however, prevent a lot of Gen1 sales, and other very low valued cars, because their fees are just too much - they can double your original bid for cars under ~$800 and are usually 30-50% on any Gen1. And the downside - that bigger inventory is farther away. If you don't have a way to transport efficiently, many of the cars are just not worth shipping costs. And there's a membership fee. Another gotcha is if you have to be a dealer on certain cars and in certain states. Paying a broker to buy for you adds about $500-$600 to the cost.

On the other hand, I've seen amazing deals go down at the City of Houston auctions - beautiful $25000 truck for $1900. They sell hundreds of vehicles EVERY week. Here's this week's list:

Vehicles Scheduled For Auction

I expect every city has these. In Texas, many local/county governments/NGOs post theirs through online auction platforms like Lone Star Auctions and Rene Bates. That's a big difference, SYK. That's all the info the CoH provides - an Excel spread sheet. The auctions are onsite only, and cash on the spot only. There are no pics of the vehicle, no descriptions, and you can't view until 30 minutes before the auction time. But, the info doesn't even tell you the time of day when the auction starts, and no one at the auction locations (tow/storage yards for impound vehicles) knows. You can show up and camp out - I have, for 3 hours - but if there's more than one location in any day, you don't know which is first.

If you don't get it, the auction is corrupt. They're driving down attendance on purpose - only the connected wholesale buyers have the scoop. They also insert vehicles at the last second. No car goes for less than $500, even though there's no law to that effect. The wholesalers have a deal worked out with the tow yard and police to pay at least that minimum amount to cover tow/storage cars. Police officers are at every auction ostensibly to protect cash buyers, but also to collect their skim at the end.

The effect is, the wholesalers get every car that they want unless you're willing to pay at least retail wholesale prices, and if you have cash right then. The only deals are on cars they don't want - which include Gen1s - but they still cost at least $500. There was a nice Gen1 but the cat was stolen and no way to know if the battery was any good. The rest looked great, but not worth $500. The wholesaler knew I wanted it - I drove a Gen1 there and they saw me (they also plant a schill in the crowd to spot marks) - and their schill approached me as I walked away without bidding, sticking them with the car. He was offering to sell it to me or any parts I needed to get their $500 back.

Anyway, some people get the "best" deals at these auctions, but I wouldn't tell a newbie to run that gauntlet. Use those platforms,where you can see the pics and bid online.

I like Richie Bros, Very honest business model. They have cars at their auctions, but only a few hundred.

Honestly, I'd tell anyone to learn before you burn. I've scored some fantastic deals on cars - bought one for $300 on Lone Star and sold it for $8000 after doing nothing to it as fast as any of several buyers could bring me their money. Bought a truck for 4000 at RBros that I've put 200k money-making miles on and could still sell tomorrow for $8000. I've it on FB for $12,000 with others like it. Bought dozens of cars on Copart and only lost on one - but I count driving them as ROI.



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I should add...one of the first things to learn before you burn: there are bigger, non-public, dealer-only auctions - Adesa, for example. that deal in newer cars. mostly lease returns and trade-ins at dealerships. I've picked up and delivered vehicles to them, but never bought. I suppose one can hire a broker, and buy one of those at wholesale. If you can't work on cars and just want to save a bit of money. But, there are no "steals" there. You'll pay real close to wholesale on all of them.

Otherwise, at the public auctions, the first lesson to learn is that the nicest cars can be the worst. There's a reason nice cars are at public auctions, and it's usually not good. But not always, so the first thing you're trying to figure out is - why is this car here? For example, if you see a nice older Prii, not wrecked from what you see in the pics, why is it there? For Gen1s (again, all I know), it usually means the battery is dead or the cat is stolen. (some auctions don't tell you about stolen cats). On the other hand, if the car is wrecked, the battery and cat are probably good - because it was driving at the time of the wreck, and most tow companies (the auctions deal with) are reputable and don't strip the car. On the third hand, if it's in a CARB-compliant state, check whether the seller is an insurance company (at Copart it will say) because those rules don't apply - insurance co's are totalling Prii there for almost any reason to avoid the cat claim later.

Here's my secret for all to use (I'm retiring, selling all my cars, trucks, equipment, cleaning up the cluttered house so I can downsize): I cover my costs picking up cars from out-of-town auctions by finding jobs on UShip going to those cities. I can always make more money carrying cargo/cars/equipment to pick up my car than the trip costs. But here's the crazy part - I almost always make more money doing that than the trip AND car costs. In fact, I made more money hauling cargo on the trips to pick up the truck I'm driving now and the trailer I'm pulling now than those cost.

For me, in a sense, all these cars and trucks and trailers are FREE. I've had more than a 100 vehicles and currently have 16 plus 5 trailers. Starting with about vehicle #70 and no trailers, all of the rest have been purchased with proceeds from carrying cargo to the pick up location. I'm the eccentric old man who lives in the cluttered, paid-for house down the street from everyone, wherever you live, so I don't need much money. Most of you have bills to pay. I understand. Been there, done that more than most people. But know that it can be done. I've proven it repeatedly. You can buy cheap, older, low-mileage vehicles at the auctions, drive them 50-100k miles and sell them for at least what you paid for them. If you know how to work on them a little and have basic tools. Cars are free - if you can go get them.

 

I see a lot of salvage cars on these auctions. I assume that most of them have expensive repairs to a total value close to the value of a branded rebuilt car. Do you think there are some gems where the insurance adjuster overestimated the repairs? If yes, which ones might have easier and less expensive repairs? Flooded? Hail? vandalized? Wrecked with frame damage? I always avoided salvaged just because of the risk but maybe there is some potential.

 

Well, I got into these because I had a wrecked one to start with, so I was looking for a parts car. It was right after Katrina and there were 500,000 cars for sale in Houston. Each one I bought was too nice to part out.

The point being, I've always had some parts to start with. If not, it's just a financial calculation. You gotta assume the worst and bid accordingly. Also helps that I only deal with one car - all the parts interchange and I know how they go together. Before these, I was buying Ford diesels and still have 5 of those. But all with the same engine/tranny combo, and lots of interchangeable body parts.

Personally, I don't want to do much more than swap parts - replace fenders, doors, interiors. I'm old and can only work a few hours per day. I also don't have a paint shop and try to avoid that.

Mostly, I guess, I just mess with real cheap cars/trucks. Because I can travel to pick them up, I cherrypick. Look for low mileage cherries only for the most part - except for whatever got them into the auction. Here's an example I'm doing right now. I've got the blue one ready and the white one is almost there:

60702343-Image-2 hosted at ImgBB — ImgBB this car had 200k miles, wrecked in the back, drove it this way all the way home from Denver no problem.

73154713-Image-1 hosted at ImgBB — ImgBB this one had 100k miles, wrecked in front, drove all the way home from St Louis, no problem.

76325383-Image-3 hosted at ImgBB — ImgBB 70k miles, wrecked side, drove home from Houston auction just fine.

Looking at these cars, I judged they all would run and drive fine, and was right. The first car was for parts - too much cost/effort cutting off and welding a different rear in, and too many miles. But, it's front was perfect and already blue.

The second car was beautiful, except for a slightly wrecked front end. I was able to swap the front from the first onto the second to make that a beautiful, low-mileage car. I'm currently driving it the most. Has the nav system - rare!

I also took the middle pillar and doors off the first car and repaired the third car. It's almost ready. I paid a cheap body shop to do the cut and weld. Turned out great. I have a better hood and fender. I'm rattle-canning the door sills and will pay that shop to spray the doors, fender and hood. It runs awesome, best of all my cars.

I sold the cat off the parts car and got most of my money back for it. Still has a good HV battery, good set of tires/wheels, and other parts to take off, then sell the carcass for a couple hundred. I'll end up with about $4000 invested for two very nice cars, and maybe 40 hours of easy labor. Need to post some pics of the finished cars.

 

To explain the process a bit - I was lucky with timing of these. I bought the parts car first, because it was free. I knew it'd go cheap, for scrap metal value with that rear wreck, less than I'd get for the cat/parts. So I knew I had the parts before the second car came up and could outbid anyone looking to repair that nice car. It also needed both airbags and the dash bezel. All free for me, all hard for the DIY'er I might come up against. No one materialized with either car, bought for scrap value. I knew the white car would go for scrap. It came up as an afterthought, saw it right here in Houston. I needed an HV battery so bought it knowing the cat would pay me back. But driving it home, it ran so good, that I decided to repair it, and glad I did.

Another one showed up here last week, perfect condition, <100k miles. I ran to look at it because it said undercarriage damage, but I couldn't see any in the pic. Buy-it-Now price of $950.

Damn my luck, a guy who worked there came over while I was inspecting it. I'd driven that nice blue car over there, freshly cleaned and waxed, looking great, and he saw it. Which got him looking at this other one, and before I could get home to accept the price online, someone had bought it, and I bet it was him.