At what point would you consider to retire your Prius?

I am glad it has been working great for you with the Gen 1 purchases and it looks you have a very good strategy and plan. Also, it is nice to save some Prius from the junk yard.

Now I wonder which vehicle model would provide the best rate of return with a similar strategy. Probably a model that wholesalers do not bid heavily while it is in high demand for retail buyers. Maybe the early 2012-2015 Tesla model S or the Gen 2 Prius or something else? Very difficult to guess.

 

Can't help you much with that, unless you wanna buy Gen1s or Ford diesels. Generally, I don't really make money at this - if you count the hours spent. It's more about saving these cars for me, and hoping they turn into collectibles. But, I won't have many left by then. I'm thinking I'll keep two and sell the rest real soon.

If you trying to flip cars for money, but small-time, like 1-2 cars at a time, I think buying low is a bigger factor than the cars - you may do better looking for a good deal, whatever the car. Not many cars slip through the cracks at the big auctions, like Copart, IAAI and Richie Bros, but it happens. It's hard to predict where the deal shows up.

Gen1s, IMHO, are unique, a perfect storm of factors has worked to lower their price. Gen2s have some of the same factors - specifically, the high-value cats that let you instantly recoup most/all of the money you spend on the wrecked parts car you'll need to fix the wrecked cherry you find to repair/flip/keep. That and no Nigerians (if that stays true for later Gens, IDK). Again, however, there were a lot more built and sold.

I'm also very risk averse, and don't have a big cash pile to finance these. I stick to the cheap cars so I don't lose much if an auction car has unexpected damage. I usually try to buy at/near scrap value. I also stay cheap because - I can't finance higher-priced cars to my buyers. - any more than about $5000 and buyers would rather put money down and make payments. (that amount increases a bit more for trucks because they're a business investment with an ROI for some buyers). Banks don't finance cars that are more than 10 years old. After that, the tote-the-note used car lots own the market down to that $5000 cost.