Buy used prius with a new battery?

You're focusing on the traction battery, as if that is the only significant problem that an older Prius might have.

A Classic Prius has several known problem areas. The significant ones include the transaxle, electric steering gear, traction battery, and inverter. If any of those fail and you have to rely on dealer service, you'll be faced with a healthy four-digit repair bill for a car with a market value of $4K-$5K at best.

Although the failure rate % is not high, if one of those failures happens to you then your bank account will take a big hit.

Most cities in the US have independent auto service shops that offer significant price competition to dealer service, and give you alternatives such as the use of aftermarket and salvage parts, etc. However that competition doesn't exist for hybrid vehicle service, other than in a very few locales such as the SF Bay Area.

 

I bought a 2006 prius with 70,000 miles on it. Now i have 86,000 and have not had a problem. And there has not been many main battery failures on gen II. I paid 9,990 drive out. I would reccomend a used prius. Let somebody else take the new car loss ! But i would test the battery before you purchase.

 

If you purchase the car at a dealer you can request they test the traction battery and supply you with the printout as part of the deal. If you are looking at a private deal it will cost you around $75 to have a dealer test the traction battery and give you the printout.

Even after having the battery tested, you have no guarantee that it won't fail a month later. Keep in mind however, they fail very rarely. Replacement cost is in the range of $3000 to $5000 for a new one and $300 to $1000 for a used one depending on the dealer. A small part of that cost is labour. The battery is around $2200 to the dealer new. You can find used ones for $300 to $500, maybe a bit more. You -can- replace it yourself if you are mechanically inclined and have -some- knowledge of highish voltage batteries (200 VDC). It's only high voltage if it's on the top shelf?

 

Get a used Gen II Prius with 60,000 - 90,000 miles on it. Change the transaxle fluid right away given your location in the Phx blast furnace, unless you see in the service records that it has been done within the past 60,000 miles. The hybrid battery warranty is good through 100,000 miles in AZ. I'm looking at a rare Gen II failed battery right now, which had one cell in one module go bad at 150,000 miles. After three charging cycles, the modules are holding 85% of stated capacity. Not bad for a battery that operated in temperature extremes of the northern plains.

A better test of the battery is to track the highest and lowest block voltages during a load test. A weak cell/module may show up as a significant divergence on the low side (>0.5V) as SoC approaches 40% under load. A snapshot isn't very informative because the battery ECU likes to keep the voltages in tight alignment.

You may find Honda hybrids for sale with newly replaced traction batteries as a selling point. But those batteries fail much earlier. I would estimate that a Honda hybrid battery has 1/2 or less the lifespan of a Gen II Prius battery.

 

Hmmmm...

My opinion...

A used Prius is still a good deal.

It's not the miles... it's the condition of the car.

I would repeat it for ya if ya want me too... but I think you have a clue, so I'll just say.. YA Bra. :rockon::rockon::rockon:

Now I gotta say:

If you replace the big battery pack, it doesn't make it a new car... nor will it guarantee you will get another 100,000 miles either... a car is a compilation of a number of "systems"... the battery is a part of one of the systems... there are numerous systems in a Prius...



Or a Corvette for that matter...




I need two computers and a couple of wiring harnesses to get my avatar OTRA...





Same with some Prius... I have heard...