Buying a Prius with 270k

depends on how many miles a year you drive, and how long you want to keep it. but yeah, that's close to end of life

if you diy, buy a lower mile one that needs a battery and install a new $1,600. battery

if you don't, stick with low mile prius, they are expensive to fix.

 

I don't think that's a terrible deal. I paid $3800 for a 2008 with 216k with original battery. Depending on how it was maintained, etc., that could change a lot.

 

If you need this car every day I would not buy it. Even with a new battery the engine and the rest of the car has way too many miles to be dependable. If you are a DIY type then maybe, if not avoid it.

 

If you don’t mind driving, expand your search. Tampa Hybrids has some in that price range. Dealers in central Florida are sending them to auction or selling them to local used car dealers - at least that is what I found the last few weeks. So don’t be afraid of checking the lots near you - and I discovered you can buy a car fax on eBay for under $5. That helps you get a general feel for it.

The guy I bought mine from this week buys from a handful of dealers in Orlando - before they send them to auction. That is the price point you are shopping at - a good car traded in headed for auction. There seems to see a lot of them in the 110-150k range around here. I was able to pick up my 2008 Touring for 3950, with 150k. It is super clean and the car fax service was good (along with the Toyota owners list).

Also try calling the dealers that would get them as trades - and ask if they have any as is cars headed to auction you can look at (and drive, be sure to drive every single one before you buy though - I can tell you the problems with the cheaper ones in fl right now lol).

Oh and I didn’t know, but the car fax app lets you search for cars and save them - they then apparently email you when similar vehicles are added as I’ve discovered this week.

Lastly, the only other car I felt came close in mileage was the corolla, so I kept them in my search in case a clean one popped up.

Good luck!

 

$2500 is really cheap for a car. Usually around 180k and up the gen 2s start burning oil. It's almost inescapable. And the sellers a lot of times will look you in the face and say "it doesn't burn any oil" but you'll find out it probably does. Not that big of a deal if only adding 1x between changes but sometimes you have to add every 1200 miles or so which gets tedious. That would be a worst case scenario for oil burning.

Then your normal stuff like struts, brakes, wheel bearings.

And of course condition is important (my #1) I would take a 50 million mile mint condition vehicle needing an engine/trans over a 50k mile car that is beat up in and out.

But at $2500 can't go too wrong.

 

not a terrible deal but definitely budget for some maintenance items such as new shocks/struts, plugs, possibly brakes, etc. I bought my Prius with 218k and at 271k the head gasket is letting go. I can't complain because the car cost me under $2k so in the grand scheme of things isn't that much money and I drove it harder than most people ever would. If you're inclined to roll up your sleeves to tackle small items then go for it.

 

And here I thought it would not even be worth it to try to sell my 2006 with 262 kmiles (and counting)!