Buying used 200k+ mile Prius – What's the worst that can happen and what's a fair price?

$1900? At least a cushion for repairs.

2008 Toyota Prius great on gas runs and drives need mechanical work...

Take it to Armstrong Auto Services for estimate of needed repairs.
7444 Garvey Ave, Rosemead, CA 91770, United States

 

Hybrid battery, brake booster, catalyst theft & head gasket are the big 4. Shopping that end of the pond means a non-zero number of your candidates will need all 4 in the next year.

That could be $10k on top of whatever you pay for the car.

Not saying you can't find a decent one, but you've got your work cut out for you.

 

Sorry, but the ideal price for that car is FREE. You'll be inheriting someone else problems. You'll more than likely be spending a lot of your time and money getting it reliable enough for your door-dash.

 

I realize it sounds harsh, but you should realize that you just got in line behind a whole bunch of other people looking for exactly the same situation.

Used cars have become highly competitive- more so than I've seen in 3+ decades of driving. Everyone is keeping the good ones and trading in their problems.

And just to clarify: You'd see head gasket situations frequently in the 3rd generation Prius but almost never in the 2nd. But since the 2nd generation cars are older, you'd see higher incidence of other problems. No free lunch.

Cat theft is a particular problem in California- it has become so bad with the Prius that Toyota can't provide the replacements fast enough and people are having to park theirs for to wait weeks for a chance to spend $3k on the fix.

I can't tell you that $5,000 worth of lottery tickets is a better idea, but it's getting closer.

 

To be honest about it if you're young was not a lot of car experience and you're not looking to get a whole lot immediately. Stick w Corolla or Yaris. Just look at the 3K 1800 1200 repairs etc on a Corolla you don't see a whole lot of this look at the 2016 Corolla the ABS brake part that fails on our Prius is like $140 things like that make a big difference The Prius is a very cool car but if you don't have any means it could be problematic and you could be spending lots of time in driveways that you don't own trying to get the mess straightened out That's the long and short of it. So people who are door dashing not making so much money you talking about driving 67 to 75 mi a day I do 130 now and I don't drive for anybody just service calls for my business and I consider that to be pretty low mileage for my Prius on a daily basis that's nothing 67 would be a drop in the bucket I used to deliver for Domino's Pizza in the '80s and I would put 150 mi a night on the car of course I was driving a Corolla

 

A non hybrid makes sense in your budget. Used car prices are crazy right now, this is coming from someone who has been flipping cars for 20 years. Buy something that gets good mileage and is not in the "cool used car" list. Yaris is a good choice, low mileage korean stuff too. What you lose in gas money will be offset by purchase price.

 

I bought a 1 owner dealer maintained 2005 Prius last summer for $4800. It has had replacement batteries, as well as various other repairs over the almost 20 years and 245,000 miles and she runs perfectly. This forum (Gen 2) is filled with 200,000 plus miles Prius and happy owners. The engineering in the Gen 2 Prius is very good, arguably better than later models. They are complex cars, yes, DIY is a must unless you have $$$, there are a few things to check on when buying a used one, but I’d go for it. How much to pay depends on where you live, last summer when gas was close to $5 a gallon in Denver, a Prius was costly. Today not do much, one with less miles than mine is here for sale now for $3000, condition unknown, but gives you an idea.

 

what's the worst that can happen?

 

I do love my Prius but its not some kind of silver bullet for saving money. It can die like any other car and the hybrid battery thing is at this point a crap shoot because it attracts so many shady operators and general ignorance.

Edit - To be clear, very clear about the battery thing. Someone listing on some used car site saying "replaced battery" means absolutely nothing. There are numerous posts here on priuschat from unfortunate folks who were told the car had a "replaced battery" or "rebuilt" or "reconditioned" but it was just replaced with used modules that failed within a few months. Unless they have actual documentation about what it was replaced with, it means nothing, and even then, it could still mean nothing. Thats at least a 1600 dollar part, there are perverse incentives in that market space and its impossible to tell a bad / used battery by looking at it. You'd have to take apart the interior and open up the battery box and even then you'd need some specialized knowledged and/or equipment to really know.

Dirt - any time you work on a 200k mile car, you are going to get dirty. They just accumulate schmutz over time in every nook and cranny, it is not like working on a computer where you have screws that turn easy and plastic tabs that click smooth. It's a lot of old brittle broken clips, seized bolts that require penetrating oil and a lot of torque to break loose, 20 years of dirt and dust, that kind of thing.

Pricey repairs -like @Leadfoot J. McCoalroller said, Look around priuschat for ABS actuator / brake actuator / brake booster. Thats a pricey bit of work and a lot of time.

But also with this car there are a lot of "little things", like the Combo Meter (i.e. you have to take apart the entire dashboard to replace the speedometer because it has capacitors that go bad). And when you do that job, more than likely the A/C vents are going to crack and break apart because a lot of them were made with extremely brittle plastic. So you gotta replace those.

Then there is the 12V battery - it doesn't take a normal 12V , it takes a special shape because it's stuck down in the rear of the car not in the front. And it costs more than a normal battery. And it has a lot more fiddly bits to remove and you usually wind up dropping some tool down into the battery well while changing it.

Then there is the back hatch release (right above the license plate, under the rear "garnish" with the Toyota logo). That thing on certain runs of production , was made with bad plastic and the entire thing turns into a gooey mess. There are layers of how deep you want to go to replace it but you do wind up disassembling the back hatch and having to spend a good bit of time cleaning black goo out of nooks and crannies, then trying to reassemble. And, much like with the AC vents, it is highly likely the "garnish" plastic piece will crack, just because of where it is and how old the plastic is and the way the bolts are laid out there. So then you wind up buying a new Garnish.

Then there is the inverter coolant pump bout 200k alot of people replace it preventatively. (not to be confused with the ICE engine water pump, which actually requires Tech stream, Toyota software which most people wind up pirating then using various forms of shady pirated hardware connectors to hook a laptop to the car ).

Then there is the steering wheel clock spring, which wears out and makes some of the steering wheel buttons not work. Not a big deal but. then you have to worry about counterfeit parts on some websites.

edit - oh almost forgot the window trim, the little black things on the bottom of the window that stop rain from going down into the door. Those things often need replacing on a Gen2 (like, if you can pull them off with finger force and they split in two) and so thats another expense. And the ones you get off ebay are not exactly the right fit.

Now none of these small things are $1000 but they do add up. $100 here, $150 there, $45 plus shipping, $10 for cleaning supplies, etc etc.

Then there are the leaks. If it gets old, it can leak in the rain. Found that out the hard way myself. It can be hard to notice, sometimes they are subtle leaks. Hard diagnose and harder to fix.

If you really still want to "do this", one thing I might suggest is to go visit a U-pull it junkyard that has a few Prius (alot of these have their inventory online now). Go in there and see if you can do something basic, like take out the inverter coolant pump or try to remove the MFD (central dash computer), dont even have to buy it just leave it there in the car for someone else. If you enjoy that process, maybe keep going. If you think "this aint for me" then you will know and you wont lose more than admission to the junk yard.

 

Because of where you live, Gas, insurance, Cat theft, parking availability, lack of rust on used cars. If this is to be a tool for making money. (and only that) buy a motorcycle and get thermal paniers... Europe is full of 2 wheeled delivery options. If it has to be a car.. Find a Yaris or a Corolla (preferably one that already has body damage) that will be cheap to operate, run, insure and fit into tight parking.(peeling paint and ugly color helps keep the price down also.)

 

I own my Prius for 17 years now but I would advice you to get a newer lower mileage reliable Asian car at the same price range.

• 2014 Elantra
• 2013 Leaf
• 2012 Fit
• 2012 Mazda 3
• 2010 Civic
• 2010 Corolla

The Prius without DIY would be an expensive maintenance car. HV battery, brake actuator, catalyst especially in CA, various pumps, AC, wheel bearing hubs, fans, speedometer etc. However, I would not worry much about engine, invented and transmission.