Considering a First Gen Prius

Read the pinned thread above. Who should and should not buy a 2001-2003 Prius. I read it and still have 3 of them now. One of them is causing me nothing but stress. I read on here one time that the can be considered a little more than a science experiment. For that price you can pick up a used Camry that will run for 300K.

 

The battery is only one of a bunch of stuff that can go wrong. It might be the easiest fix.

 

They're lying about the mileage. Most of us, I suspect get high 30's to low 40's.

I am driving my 03 these days. The Porsche is in the shop getting a paint job, the 02 Prius is down for an inverter coolant pump. It's second one in 205,000 miles.

The thing with these cars is a lot of them are reaching the end of their logical service life. The original HV batteries are very old and very obsolete technology. With Toyota's Customer Goodwill policy, a replacement battery could be as low as around $2000, and it would have a 2 year warranty and all new components. But then, your transaxle could fail, or a brake booster pump, or the inverter coolant pump. My 02 needed a brake booster pump. & needs an inverter pump. But it does have a 4 year old factory replacement HV battery, so I'll keep it up and running. Lovely car!

They aren't that tough to learn or to work on (with a couple of factory repair manuals.) But Joe-Bob's corner garage probably won't be able to fix it. An independent hybrid shop or the local dealer ($$$) is gonna be a better choice. Or if you can do your own work, the learning curve isn't too steep.

 

I lent my NHW11 to my dad while I was overseas, and came back to see he was getting MPG in the low 50s, over 1200km or so of short trips. I am slightly more of a leadfoot so am getting more in the 40s.

 

I'm cleaning up my 03, with the intent to sell it. It's a great car, like new, battery monitors say the battery is good, and I've Prolong balanced and conditioned it. Any car you buy is a crapshoot. I mean, you never see relatively new cars being flat bedded to the shop, do you? I like them so much I've bought two of them in the past year. They drive nice, have lots of room for such a little car, and I'm relatively independent of the cost of gas.

Probably the OP is long gone, but were I him, I'd at least go have a look and a test ride.

 

I've both a NHW11 and a couple of NHW10s. The NHW11 has always recorded about 2 to 3 mpg above the NHW10 in continued like conditions. At least, that's been my experience over the last 9 years.