New Buyer/New User - I'm Wary and Cautious...

Hi there,

I am new here.

I've been reading these forums for a little while now, and I'm finally pulling the trigger - tomorrow I am going to buy my first Prius.

I'm buying a 2012 Prius V and it looks like its in very good condition. The owner seems to be very mechanically inclined and has fixed a lot of items on the car over the years. He fixed the head gasket leak, he replaced the EGR valve, replaced the water pump, new sway bar links, tie rods, rotors, brakes, ect - it looks like he's maintained it very well and it is immaculate. Says he is selling because he just got a Volvo hybrid.

I ran the Dr. Prius app and the battery health says its 52%. He said he recently changed out 14 modules in the battery and it runs perfect.

Now the only thing I'm worried about is a fault code that showed up during the ODBII scan that reads P0A80. He had told me that code was going to show up even before I ran the scan and he says its been there for years even though everything works fine. He says it comes back even after he clears it out, but that the car drives perfectly fine for the past 10 years.

Is this something I should be worried about? I don't want to this to be a huge money pit down the road. I know it may be battery related, but if I must buy a new battery I will. I believe a new battery cost like $1800 right?

Can anyone provide some insight on this?

Thanks.

 

Also I forgot to mention it was 204,000 miles on it.

 

I don't know what he does but he showed me the pictures and it he did a lot of work on it. He took the EGR valve and cleaned it out thoroughly with oven cleaner. And also heated it in how water to clean out the gunk. Along with other pictures of his repairs. Well maintenced it seems.

 

Yeah I know about the piston ring issue. There were no leaves. The car was immaculate inside and out and the engine bay as well was very clean.

 

Ok, good to know. I am going to run the Dr. Prius Battery Health test again and report back. This time I will try to keep the needle within the green area on the gauge.

 

Yeah I'm pretty handy. I've changed spark plugs, coil packs, valve cover gaskets, brakes, bearings, struts, shocks, control arms, starter.

 

I drove the car back home today about 30 miles in the city. It ran very well. I can't believe it's 40 MPG. I'm so excited. Also, I have a very light foot and drive smooth and let the engine slow me down. Other people even complain how slow I drive.

I did notice that above 52mph there seemed to be an intermittent humming sound. I'm not sure what that is but I'm guessing it's the normal operation of the electric motor assisting the ICE. But wow I love this car already! It even has headlight washers which I was completely shocked. I've never even seen that before. I highly doubt I'll ever use that though as I plan on cleaning up the haze in the headlights. I'll take some before and after pictures.

 

Thank you!

Here are some pictures of it.

 

Thank you! I've been reading up on how to maintain it as well as maintain the paint with ceramic coating and the leather. My previous vehicle was a sienna which had water leaking in and also a horrid smell coming from the AC and I couldn't stand it for 2 years. Once I got the Prius it smelled so good and with some new 'new car smell' it smells so good now! So nice to drive in comfort once again.