Thinking About a Prius

...for my daughter. She is looking for a low cost to buy and run car, and likes the look of a Prius for sale locally. But I have doubts.

This is a clean, low mileage, gen 1 (2002) model. It's done just under 64k miles (I make that only 4k miles per year), one owner and very clean with full service history, and asking £2,500. I've read lots about high mileage hybrid cars, especially Prii (is that really the plural?), but haven't found anything about low mileage older cars, and the likelihood or otherwise of the battery being at or close to the end of its service life.

There is a feeling, based on no experience, that years and low mileage is worse than high mileage on a younger car, with respect to the battery life. What's the opinion here? Not for a Prius novice?

Many thanks.

 

I've had a scan around the forum, and discovered the "who should and should not buy a gen 1 Prius", and it probably answers our question. It probably isn't for us as Prius novices.

As an aside, I was about to buy a nearly new Toyota hybrid a couple of years ago. Really liked the car and the deal. Was at the point of shaking hands with the salesman, and mentioned that I was going to fit a towbar (only to tow something light - not a caravan - and also carry bicycles), but that brought the deal to a crashing halt. "You cannot fit a towbar to these, sir" he said.

 

Thank you for taking the time to reply, it's much appreciated. We decided not to go for it. My brother is a retired Toyota mechanic, but lives 450 miles away.

The hybrid I was looking at a couple of years ago, was the Auris. I really liked it but they are not cleared for towing in the UK (or weren't then). I did quite a bit of looking for a hybrid that would tow, but couldn't find one then.