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To buy or not to buy?

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by newbe666, Mar 15, 2017.

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  1. newbe666

    newbe666 New Member

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    2011 Prius
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    Hi there, newbie here.

    I have a 2011 white Prius I with 95,000 miles for sale at 8800 dollars at a local dealer. I am really interested in purchasing it. My wife has been crazy with getting a Prius for the past year. My main hesitation is not having service records for the car. I like to see that a car with that many miles was serviced properly. The sales man said it was a trade it at their main dealership and it was a local owner who took good care of it. It drove just fine and was in great condition overall, however I do not have x ray vision so I have no idea what is actually going on under the hood haha. I think I've been spending too much time on google because now I'm convinced when I drive off the lot the battery and transaxle are going to just blow up! Any input from Prius owners would be awesome! Thank you!
     
    #1 newbe666, Mar 15, 2017
  2. tonycd

    tonycd Member

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    On the upside, a person recently participated in an independent project to compile statistics on used car trade-ins. He reported that only 4% of trade-in Prii have a major mechanical problem, and the battery and transaxle are very rarely a source of acute failure.

    On the downside, you don't have any idea whether this Prius is one of them, nor any protection against it being same, unless you have some combination of:
    •Service records
    •An independent inspection by a mechanic who knows hybrids
    •A warranty

    I can tell you all about my Prius, but that's thoroughly irrelevant to the one you're looking at. The one thing I'd encourage you to do is not tolerate paying extra for the luxury of having more than no warranty.
     
    #2 tonycd, Mar 15, 2017
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    tough call. on the one hand, the prius doesn't get any maintenance besides oil and filters to that point. on the other, if they never did them...
     
    #3 bisco, Mar 15, 2017
  4. afob3

    afob3 Member

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    Go register for an account at owners.toyota.com. If you have the VIN you can add this vehicle to your account as if it is yours. Any Toyota dealer service history will then be available to view. At one point when I was shopping, I think I had 3 or 4 Pri attached to my account to compare records.
     
    #4 afob3, Mar 15, 2017
  5. CNYhybrid

    CNYhybrid Member

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    Four
    You can also ask the dealer to provide you with a free Carfax report which should list most of the service and any body shop repairs it has received.

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
    #5 CNYhybrid, Mar 15, 2017
  6. Che'

    Che' New Member

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    Model:
    Two
    Dealer should offer some kind of warranty and you can buy an extension....can be pricey though.
     
    #6 Che', Mar 18, 2017
  7. taxidriver50005

    taxidriver50005 Active Member

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    In the UK you can buy extended warranty from Toyota dealer for cars up to 10 years old and less than 150,000 miles you just need to service car at main dealers

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
    #7 taxidriver50005, Mar 18, 2017
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