Toyota Prius college student

Toyota dot com is a good site to start

2006 Toyota Prius Owners Manual and Warranty - Toyota Owners

Near the top right, under "Resources", you can find links to recalls (need the car's VIN), manuals

Engine & inverter coolant should've been changed at 10 years/100,000 miles. Spark plugs need to be changed at 12 years/120,000 miles.


Check the condition of the brake pads/shoes. If the last owner(s) drove the car carefully, they still may be original brake pads/shoes. Need to check the condition and how close to replacement they'll be.

Avoid models with HIDs (Touring models. They also have 16" alloys/wheels and a longer rear spoiler). The HIDs are problematic.

Check the maintenance record to see when the ATF fluid was last changed

Ask the dealer how long the car has been sitting in their lot and ask if it's been driven regularly. The reason is that the HV battery needs to maintain charge With an older hybrid especially, if they just let the car sit and let the battery discharge, then the dealer may have ruined a perfectly good car (i.e. all the maintenance records are in order but it car's HV battery could still fail prematurely if the dealer left it sitting there for several months without moving it).

All 2007 models come with front side airbags and side curtain airbags. Not all 2006 models do. Strongly recommend a model with the side/side curtain airbags as they fared better in the side impact collision tests (look it up at iihs.org)

Be aware that because you're looking at 10 year old cars, their engines may start to consume a bit of oil. When you do purchase one, check the dipstick level and check it again in a few months or several thousand miles afterwards (say halfway to the next service interval). Check to ensure there's enough oil. If it's low on oil, sometimes the big master triangle light (can't miss it. It's a giant red triangle) will come on when you take a corner.

Check the responsiveness of the 7" LCD MFD. It can fail (but failure rates are low. Ours didn't fail). It's $4,000 for a new one, half that price for a refurbished. It controls your radio and climate control (and nav if equipped) so it's kinda important.

If you get one with nav, I think the 2006-2009 ones were 5th Gen. Maybe ask the dealer (if it's a Toyota dealer) to thrown in the latest nav update (v16.1). It is getting close to the end of its life cycle (4th Gen's final map update was 2015).

If it matters to do, there's a difference in the 7" LCD screen resolution between those equipped with a backup camera and those without. (backup camera equipped ones are higher resolution)