Warranties available on 2010 with 38,000 miles?

That Prius already has a 60,000 drivetrain warranty, and a warranty on the expensive traction battery of 100K or 150K miles, depending on your state.

The consensus here on PriusChat is that Toyotas and the Prius are so reliable that an extended warranty is a waste of money. They use Prius as city cabs in San Francisco and many cities, where they rack up 300,000 to 500,000 hard city miles.

 

Just to add the Rebound... since it is a used car that you probably don't know its complete service history, an additional warranty might be prudent. Just depends on your aversion to risk.

Welcome aboard by the way!

 

with due respect to your greater knowledge, I have a 2010 Prius with 33,000 and the thing's basically new. I would not buy an extended warranty, but I'd want to see the service records and see that it's at least had the three oil changes, or else I wouldn't touch it, warranty or not.

(I didn't know any of this when I joined PriusChat 2 years ago. I'm glad I can give back now.)

In general, a 2010 Prius with 38,000 miles should have gone through at least three oil changes, at 10,000, 20,000, and 30,000 miles, BARE MINIMUM. The other maintenance items are nothing -- replace a few easily-replaced filters, and rotate the tires. However, at 38,000 miles, the original tires are due for replacement if they haven't been already. Look for the wear bars. A new set of tires costs about $500. Use this as a negotiating tactic.

Lastly, to answer the question about warranty, you have 60,000 on the drivetrain an more on the expensive traction battery. If you are buying from a Toyota dealer, they can sell it to you as a "Certified Pre-Owned," which allows them to add a warranty. But that car should need no warranty.

What I always really want to know in a used car is how was it driven? Did they previous owner accelerate and brake hard, or did they drive gently? This has the biggest impact on the car's condition. If it were me, I'd look at two things to gauge that: Condition of the tires, and the brake pads. If the tires are original and evenly worn, with tread everywhere and no bald spots, that's a good sign of a carefully-driven vehicle. The brake pads should be very thick, like new. If the brake pads are even 30% worn at 38,000 miles, I wouldn't touch it. I can take a photo of mine if you want (send a PM and I'll pull off a tire and photograph the pads).

Another easy way to tell if the car's been cared for is to remove and inspect the cabin air filter. There are YouTube videos that show you how -- it takes no tools and about sixty seconds. If the filter's never been replaced in 38,000 miles, it will be very dirty, maybe even sooty. This indicates that the owner did not perform the recommended minimum maintenance.