My wife has been using a Prius for her daily driver for 6 years. She bought it with 21k on the odometer. It just passed 110k and everything still works perfectly. She has washed and it done factory scheduled maintenance. It will need it's third set of tires soon. It is a no-drama car. Boring to drive. But no breakdowns, no failures, it just works and works and works.
Prior to this she had a MkIII and MkIV VW Golf. They were livelier to drive but needed more non-routine maintenance and repairs.
Funny I am the last one to catch this thread, but here we go:
Higher mileage concerns with a 2g prius are not that bad. Mine has ~253k and has: A water pump leaking so slowly that i've never added coolant in 35k miles. Timing chain tensioner/guides that rattle like crazy but used engines are cheaper than the parts to fix it. Battery pack slightly degraded dropping my overall avg mpg from 44 to 40 in the time i've had it. Burns oil (doesnt leak a drop).
Out of all that i think the most annoying thing is the oil burning. Apparently it's a pretty common issue. I don't consider it a dealbreaker, just something to be aware of. Early LS GM trucks are known to burn a lot of oil at high miles too and we talk about them all the time here.
As for suspension, there are springs, swaybars, and chassis braces all available for the 2g prius. It's a pretty light car and has better weight disribution than a typical fwd car of the size. Not that you're going to get a sports car out of it, but if you want to improve the handling and feel it won't be difficult or overly expensive.
Honestly, we hardly drive our Prius anymore since my wife upgraded to a Lexus Hybrid, but it's such a good car overall that we can't seem to justify getting rid of it for the money we'd get back even though we talk about it pretty regularly. So a 250k mile 2g Prius that we don't even need is still so good that we can't talk ourselves into selling it. I recommend them!!
Here's the one near me. Looks like it has navigation. I think I'll go check it out.
And seriously, thanks, guys. I feel a lot better about picking one up.
The one you listed has a link to Auto Check and the car has been registered to Jefferson, OH all its life. Therefore it is a local car. I'll bet it was purchased and serviced right at the same dealership that is selling it now.
If you take the VIN to the Service Dept of that dealership, see if you can get the service records.
If yes, these records may also give the the contact info of the original owner. If I could get that, I would call the owner. I would want to hear a little more about if it was a good car/accidents/etc. I would also see if they will tell you how much they got for trade-in which could help with your price negotiation.
This one might be a bit of a drive for you but its one owner, garage kept, private sale and new battery:
http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicledetails.xhtml?zip=44047&endYear=2017&modelCode1=PRIUS&sortBy=derivedpriceASC&showcaseOwnerId=64214697&makeCode1=TOYOTA&startYear=1981&firstRecord=0&searchRadius=75&maxPrice=10000&mmt=%5BTOYOTA%5BPRIUS%5B%5D%5D%5B%5D%5D&listingId=434845645&Log=0
One other option is to create a Toyota Owner's account(http://www.toyota.com/owners/), punch in the VIN, and then it will give you all dealer-based maintenance the car has ever received.
Kartoffelbrei wrote: And seriously, thanks, guys. I feel a lot better about picking one up.
Nothing wrong with picking up a Prius. It's absolutely a perfect car for long distance commutes. Especially when buying used.
From what ive heard, they rank with the ls400 amd previa in terms of toyota tankness. If it weren't for the owners (grm folk notwithstanding) I'd think about it.
I never thought I'd type "coilover Toyota Prius 2006" into ebay, but believe it or not several sets came up. IDK about lowering a commuter car that's already pretty low though.
EDIT: It has a torsion bar setup in the rear, so any suitable shock you can come up with and a coil over sleeve will get you something decent back there. The front struts (regular old macstruts) are more problematic, getting something good and cheap would probably involve making custom strut tubes for inserts from something German.
It's corolla stuff. There is not really a shortage of basic mods for corollas.
dj06482 wrote: I think the 2nd Gen is one of the best used car bargains out there. Between the great mileage and things like infrequent brake jobs, the average person can save a lot of money with one. A GRM'er can save even more.
Most brake jobs I do are because the brakes siezed up long before they wore out naturally, on non-hybrid vehicles.
One thing that they kept pushing at the various hybrid classes/seminars I've attended is the need for regular brake maintenance, pull everything apart and clean/lube all sliding surfaces every 6-12 months.
Welp, I test drove the Prius local to me last night. It was optioned just how I would have optioned one, which is a plus. The JBL audio system sounded good (important for all of that driving,) and even though the navigation is a bit of a novelty, I still thought it was cool.
Since I am a newb with regards to hybrids though, I couldn't quite make out just what was going on with the battery pack. On the infographic, the battery was nearly depleted. I assume this was from sitting at a dealership, but how can I be sure? Are there any tell-tale signs of a dying pack? The pack in this car did begin building a charge over the duration of the test drive, so I assume that's a good sign. I can't imagine long-term sitting is good for the pack, though.
I honestly didn't mind the way it drove at all. Acceleration was certainly better than my old Volvo 240 wagon, and only slightly slower than my Custom Cruiser. Plus, pulling in over 30mpg going nearly 80 is always a plus. The OCC would be lucky to hit 15 at 80.
Cliff notes: The Prius Flavor-aid tastes great!
How do these things do in snow and ice? I think I've read somewhere that traction control isn't defeatable which might be a problem on some of the iciest hills and deeper snow days, but I guess that's what the f250 is for too. Still it's my biggest concern which getting myself a Prius, other than giving up any and all sporting pretense from my DD.
I don't think NiMH batteries care a whole lot about how they are stored, as long as they get used occasionally.
Here are some threads on how to test a Prius battery:
http://artsautomotive.com/publications/7-hybrid/140-predictive-battery-failure-analysis-for-the-prius-hybrid/
http://www.davewigstone.com/2015/03/18/diagnose-condition-prius-hybrid-battery/
Welp, I test drove the Prius local to me last night. It was optioned just how I would have optioned one, which is a plus. The JBL audio system sounded good (important for all of that driving,) and even though the navigation is a bit of a novelty, I still thought it was cool. Since I am a newb with regards to hybrids though, I couldn't quite make out just what was going on with the battery pack. On the infographic, the battery was nearly depleted. I assume this was from sitting at a dealership, but how can I be sure? Are there any tell-tale signs of a dying pack? The pack in this car did begin building a charge over the duration of the test drive, so I assume that's a good sign. I can't imagine long-term sitting is good for the pack, though.
I dont have the JBL but i have have tried it, and it's pretty good. But, for the record, i think the base 2g Prius stereo is surprisingly good anyway.
It would be hard to tell much about the battery from a very short drive unless you had driven a bunch of other Prii. If you run it hard and park it with a low battery it will be low the next time it is started and driven, so that by itself doesn't mean much.
Yep, the fact that the battery was low when you got in doesn't mean anything. There were plenty of days that I parked it with a battery that had only one or two bars showing. That was only because I had just driven it in a way that used the battery up. After a little cruising the next morning, battery was fully charged. If you're really concerned, have a Toyota dealer test it.
I used to ride in taxis a bit. And prii are the weapon of choice for Seattle taxi drivers. At about 400k the engine gets tired and needs a refersh. That's about all I heard that goes wrong.
I bought a 2007 about a year ago and have put 30k on the car. It now has 165k on it. The hatch design is very useful and easy to work with for packing a lot of gear. I have done nothing other than change oil, rotate tires, air & pollen filter, and change out the plugs. I am not sure how accurate the MPG calculator is in the dash, but I normally average between 46-49 there. I don't think I have ever paid more than 25$ for a fill up and usually get 400-440 miles out of a tank. It is just an uninspiring a drive as others have mentioned, but has proven to be a great work vehicle for me.
If you buy a Mongoose cable and a one day (maybe three day?) subscription to Toyota's tech software, you can download and use the Toyota factory scan software. The neat thing is, the software still works after the subscription is up, you just don't have access to files if you want to reflash a module. So for the price of the subscription you get the dealership level scantool.
I don't know how much the Mongoose cable is ($200? $400? something) but iIRC the subscription is something like $50.
And with this you can do cool things like observe individual cell voltages in the battery pack.
I really, really, really want to work on more hybrids. They're techno-cool, the hybrid-specific stuff is not really difficult to work with, a lot of indies refuse to work on them so it's a niche to get into, and hybrid owners tend to be people who maintain their cars instead of treating them like disposable razors. (Which, incidentally, also bodes well for hybrids on the used market - odds are, it was well cared-for)
I want to work on more of them so much, I keep contemplating getting a hybrid of my own...
I really, really, really want to work on more hybrids.
Me too! I feel like I need a support group to really get moving on it, though. It's too easy for me to fall into swinging wrenches on turbos and fuel systems and all the rote stuff i already know so much about when what i really want is to grow in a new direction.
I should put an ad in the personals section of CL: Have hybrids & tools , willing to disassemble..
update:
I still haven't decided on a car. I really like the one local to me, but it has a few dings, one of which was hastily touched up with paint. In NE Ohio, my worry is that it'll rust in no time. I'm also finding that there's not a lot of 2nd gen Prii for sale near me. Lots of dealers have 3rd gen 2013s coming off of lease, but those are way out of my price range. I did however find a 2008 Camry Hybrid with only 65k on it. Problem there, is that it's as basic as cars get. Plus I don't know a lot about the Camry Hybrid. So it goes. The search continues.
I work out of North Olmsted. I have a customer with a four seasons Insight and it hasn't corroded to bits. Happy to see that, as I really like the little buggers. Not very many Prius, though. Given that this is Ford country, lots of Fusion hybrids and Escape hybrids. I see a TON of Priuses/Prii/Prius-plurals on the road and they don't look all Mazda-y so maybe they don't corrode to bits, but none of them come to us for service so I can't get all up close and personal with them.
Really want an Escape hybrid. And that's the only time you will ever hear me desiring an SUV.
I've driven the 2g Insight (the one that compares to a Prius) and while there is a lot of Hondaness there that you may enjoy if you like Hondas in general, the powertrain is crap compared to a Prius. Still a 40+mpg car if that's your main priority. I've said before that i take a lot of enjoyment from understanding what the Prius drivetrain is doing as it's doing it, but if you don't care about that you may not care about the 'inferiority' of the Honda IMA system either.
1g Camry Hybrids were not that great on MPG, mid-30s or lower. 2g Camry Hybrids are fairly quick, better looking, and do over 40mpg. The lowest i have repeatedly seen them for sale at is 13k, so way out of budget. I don't think i could own a 1g Camry Hybrid without being constantly bothered by how much better the 2g seems. It seems like a bigger jump to me than from the 2g to 3g Prius.
Sounds the the main issue with the 1g Prius: the 2g Prius exists.
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