Would you buy an '07 Prius w/ 200K?

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To be honest, aside from an '03 Crown Vic with over 100K listed at $5K, which sold in less than a day, this is the first $5K car that has been at all appealing. Most of them are torn up inside - listed as perfect, or mint condition, with tears in the seats and stains everywhere. I haven't even gotten to the point of doing a carfax check on one yet. Some of them look like they have been in, or are ready for demolition derbies.

There are no rust issues here unless you live on the ocean, we live almost 2 miles inland - so not an issue.

Most of the $5K cars I have seen are about 15 year old Japanese cars or 10 year old American cars with over 100K, in some cases, close to 200K.
 
As for Civics, I have seen a few '00 to '03 Civic sedans for $4K - $5K and around 120K miles. TBH, I am a little worried about Civics because I know what gets done to them.
 
Give it [Prius] a serious look and maybe jump on it. Fair price for it, most likely. It would sell for $7-8k around here with ~175k miles, last I was looking.
 
There are some seriously expensive hybrid only parts in a Prius vs a normal non hybrid vehicle.

A friend recently acquired a Highlander hybrid(as-is) and some sort of inverter failed(common) shortly thereafter and was nearing $8k estimate. He did manage to trade in back into a sister owned dealership with CEL off(don't ask) during their evaluation/offer.

Personally $5k is not a terrible risk of money to be on a vehicle for me but it may be a lot of money for your grandma.
 
We've got 233k on our '05 prius with the original battery. I'm hoping to get 300k out of it. Personally, If a deal like yours came up locally for me I would be very tempted to jump on it. Ours has been a great car and has given us serious monthly savings in the gasoline budget.
 
That Prius if its in good shape is a solid buy, they run forever.

Even NYC taxi drivers can't kill them, and 100k a year in NYC is probably like 500k on FL roads!
 
I would bet that the Prius won't last long at $5K.
Someone will snap that up quickly.

Having never owned/worked on a hybrid, I would have a Toyota dealer do a pre-purchase inspection of it. Perhaps the seller would split the cost of it, even if I had to pay all of it, it's money well spent. If there was nothing major found, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it.

I have 226,000 miles on the 2000 Tundra I bought new for $28,000. It books out for about $4,000 now. I sure wouldn't want to try and replace it for 4 grand.

There's a lot of junk out there for $5K-ish, I'd give a hard look at the Prius, especially a rust free one from FLA.
 
It's gone. But, it has piqued my interest.

BTW, I also had a 2000 Tundra, a V8 4x4 Limited. I sold it at 220K miles a number of years ago - it was a great truck. Still ran and felt like new, although the exterior had taken a bit of a beating from years of abuse, and the mistake of having a front end loader drop a load of gravel into the bed - and also on the roof, sides of the bed, etc.
 
Buying used cars at that price point is tough, most are a project.

Honestly I'd probably just take the $5k and lease her a Corolla, with Toyota Care.
 
Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
Buying used cars at that price point is tough, most are a project.

Honestly I'd probably just take the $5k and lease her a Corolla, with Toyota Care.
That sounds like the worst idea possible.

Obviously the grandmother isn't swimming in money. What happens when the lease is up? That money went down the toilet.

Second, she drives 100 miles a day. She'd run out of miles half way through the lease.
 
Lease another one, sometimes you have to help family out. Or buy a questionable older car and get the calls when it won't start, and you now have to fix it or pay someone else.

I forgot she drives so much, any way to reduce that? Racking up lots of miles is expensive any way you cut it.
 
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
Buying used cars at that price point is tough, most are a project.

Honestly I'd probably just take the $5k and lease her a Corolla, with Toyota Care.
That sounds like the worst idea possible.

Obviously the grandmother isn't swimming in money. What happens when the lease is up? That money went down the toilet.

Second, she drives 100 miles a day. She'd run out of miles half way through the lease.

You could lease a car but plan on buying it outright when the lease is done. $5k down and lease for 5 years must have some very low payments and a low buyout as well. Maybe one of the grandkids will be old enough to drive by then?
 
Originally Posted By: CBR.worm
It's gone. But, it has piqued my interest.


The Prius sold?

Yeah, at $5k, I think it was a pretty decent deal. It has 200k miles, sure, but the cars themselves (speaking of structure, suspension, etc) are dead simple. Brakes are easy and cheap, suspension is inexpensive and durable, etc. There are obvious concerns with powertrain in terms of reliability over time, but I think they've sufficiently demonstrated to most who pay attention that they're solidly built with few widespread issues, even after so many miles.

Plus...being a neighbor, you can be somewhat more comfortable that he's not trying to sell her a bill of goods...

But, if it's gone already, then that's too bad.
 
Yep, it's gone.

Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
Lease another one, sometimes you have to help family out. Or buy a questionable older car and get the calls when it won't start, and you now have to fix it or pay someone else.

I forgot she drives so much, any way to reduce that? Racking up lots of miles is expensive any way you cut it.



That is our logic, we will pay for her car, but we are trying to set a reasonable budget. In her mind a good car shouldn't cost more than $500 (seriously). In our mind, $5,000 should get us over the hump to something decent - but maybe not. Currently she drives the Nissan truck as her primary vehicle, but she also drives one of our cars whenever she is driving our kids around. And she doesn't just drive, she will decide on a whim to drive from South Florida to Texas or North Carolina. Maybe Ohio for a long weekend with $27 in her pocket and a gas card.

We want her to have a decent car for herself, but also a vehicle that our kids (and her other grandkids) will be safe in.

I'm honestly surprised at the poor condition of the cars we have seen. Everything at this price point seems to be junk - and listed as perfect or mint condition. I think of my G35 as a $5,000 car, and it really is in excellent condition. I'm stuck in a time where $26,000 should buy you a well optioned nice new car and $500 a month should get you a nice place to live.
 
A friend just picked up an '09 Cobalt with 50k on it for $6500. It was the most car he could find for the money.
 
Originally Posted By: dishdude
A friend just picked up an '09 Cobalt with 50k on it for $6500. It was the most car he could find for the money.


Not surprising either.

Used cars are freaking expensive. Cheap used cars are done and over with unless you are looking for a project.

Of course, on BITOG, there is always someone who got a Yenko Chevelle in Concourse d'Elegance condition for $0.50 in 1983, so spending more than $100 on a car is a bad deal to them, but in reality, there are no drivers for less than a few K anymore unless you can turn a wrench or at least figure some things out on your own. A clean, higher mileage, but cared for Prii doesn't sound too bad to me. It's a common enough car with enough of a following for Dorman to have a replacement battery kit for it, so why not. And if they have done the battery once, you should be good for a while.

Honestly, I think this car might not be such a bad idea. It's no more of a gamble than the typical 15 year old Japanese car. You'd be in much more dire straits buying an '05 Galant or something IMO.
 
Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
Used cars are freaking expensive. Cheap used cars are done and over with unless you are looking for a project.

The sweet spot for good cheap used cars is about 7 years old. Think about the 7 year old car market. The auto industry wasn't exactly on fire in sales for 2008! According to this article, in the US 3 Million less cars were sold in 2008 than 2007.
http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2013/02/2008-america-auto-sales-rankings-by-model.html
The market slid another 2.8 Million in 2009:
http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2013/03/usa-auto-sales-rankings-by-model-2009.html

Take 5.8 Million cars out of the used car market and what do you have? Scarcity! Scarcity of supply in a market that is now growing, not shrinking.

In a previous thread, I opined on the effect of Cash for Clunkers on the used vehicle market. Not only has it affected the current availability of sub-$5K SUV's, but it has also decimated the number of used V-8's available in junkyards to keep pickups and surviving SUV's on the road, driving re-engine prices up.

CFC is probably a drop in the bucket compared to the 2008-2009 model year scarcity issue, but it all adds up to less vehicles/higher demand/higher prices.
EDIT: OK, CFC removed 690,114 vehicles from the used market. So that's over 6.4 million missing used vehicles from that time period, some would be retired already but still that's a huge gap in supply.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_Allowance_Rebate_System
 
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