Since a popular topic on here is the state of the used car market, here's my recent experience.
A few weeks ago, I bought a Prius from a local seller. He was offering the car for $3000, with 207k miles and claimed that it ran good. It had a lot of peeling paint, so I wasn't too sure, but then he edited the ad to mention that Toyota had a program to repaint these cars (Blizzard Pearl White). I googled it, and that seemed to check out. The interior looked pretty decent... it's a base model, though. A/C blows nice and cold. The blower motor is a little whiny, not really bad enough to have to replace but an annoyance. The alloy wheels are corroded and bubbling paint, but a look underneath the car doesn't reveal any structural rust that I could see. No major body panel rust, although there's one area on the roof where the paint peeled that has begun rusting. One corner of the rear bumper is pushed in.
I bought it even though it was LOUD on the road, figured it was the four snow tires or a wheel bearing. It passed our local safety and emissions inspection without issue. After driving it a bit more, I narrowed it to the passenger front wheel, and I put in a new wheel bearing. (Mevotech Supreme, we'll see how that holds up). That quieted it down a lot.
There was an airbag light on, but I shook the connections under the seat and it went away and has been off for a couple of weeks.
I put on new wiper blades and noticed that the wipers were VERY slow in "high", so I grabbed a new wiper motor (Cardone) off of Amazon and that fixed it. Headlights are cloudy, so I ordered a pair of Ebay cheapies. Haven't put them in yet, but they look good! Found a set of Prius wheel covers to cover up the corroded wheels. It's starting to look a little better. I plan on using a heat gun to try to pop out the bumper.
The previous owner got about 37 mpg, but we are averaging 47. We got it for racking up miles in commuting and put on about 1000 miles in the first couple of weeks.
Dr. Prius app is putting the battery health at around 50%. It seems to drain quickly when you first drive the car, but then after it recharges, the charge level holds more stable for the rest of the drive. I'd probably get better mpg on the around town stuff with a fresher battery, but I doubt it would help much on the highway cruising that we are doing a lot of.
About the paint - I took it in to the Toyota dealer this Monday and they took a bunch of photos... my car is covered by the "warranty extension" and I'll be getting it repainted in March of next year. It's not clear if they will repaint the entire car or just the affected panels. (Every panel except three of the doors has paint peeling).
So far, a bit over 1000 miles on it and oil is still pretty close to the full mark on the dipstick. So that's nice - a lot of these are oil burners. Will probably need a head gasket in the next few years, since it seems like they all do from this period. And the battery is going to be an issue at some point, but so far so good. I think I've saved $100 in gas so far...
My son bought a 2nd gen Prius early this year, and the more I learned about the car, the more I liked it. Then my brother and his daughter both got Priuses. So now I have one, and I wish I had bought one sooner.
A few weeks ago, I bought a Prius from a local seller. He was offering the car for $3000, with 207k miles and claimed that it ran good. It had a lot of peeling paint, so I wasn't too sure, but then he edited the ad to mention that Toyota had a program to repaint these cars (Blizzard Pearl White). I googled it, and that seemed to check out. The interior looked pretty decent... it's a base model, though. A/C blows nice and cold. The blower motor is a little whiny, not really bad enough to have to replace but an annoyance. The alloy wheels are corroded and bubbling paint, but a look underneath the car doesn't reveal any structural rust that I could see. No major body panel rust, although there's one area on the roof where the paint peeled that has begun rusting. One corner of the rear bumper is pushed in.
I bought it even though it was LOUD on the road, figured it was the four snow tires or a wheel bearing. It passed our local safety and emissions inspection without issue. After driving it a bit more, I narrowed it to the passenger front wheel, and I put in a new wheel bearing. (Mevotech Supreme, we'll see how that holds up). That quieted it down a lot.
There was an airbag light on, but I shook the connections under the seat and it went away and has been off for a couple of weeks.
I put on new wiper blades and noticed that the wipers were VERY slow in "high", so I grabbed a new wiper motor (Cardone) off of Amazon and that fixed it. Headlights are cloudy, so I ordered a pair of Ebay cheapies. Haven't put them in yet, but they look good! Found a set of Prius wheel covers to cover up the corroded wheels. It's starting to look a little better. I plan on using a heat gun to try to pop out the bumper.
The previous owner got about 37 mpg, but we are averaging 47. We got it for racking up miles in commuting and put on about 1000 miles in the first couple of weeks.
Dr. Prius app is putting the battery health at around 50%. It seems to drain quickly when you first drive the car, but then after it recharges, the charge level holds more stable for the rest of the drive. I'd probably get better mpg on the around town stuff with a fresher battery, but I doubt it would help much on the highway cruising that we are doing a lot of.
About the paint - I took it in to the Toyota dealer this Monday and they took a bunch of photos... my car is covered by the "warranty extension" and I'll be getting it repainted in March of next year. It's not clear if they will repaint the entire car or just the affected panels. (Every panel except three of the doors has paint peeling).
So far, a bit over 1000 miles on it and oil is still pretty close to the full mark on the dipstick. So that's nice - a lot of these are oil burners. Will probably need a head gasket in the next few years, since it seems like they all do from this period. And the battery is going to be an issue at some point, but so far so good. I think I've saved $100 in gas so far...
My son bought a 2nd gen Prius early this year, and the more I learned about the car, the more I liked it. Then my brother and his daughter both got Priuses. So now I have one, and I wish I had bought one sooner.
