I'm considering a 2005 Prius that is being sold by a leasing company. The service records look like this: By Dealer 09/18/09Champion Toyota 47,990 081641915K FACTORY SERVICE (LOF,INSP & View Details By Dealer 09/18/09Champion Toyota 47,990 0816419*TEXAS STATE INSPECTION View Details By Dealer 09/18/09Champion Toyota 47,990 0816419MISC. SHOP CHARGES View Details By Dealer 09/18/09Champion Toyota 47,990 0816419REPLACE ENGINE AIR FILTER View Details By Dealer 09/18/09Champion Toyota 47,990 0816419REPLACE CABIN AIR FILTER View Details By Dealer 09/18/09Champion Toyota 47,990 0816419PERFORMED A WALKAROUND INSPECTIO View Details By Dealer 08/01/08Champion Toyota 65,100 0737824VEHICLE DIAGNOSIS FEE View Details By Dealer 08/01/08Champion Toyota 65,100 0737824SUBLET REPAIRS View Details Notice how the repairs performed in August 2008 correspond to 65,100 miles, but the repairs from September 2009 to 47,990? Both repairs/maintenance occurred at the same dealer. Is this a mistype, or is it possible to roll back the electronic odometer on a Prius?
Probably a mistype. Not possible to roll back the odometer; but it is possible to remove the combination meter (which stores the odometer reading) and install a meter from another vehicle.
It's around 50,000. What's weird is that the 08/01/08 maintenance interval is listed on Carfax without a corresponding mileage indication, whereas 09/18/09 shows "47,990." So: simple error or fraud?
The link you provided in post #4 shows 40K miles as of 2/2008. What was the source of your service record info shown in post #1? I'd be more interested in the nature of the sublet repairs performed in 8/2008. Not sure why a dealer would subcontract repairs unless they had to do with body work.
toyotaownersonline.com Isn't it weird that carfax wouldn't pick up the 65,100 figure or else flag it as an odometer problem? I've seen that notation before from the dealer -- on another car. Could "sublet" mean that they were the subcontractor and performed the repair for a "third" party such as a leasing company or another division in the dealership such as used car sales? As far as what was done, I had called the dealer about the work on 8/2008, and they told me that they replaced the auxiliary (12V) battery. When I click on "detail," toyotaownersonline shows this: 1 08/01/2008 VEHICLE DIAGNOSIS FEE ~|~ ~|~65100 BATTERY IS BAD REPLACE BATTERY AND120 AMP FUSE Parts >> CUSTOMER PAY 2 08/01/2008 SUBLET REPAIRS CUSTOMER PAY
Interesting that the 120A MAIN fuse was replaced. Maybe a prior owner had shorted out the battery when trying to jump it.
Thanks. It's hard to find a used Prius in truly excellent condition (I guess that's why they say that fewer than 5% of vehicles meet the requirements). I thought that lease vehicles might be a good bet, if only because their drivers have to pay penalties for exceeding mileage limits (usually 10K to 12K miles / year), but I wonder whether their drivers treat them like rentals.
