Looking for a car, found a Prius

I sold my 07 for $5000 last summer. Had 170,000 miles on it.

Hyper maintained drive train. Engine saw only the best and most expensive oil and changed often. Redline 5-30
Engine did not eat oil. Engine loved that stuff. Most quiet 1.5 you will ever see.
You could eat off the valve area. I hyper monitored oil level. Never let it get lower than the full line. Ever.

Regular trans fluid changes. Redline D6
Regular inverter coolant changes. Redline water wetter.
Regular coolant changes. Redline water wetter.


New ac just repaired. Under dash evap replaced. Icy cold after. $1100
New radio.
Brand new NPB hybrid battery installed. Ran perfect. $1600.
Newer 12 volt.
Newer combo.
New headlights.
Newer tires.
Expensive tint.

All documented.

Interior looked showroom as I installed Wet Okoles seat covers a week after buying the car new.
They lasted 14 years. Dash looked mint as car never saw sunlight hit the dash parked with Weathertech windshield cover.

Don’t smoke.

Lots and lots of work not even mentioning all the tune up and maintenance items over the years.

All documented.

Never touched the brakes, warned buyer about that and possible ABS they were willing to throw that dice based on how the car ran and how it was taken care of.

Show me your thinking about buying that car and I’ll say sounds good go for it.

It was mamas car then I bought her a 2000 Toyota Corrola with 60,000 miles for $4500. Needed a cop.
Tuned it up. Never ends.

 

Btw I did all the work myself except the ac repair. Entire dash had to come out to the firewall.

 

any 20 year old car with hundreds of thousands of miles is going to need constant upkeep.

with your budget, the best bet is still a non hybrid, as they can be worked on by anyone, so you can at least shop around for competitive repair prices.
plus, they are easier to diagnose. prius can even confound dealerships.

 

I hadn't wanted to say it before, but it may be that you're trying to squeeze too much car out of too few dollars.

I hate thinking that the minimum cost of owning a car has grown so much, but there you have it. For perspective, I had a 20+ year old "simple" car when I was a student.

Lots of little things broke often. I learned a lot about fixing them myself, because I had to.

If you aren't ready with that end of it, maybe a combination of rideshare & bus passes really are the way.

 

Leadfoots insane idea that a dealer erases the maintenance history Is completely wrong, this information is how the DMV will verify the mileage and detect rollbacks.

There is no reason to even do that because that history only helps sell the car unless the want to keep it on the lot.

An older car with zero history from a dealer is a sure sign not to buy it but then again Im pretty sure you will never see that.

 

I was (eventually) able to do quite a lot myself, including a cylinder head swap. It kept me rolling for cheap.

It taught me a lot, including respect for professional mechanics. I wish you luck!

 

probably just another sucker, there are plenty out there. all the best!

 

The G2 Prius has a great rep. Solid tough little car its a TOYOTA and gets great mileage when its young and healthy. And an incredible piece of engineering for the time. When it was brand new it was a really nice car. Now almost 15 years later....

I got lucky with mine the Corp I worked for and went 22 years with before retiring got a little shamed because green was all the rage at the time and they offered to all its thousand's of employee's a gift of $5000 for the Prius or $4000 for the Insight if you bought the car new.

I bought the Prius. It was not a cheap car as it was the rage at the time.But with that gift i couldn't pass it up.

 

That's a sweet gift! Thanks for the wrap-up of what happened, that's helpful to know.

 

The best way to measure an older, cheaper car is how long you hope/plan to use it, what is the relative cost of NOT having a car and its depreciation/salvageable value when sold. Repairs and parts cost should be estimated initially but hopefully you won't experience any of it (esp if driving short trips etc) but Prius' are very easy to maintain.

If you had bought the car for $2500 and gotten use out of it for a year (with minimal expenses) then you are probably ahead especially if you then sold it for $1500 to $2000 (or more) but maybe even for scrap/parts around $1000.

 

Total Cost of Ownership is an amorphous term. Many people will drive cars into the ground and not do anything that they can avoid even though it is recommended. Cars are remarkably durable even with abuse. To compare one to another one has to have the same maintenance and driving basis. That is hard to do. These days the salvage value of cars is so high given parts demand that the task is even harder.

 

Many? Many also don't drive their cars into the ground.

Compare one to the other is hard to do? Speak for yourself, it's not hard to do. maybe for you. I can generally get an idea of the condition of the vehicle. Not unlike buying a house.

Salvage value high? You made another statement that insurance companies make more money selling write-offs. You sure make generalized statements. Salvage vehicles from our government insurance are very reasonable, its only when bidders get in over their head bidding on vehicles that write-offs get pricey. Have you ever looked at or bid on salvage write-offs? Didn't think so.

I bought a 2008 Prius write-off from SGI salvage for $1100usd, reserve was $800usd, $200 in body salvage parts and some minor body work and I was on the road. Took Prius on the highway for 500 miles, no CEL other than wheel bearing noise. Mileage 150,000. Maintenance parts, wheel bearings, brake pads, fluids, under $500, doing my own mechanical.

I can gauge my own total cost of ownership, its not amorphous.

 

Glad you can assign your one person’s experience as categorical to all while dissing anyone else with contrary opinion. You should work for the government. Maybe you do.

 

Anecdotal, but I know a few people who swore by the reliability of those Saturns! Sounds like you got a great deal.