TLDR I'm looking for advice on what gen/year/mileage Prius I should focus on when looking for a used car to spend between $7k and $10k. I'm in the SF Bay Area in California. Full Story: My mom's ~20 year old Tundra died after going 240k miles with her doing barely any maintenance, and now I'm looking for a replacement car for her. She loved the pickup but it was too big for parking in SF and her eyesight is getting worse so she was having issues seeing other cars and while backing up. I was originally looking for a RAV4 but I think a good one is outside of my price range, and I'd like something a bit newer, with a backup camera, and great gas mileage. I drive a Gen2 Prius and I think it's great, she also says she likes it and that she'll drive anything. Corollas are cheaper, but I think a little too small, and the mpg and storage capacity of the Prius seems hard to beat at the lower price point. I'm trying to find the sweet spot in my price range for a solid car that won't give her trouble and won't be too expensive to maintain. Thanks in advance for your help!
I too am looking for gen3 so I learned to look for years 2013-2015 but in reality 2013 and 2015 is a priority. For your mom, I would get the advanced technology with the cross traffic warning and lane passing. My dad uses that tech in his Avalon and it's so helpful for his age. I would also get at least 130k miles as I am skeptical of anything lower. I don't know how I am going to find a car since I am picky about a car's stay in the parking lot. Hey, sidenote. How did you start a threat in main forum? I can't figure it out lol
go to the main forum and click the 'start a new thread' button at the top right. with a 7-10k budget, i'd stick with a gasser.
I’d be cautious with any third gen for sale, with over 100k; they could be trying to unload a head gasket failure, with possible gasket sealer poured in, which only compounds the problem. If you’re street parking research catalytic converter converter theft.
click on the 'forums' tab at the top left of the home page, scroll down to 'gen 3 main forum', click on that, and then there's a rectangular blue button at the top right that says 'post new thread'
2004 through 2009 Model Years (Not manufacture dates). Avoid all else. Less than 100K (preferably less), unless there's proof the oil was changed every 6 months or every 5,000 miles (whichever would be more frequent). If they have the proof, then even 200K miles should be fine. Just don't buy a 100K miles or more Prius that the owner did oil changes only once a year or every 10,000 miles, since at about 180K miles the cylinders will be scored and pitted to the point you'll need another engine or you'll be chugging oil and ruining catalytic converters. Must have and OEM Toyota HV battery. I wouldn't trust one with an aftermarket HV battery unless maybe one from NewPriusBatteries.com | Home or Upgrade your hybrid (projectlithium.com). If the battery is getting close to being 15 years old, which if original will be doing so, I'd take that out of the price budget of the car. In other words, find out what your dealer would charge to install a new battery (unless you don't mind the DIY nature of the two I mentioned above), and figure on paying that for when your battery dies at 12 to 15 years old. Other than that, just make sure to get an independent mechanic to do a pre-purchase inspection.
[ I clicked on gen 3 main forum but there is no retangular blue button at top right that says Post New Thread anywhere, It only allows me to post NEW CONVERSATION but i have to add participant
I see it now. there are left tabs where it says Gen 3 then there in the main body I found Gen 3 then I clicked on it and found GEN 3 MAIN FORUM QUESTIONS then it finally says START A NEW THREAD lol it was confusing instructions since in the main body of the home page of Forums you can also find Gen 3 discussions. This interface is most def a process, I can clean my filter for my battery but can't use this website lol it's like old school AOL.
When they are both young, a Corolla is slightly more expensive to maintain than a Prius. When they get old, the cost of maintaining the Prius goes way up, but the Corolla stays pretty low. Keep that in mind.
Looking at Edmund's TCO, a new, non-hybrid 2023 LE Corolla sedan vs a new 2023 LE Prius ends up being about $2,000 less to own over 5 years, probably because it costs some $7,500. The farthest back I can go with a Prius and Corolla on Edmund's TCO is 2017, which a 2017 LE Corolla and a 2017 One Prius actually cost about the same according to Edmunds, apparently because the increased initial cost (more depreciation) and slightly higher maintenance on an older Prius will counteract any savings from fuel economy. But then you get one like my $300 2006 Prius that needs a new HV battery and maybe a new expensive brake actuator. Those are things a non-hybird is not going to ever need replaced.
Thanks Isaac, this info really helps. I saw some gen3 options in my price range, but after reading about head gasket failures in this forum I was thinking that sticking with gen2 might be more appropriate for my price range. Thanks especially for the details about the mileage and oil changes and the battery, I have been checking service records using the carfax app and this helps me have a bit more context for what to consider and what to ask the seller. My plan has always been to get a pre-purchase inspection, but I'm a bit worried about the timing of scheduling it because of how fast cars are getting sold these days; the last three cars I was willing to buy after reviewing the service history all sold before I could even set up a test drive. Some of the reputable dealerships around here have a return policy that would allow me to buy and then get it inspected during the return window, but otherwise I guess I just have to take the risk of another buyer coming in before I can get the inspection scheduled?
The problem here is that a 5 year cost of ownership analysis doesn't tell you anything about year 15, and nobody is putting that much attention on the oldest cars because (until quite recently) there was no money in them.
My condolences. We are in perhaps the worst time to buy a car, especially a used car, in the last several decades. I do not suggest waiting a year or two either since this is probably going to last for several years, if not several decades. My own plan is that when I truly need a car, to take a look at the used car market and see if I can make something work out for a price I'm willing to pay. I definitely am against getting a non-inspected car, and having two friends who have bought fairly new used cars and had the transmission just die into a $6,000 and $9,000 repair respectively (a Nissan and a Ford) there are a lot of used cars I am just not at all interested in, any car I will consider must have full proof of a perfect maintenance history, and it must be a price I'm willing to pay for what I'm getting. Some have mentioned a used BMW i3, but I need to research them more, because I don't want something that will cost me $15,000 only to end up needing a $9,000 repair bill after it leaves us stranded in the middle of a blizzard on a mountain pass because the HV battery is shot or something like that. Otherwise my car will be a new Nissan Versa, that is, if they are still around by the time I need another car. $15,000 is about as far as I can budget for a car, and a base Nissan Versa just barely fits. Plus it's a stick shift, so that's a plus in my book, albeit not as good of fuel mileage without some serious hypermiling. If none of that works, then I'm going back to air cooled VW's, since those are the type of car that I can rebuild the entire engine for under $1,000 and all within a couple of weekends. I hate the idea of putting my family into something that is unsafe and pollutes worse than the rest of the cars in my neighborhood combined. But I don't see much of a choice. Exactly, which is why I added my 2006 Prius. TBH, I kind of feel that buying a used Prius is a bad idea overall. If a person really wants one, then fine. But they could end up like me, with a big driveway ornament that needs to be hauled off to the scrap yard.
