I'm checking out a couple of 3rd gens soon and I've been reading as much as I can about used Priuses....but it's an overwhelming amount of new terms and technology despite my backyard card mechanic knowledge! Anyways theres a 2010 Prius V with 97K miles I'm most interested. So I guess the main questions I'm wondering for now are: What are some readings/symbols in the dash to look out for when test driving? Is there anywhere to see some stats on how long the HV batteries are lasting before needing to be replaced? ( I can't find a poll or any data other than just a few select cases) Regardless of the HV battery, how is the overall reliability of the 3rd gens? From what I've read they're pretty reliable, but I'm cautious because there's so many much technology and additional parts compared to a regular ICE engine that it seems it would be prone to breaking just by shear number of components. Thanks for the help! I'll keep reading as much as I can but again it's a lot to sift through and digest, and I might purchase one soon so I need to get to the meat and potatoes for now.
You'd better check again. AFAIK the Prius v did not come out in the US until late 2011 for the 2012 model year. If you have the VIN you can log on to the Toyota Owners site and get dealer maintenance history (if any), manuals, etc... Toyota Owners Official Web Site
He said "Prius V," not "Prius v." Toyota brought the fine art of obfuscation to new heights with the Prius naming "system." 2010 Toyota Prius Trim Levels Will Be Confusing GREAT tip on the Toyota site, by the way!
Haha yeah I think I triple checked the correct form of "V" when I posted so I wouldn't make it more confusing....not the smartest move on Toyota's part but at least their cars are good
At the outset of your test drive, push the display button on the steering wheel: Until you're seeing the Hybrid System Indicator: And then the Trip button on steering wheel: As needed, until the display along the bottom of HSI looks kinda like the above, ie: TRIP A, and CONS values are displayed. Then press-and-hold the (steering wheel) trip button, until TRIP A goes to zero. Now you'll be able to see (roughly, with slightly inflated values, due to Toyota's BS factor) your mpg for the duration of the test drive. At least as important: watch the (hybrid) battery state of charge indicator (item #1 in HSI image above). A healthy battery, driving on city streets in a mix of conditions, should show around 1/2 to 3/4 charge. If you happen to encounter a lot of "tooling around a parking lot" type driving though: the charge may drop down, bottoming out at two bars when the engine will force-run, till it at least gets back up to 3 bars. But around town or highway driving, it should settle in around 3/4 charge, at least. And: if there's any ups and downs, it should be gradual; any sudden changes might be indicative of a battery with problems. When you get back, see how you're doing for mpg. If it was an extended drive, with the engine fully warmed, and you took it easy, somewhere around 45 mpg or better would be good. This car has the 17" tires right? That'll "blunt" the mpg performance slightly. And bear in mind: this is a test drive, not ideal conditions.
For the battery make sure it doesn't charge and discharge too quickly. Unfortunately it's kind of hard to tell what too quickly is if you aren't used to a Prius, so pay close attention to Mendel's advice above. Basically you should not be going from 2 bars up to 7 and back down again more than once in a test drive unless it's really long and all at low speeds where you're on EV. When they're dying apparently they go empty to full and back again really quickly. Also, don't be alarmed if the battery is never showing "full" (in fact that's a good thing). The car keeps it at about 6 bars as much as possible for longevity. For reference, my 2012 will generally empty its battery from 6-7 bars in 1 to 1.5 miles of low speed EV operation.
Yeah, to clarify: "tooling around a parking lot" is one condition where the car will willingly stay in electric-only, and can run the charge down pretty fast. It's by design, can be a little concerning but is normal. The car is always looking for opportunities to run electric-only, but can be kinda dumb about it: doesn't really know how long the electric-only conditions will persists, so will occasionally run the battery down to two bars. For the test drive, I would just try to start up and get going, do a mix of driving conditions.
Also worth noting is that heavy AC use can really drain the battery quickly. The idle current draw on the battery is usually about 2-3 amps, if the car is really hot inside on a hot day (been parked out in the sun) the AC can pull up to an additional 10 amps or so, so the battery will drain faster. Also the battery temp will be higher and it may not want to go to EV mode as much. All of that to say, if your battery drains fast there could be good reasons for it. If it recharges fast too, then you might should be concerned. The best test as stated above will be if you can get it up above parking lot speeds, maybe at least 40-45 mph and let the car operate normally.
Well, the dealer still had the car online and I didn't want to look desperate so I didn't call to make sure. I got there and the car was gone. Oh well just have to keep looking and be patient now. Thanks for all the help so far.
In a couple of years we'll start seeing the failed battery battery posts for the 2010s. There are too many variables that affect longevity so one can't predict a failure. In CARB states the warranty is 10 years/150,000 miles. Toyota doesn't replace very many batteries under warranty. How long will the engine last in any car? How low does the estimate fall when the oil isn't checked or changed? When looking at the cars check all the things that you'd look at on every car. Pull the stuff out from under the deck and look for evidence of leaks. You may not get floor and deck mats but the retractable cover was standard. Make sure you get two working fobs. 2010 was a long production year and features were added in two steps through Fall 2009 so a V may not have the USB port in the armrest and the Safety Connect panel by the mirror.
Alright so I test drove a 2010 III with 133,000 miles today. I reset the trip at the beginning of the test drive so from a cold engine and 10 miles of mostly highway and I think it was at 40mpg (maybe it was 45 mpg I don't know how I forgot this). Also as soon as I start the test drive the battery went down from about half way to 2-3 bars but then it steadily built up to 6 bars over about 10 minutes. I'm guessing because it was sitting and not warmed up before the test drive.Then I reset again and drove about 5 miles through the city. Maybe because the car was warmed up at this point but the mpg ended up showing about 49-50 most of the time. The battery also added another bar and held that charge level consistent through the rest of the trip. I know it's limited information, but what are your all's thoughts? To me as a non-prius owner, those charging levels seemed normal, smooth and consistent other than the initial quick drain and then quick charge back up to 3-4 bars but my guess is that's also normal. The lower mpg on the first run up the highway I'm not too sure about but it could be due to the engine still warming up and sitting in a parking lot for awhile. My instinct tells me its a good car. It's had 3 owners, all for a little over 2 years in Maryland (not too hot up there) and the car is in excellent condition in the interior which makes me think all owners were probably good to the car overall when they owned it. Even the engine bay had not been cleaned by the dealer and was a very very clean...but that also seems like the norm for a Prius from what I've been seeing online. Anyways unless your all's spidey senses go off I'll probably make an offer in the morning on the car.
That sounds good. For lack of more smarts, I tend to rely a lot on little things, like for example: your observation that the engine bay does NOT appear to be professionally detailed, and yet looks pretty good. I like that, says to me that previous owners, or at least the last, tended to pop the hood regularly, keep on top of it. That sounds like a reasonable behaving engine and hybrid battery too. Good luck with your offer!
Sounds like it's operating normally. The lowest couple of bars go and comeback quicker because the battery gauge is non linear. If it held 6-7 for most of the drive once it got there you're good. MPG sounds pretty good too.
Sounds good. It's typical for the battery to drop initially as it's helping the cold engine not strain itself. It does it even more on a hot day when the A/C is on full blast. Then mileage will stay low for a little bit because, when the engine warms up enough to not need help from the battery, it's payback time and it has to recharge the battery. Once the battery is back up to where the computer wants it and the engine is at normal temperatures, then you start getting the famous Prius mpg numbers. Before that, it's still better than a cold gasser, but not impressive.
