Hey all, we are looking to buy into the Prius family, however, at the moment we do not have money to buy new so we are looking at some older used Prius' in the area... Going from a Ford F-150 too so huge change for us. We have found two in the area that we are pretty interested in. A 2008 Prius Touring with 74k miles on it. In the carfax it says it had a battery replace as a year ago. It had one owner and has pretty good service records. The other is a 2012 Prius 2 with 70k miles on it. Once again one owner and had a good record of regular service records. I have read a lot of information about both gens of vehicles from the forums but being so new to the hybrid community it is hard to fully digest it all. I would much rather get the 08 due to hearing about how they seem to be one of the better gens and that the 2012s have a few extra issues... but that isnt a major stopper for us as we have many hybrid autoshops in the area and my husband if given the chance would be under the hood in a heartbeat.. Thanks!
I recently bought an 08 with 175k miles on it. The combination meter has already gone out and it is completely out of any warrrwar service. However, the price was decent for my area. I can't say enough good things about it. Very happy with my purchase. WhatWpackage is the 08? What the battery replacement OEM or was it a refurb? Did the 08 get all of the warranty services (e.g. Combination Meter, Hybrid Water Pump, etc) The 2012 may still be under warranty for the battery and may be the better option.
They are both reliable if you do the necessary maintenance. Both have strong and weak points. Go with what you like best. Gen 3 will be more powerful
The Gen-2 and Gen-3 are very different on the inside. You should drive both. Personally I love the Gen-2 (and have 1). Hate the Gen-3 because of the interior layout (i.e. flying bridge). Also bought a C because it was basically a smaller new Gen-2. If you drive both and honestly don't care either way, then narrow it down by package. A fully loaded 08 will be much nicer than the base 12. And while yes the Gen-3 is "less reliable" than the Gen-2, it's nit-picking for the most part. Coming from a Ford, you'll notice no difference.
