I have friends that have a 2013 plug in. There was a mistake where they ended up replacing the Regenerative Break System and then found out the head gasket was blown. They wouldn't have done the break repair if they had known about the other. They have now put $9000 into the car. It also has 2 new front tires. Their last Prius went well over 300K and I have a 2008 that is at 210K. Would this be a good bet at $9K?
IMHO; NO, if you don't wrench on cars and need to pay someone else to do the work. There's also the low tension rings that cause excessive oil burn, that's why people here say to clean out the EGR every 50K-75K miles. The gen3's are problematic, unlike the earlier and later generation Prius, as your friend has found out..
a new regen breaking system (whatever that is, transaxle?) isn't worth much since they rarely wear out or break. here is a comparable for you:2012-prius-plug-in-houston-tx-area.258540
I am confused, and have a few questions: Did they get the head gasket fixed? Can you clarify what parts of the braking system were replaced? Now they are willing to sell it to you for the price of the recent repairs? What is the mileage? If they replaced the brake accumulator as well as a head gasket job that is two out of the three major things that plague this generation. The third item is the hybrid battery, which on a plug-in has a low rate of failure. Others will disagree, but with all three of these taken care of at this point, I would say that it would be a fairly reliable car at this point. Given that you are in Georgia you will not have frame rust issues, and if the car is in otherwise good shape it could be worth it if they went down to $8000 or $7000. Especially if you can turn a wrench.
