Ive got a 2008 Prius with 175k miles on it. I bought it last June for $5000. In March I had to replace the hybrid battery with a refurbished one for $1300 and today I had to pay $856 for a new inverter water pump when the triangle of death and check engine light with the code P0A93 came up. I'm asking if I should keep it or sell it because Ive already fixed 2/3 major issues with Hybrids and thinking I should cut my losses before the brake actuator goes out as well. Any suggestions or advice would be awesome.
let god decide, toss a penny up in heaven if it lands in you palm heads up, keep it otherwise sell it nobody knows when the brake actuator will fail, same with your HV battery.Most of the repairs on the Prius can be DIY, if you're mechanically inclined or just want some adventure then you can keep it but if you are letting shops do the repairs for you then sell it. I sold 2 high mileage (240k+) to my friend and they're still working and running better with oil changes and brake replacement recently. That pump repair if DIY will not cost you over $200 honestly. $114 (in amazon) for an Aisin pump, you could also buy $30 Chinesium if you want to spice up your repairs and a jug of pink coolant ($30)
At what you're shelling out for parts and replacements you should immediately go buy a new car with a payment maybe if you're paying $856 for an inverter pump and three screws and two hose fittings that's well to me is a pretty good joke but some people can't and I understand that. So if you're one of these people that cannot do and have no desire or want to do and are going to pay these prices well you're right along there with the people. I don't know man that's terrible so then you're going to be paying for this old car $20,000 to drive it 50,000 miles That's a horrible return on investment but it's typical today. So if getting your hands dirty and undoing some silver bolts with a wrench and a socket and things like that are completely not going to happen then these are the kind of things you're going to pay and be up against. My daughter can do this stuff generally she won't but she can if she was completely stuck. Of course you'll have her boyfriend do it but still she knows how and to me that's important what you do with that knowledge of how is your business.
yeah, if i still lived by my family with my dad and brother around they couldve fixed it easily. I live alone down here and definitely not mechanically inclined. One of my co workers did say that he could fix the brake actuator for me if it went bad and then id have to take it somewhere to bleed the brakes (probably toyota). Im just waiting for the actuator to go at this point and it really bums me out because I love my prius, I dont want to go car shopping in South Florida alone lol
Unfortunately the Prius at this age needs some DIY otherwise is not a good financial decision to keep it. For example the inverter pump would be $100 and 2 hours DIY. Or replacing two control arms would cost $150 parts and 4 hours DIY while the dealer is asking $1700. Expect one or two repairs like that a year. But $300 parts and DIY every year is completely different financially than paying the dealer $2500 a year.
If its a clean straight car with no obvious big issues today, you could easily recoup all your money right now. When gas drops to $2.50 it will be worth less, maybe less than you paid. That $1300 battery may fail in a year or two as well. The real issue is what can you buy to replace it. If Prius is it you need to jump to 2016 or newer excluding the 2016-17 Prius v wagon. I would go Camry or Corolla excluding these models and years: Toyota Oil Burners 2007-2011 Toyota Camry HV (Hybrid) 2007-09 Toyota Camry 2.4L (07 Camry is the worst, best 13-15) 2009 Toyota Corolla 2009 Toyota Matrix 2006-10 Toyota RAV4 2007-08 Toyota Solara 2007-09 Scion tC 2008-09 Scion xB 2010-14 Prius 1.8L 2005 Avalon V6 (vvti gear) 2007-10 Sienna (vvti gear)
