Hi I want to start out saying I have an 09 pkg 6 that I am very pleased with and thanks to many posts I have read here I am confident in buying an older 05 but I have some questions that I thought I would ask. (at bottom) The 05 I am interested in has 107k and is a two owner, first owner drove it to 85k and sold it last may, second owner drove it 22k in 6 months! Carfax shows oil change intervals every 3 k since new and no outstanding recalls listed on toyotas site. Car is very clean inside and out for a 7 year old. Options are nav/blutooth/hid/airbags. I drove the car and it didnt feel any different than my 09 with 42k so thats good. Things it noticed, 12v batt had positive orange cover not in place suggesting they had to jump or charge the 12v HV batt was at 2 bars when I started my drive but went up to normal range after a short drive. I planned to stop at a toyota dealer to see if they could look up and check that the ATF was changed at the 60k interval tomorrow. with all that said I see the differences in nav resolution on the MFD not and the burgandy dash parts.. not an issue but I read that the body is "stiffer" on the 06 and up, can this be replicated and also anything I should be on the look out for? Thanks again Chuck
sometimes when you are used to a certain feature its hard to live with out it, I think I'd die if I lost my DVR. So can you live without tpms, rear camera, aux input?? If so go for it, no car is perfect, and if you think manufacturer's always improve their cars year to year think again, the 07+ is more likely to get condensation in the headlamp housing than the 04-06. Most people believe you never buy the first year, in the case of the gen II that would be the 04, as it takes a year or two to work our all the kinks. And towards the end of the model generation it is possible that auto manufacturers try to figure out what is over engineered and therefor what corners can be cut back a little to save money. All this may or not be true, and it may or may not be true with toyota. But if you follow that logic than the 05 and 06 are the way to go. We've got both and 04 and 05 with nary a problem but then again we only drive them 13K miles a year. And yes there is some evidence that the car you are interested in has sat awhile, but I bought my 04 from an old lady who had put less than 1K miles in her year of ownership and the car has given me no fuss at all, it just took a week to get that car up to my mpg standards. you can stiffen the front of the car with a strut tower brace, the car probably needs new spark plugs and PCV valve, the strut tower brace is easily added during this lengthy procedure. And you can stiffen the rear of the car with a Prius plate. this is a simple lift, remove and replace from underneath the rear.
one other thing, as regards to style, it has always been my belief to buy early in the model year, after all my 04 and 05 looks just like your 09 but were significantly cheaper to buy used, whereas your 09 was just a little cheaper than the newly redesigned 2010 model.
thanks for the feedback, actually the 1 st owner of this car had added an aux input, usb plug and even rain sensing wipers! cloth interior is wear free on the drivers seat which is amazing as my leather seat left bolster has lost some of the grey coating and its only a few years old. Did toyota add stiffeners to the 06 and up that the 04-05 dont have? Chuck
To give you a little more data, I owned a 2008 and a 2005 at the same time. To me, they both drove the same. I sold the 2008, kept the 2005 and installed the BT plate and strut bar. Couldn't be happier. I also installed the backup camera and AUX inputs. Best car I've ever had. Love it. Oh, one more piece of data (which is really good looking at the facts), The 2008 had 30k miles, and the 2005 had 150k miles, they both drove identical. And that says alot about the quality of these little cars IMO.
