Hey all, I'm looking to buy a CLEAN TITLE 2012 Prius 4 with 250k miles on it. It had an odometer rollback for 100k miles. The owner replaced the hybrid battery with one from Japan that had 30k miles on it and passed smog today. It was initially priced at $8k and I told him my budget was $7.3k and he willingly said yes. Any thoughts on this?
Bit confused; so does the car have 250K on it or 350K on the engine? Does the owner have dated receipts for everything? You should run a CarFax on it; just in case.3nd gens are know to pop head-gaskets; mostly noticeable on cold start mornings. If the engine is warmed-up the seepage will usually seal itself up. IMHO; with that kind of mileage; I'd ask for another 3K discount for incidentals; in case the wheels fall off. And I know how to fix cars. If you don't; I wouldn't buy it.
The car has 250k miles on it. He has receipts for a Japanese engine installed in 2021 with 31k miles on that one. He also has smog papers from this morning a s well.
Head gasket or engine, brake booster, inverter, egr clogging, liquids in the intake- all very common in a 2010-14 Prius making the car less reliable. I have never heard of a used battery from Japan - sounds fishy. A used/reconditioned battery from here but originally new in Japan - very common and not reliable. Other than poor reliability and close to $10k in future costs its an acceptable car. Don't buy it thinking you will save money.
I'm with @rjparker. Get that car if you want to say you own a Prius. Get a younger one if you want to save money.
