I'm looking into buying my first Prius. It's an 04 with 167k miles for $6,500. The seller did get it inspected and there were some issues. The Blue Book value is around $5,000. I just need some opinions on the types of repairs I'll need and if the car will be worth it. Here's what the inspection said: DESCRIPTION Service Requests" 1- CHECK FOR PURCHASE. CI 002 JLL PREPURCHASE INSPECTION" INSPECT VEHICLE FOR POTENTIAL BUYER. ROAD TEST VEHICLE. INSPECT BRAKE SYSTEM, COOLING SYSTEM, TRANSMISSION SYSTEM, STARTING AND CHARGING_ SYSTEM .... ACCESS ON BOARD COMPUTER, VERIFY ANY CURRENT OR ...... PENDING CODES. FOUND" WIPER BLADES CHATTER. BRAKES ARE GOOD" FRONT AND REAR HAVE 6MM THICKNESS REMAINING. DRIVERS SIDE PASSENGER VENTS PUSHED IN. WINDOW TINT PEELING. FOG LAMP LENS BROKEN. FRONT BUMPER DAMAGE. RIGHT FENDER LINER TORN. DENT ON LOWER RIGHT BELOW DOOR. ACCESS ON BOARD COMPUTER" HAS HISTORY CODES OF B1248 AVC-~LAN COMMUNICATION IMPOSSIBLE. ABS: C0200 FRONT SPEED SENSOR RIGHT CIRCUIT C0205 FRONT SPEED SENSOR LEFT CIRCUIT ; C1241 LOW BATTERY VOLTAGE; U0293 LOSS COMMUNICATION WITH HYBRID CONTROL SYSTEM. AIRBAG" B1653 DRIVERS SEAT POSITION SENSOR; B1655 RIGHT SEAT BUCKLE SWITCH; B1821 OPEN IN SQUIB RIGHT CIRCUIT" B1826 OPEN IN SQUIB LEFT CIRCUIT. A/C" B1421 SOLAR SENSOR CIRCUIT (PASSENGER). CLEAR ALL CODES IN ALL MODULES AND ROAD TEST VEHICLE. B1421 SOLAR SENSOR CIRCUIT CODE RETURNED. TEST HYBRID BATTERY, TESTS FINE AT THIS TIME Thanks in advance for your help! If you need any clarification, let me know. Sincerely, Jack Kennady
I'm going to work with him on the price, but here in Texas, everyone wants a Prius and it's nigh impossible to find another one for under this price. I'm going to work with him on the price. My understanding is that another buyer wanted the car and got it checked out, so the seller ended up with a free inspection. The buyer chose a different car. The codes that are there are what there is a history of. Those codes have popped up in the past, so the garage owner reset all of the codes and then tested them again. The only one that popped up was the solar sensor circuit (which the seller claims was due to the rain that day). Everything else was hunky dory, the battery, everything. The only problems are a past owner ran over a tire and left two small dents to the undercarriage and there's a ding on a door. I really want this car, but I need to know if those problems may pop up again. Can anyone tell me if they will or not?
Jack, If this is the lowest priced Prius that you can find, please understand that there is a reason that it's being priced so low. If you were a Prius technician, you could deal with the problems this car has. Otherwise, you will be faced with having to pay to have it fixed. Unless you are looking for a "project car", this could be a nightmare. You haven't mentioned if you've driven the car or described your impressions, so I and others who have responded have nothing that would cause us to encourage you to buy this car. The best we can do is show you our concern that you may be buying a car that's going to cost a lot more than the selling price.
We do not really have enough info here to say. What you might want to do is first of make sure 12v battery is in good condition and charged up. Just sitting tends to deplete 12v slowly due to SKS smart key system. Then you want to see if you can get 50 MPG after arm up on a 50-55 MPH drive. And see if HV battery SOC charge seems to hold after sitting overnight. Ask about if they got new 12v sometime and any HV battery repairs.
This car does not have a transmission. I wonder what they inspected ??? These items are trivial. They will not affect operation of the car and you can fix them yourself if you care to. Also, all of the '04 fog light lenses crack. The vent cover can be pulled off and replaced if the dash around it is OK. This batch of issues involves critical systems. If true, any one of them could render the car dangerous or unusable. I don't know what the solar sensor is and so cannot comment on it. There are cases where the 12 volt battery gets weak and causes the car to throw all kinds of weird codes. If so putting in a new battery, clearing the codes, and starting it a few times should get rid of it all. If you can't clear those codes don't buy it. It might not get you home before it died, and no shade tree mechanic could fix it. Any chance you can have your own mechanic pull the codes, see if they are really gone, or if the owner was "mistaken" when he said they're all gone?
