I am looking at a 2007 Prius that has about 43K miles on it and in the carfax report says that it had it's battery replaced at around 34K. On one hand it makes me think that it might be ideal as the battery is newer than it would be otherwise and any problem was discovered prior to me. On the other hand, I am wondering if it should make me nervous about this particular vehicle and whether it could potentially be a red flag. The car fax report shows the history impact as below market and not sure if it is because of that, or because of 2 owners (one for 3 yrs, one for 1yr). Let me know your thoughts.
Does it specify which battery? If it was the 12 volt battery then I wouldn't worry and view the newer battery as a plus, if the hybrid pack needed to be replaced that would give me pause. I'd wonder what caused it to fail... Judging by the low mileage there's a good chance that the car went for extended periods without being driven, that could have sapped the 12 volt battery to the point that it needed to be replaced. Nothing unusual there... How's that for a non-answer?
Even though it was replaced at only 34k miles? I wonder if they found out why the battery died prematurely. That would be my concern, that it may happen again if the problem was not fully corrected.
I struggle to think of a good reason for a pack failure to indicate a problem with something other than the pack itself. A battery control module issue is a possibility, but it is likely that it would have been replaced with the battery. It isn't unheard of for a car to come from the factory with a bad pack. I think that is the most likely culprit.
coincidentally, someone here just traded in a gen II with low miles and a relaced battery pack for a ne gen III. dealer gave him 17 grand for it too. premature failure he said and nothing wrong with the rest of the car.
