I'm very close to buying a 2001 Prius with 97k miles on it in California for $7200. The dealer told us he just installed a re-built battery. We are planning to take the car to a Toyota dealership for a pre-buy inspection before we sign the papers but wanted to get people's assessment if buying a used Prius with a re-built battery seems like a solid investment. We're hoping to drive this car for at least a couple of years and plan to use it mostly for commuting - somewhere in the 10k/year range. It looks like several folks have had success with re-built batteries... just wanted to get some feedback before we sink a few thousand dollars in this. Any thoughts?
Should also mention that this car has a clean title on CarFax but we did a little googling and saw that it was sold at a salvage auction several months ago for around $1k. We are guessing that it was a trade-in with a failed battery. The dealership that we are considering purchase from specializes in Priuses and has about 20 or so on the lot, each with re-built batteries.
$7200 is pretty high for an '01, rebuilt battery or no. Typical sale price is $5000-$6000. 'course it all depends on the availability of used Prii in your area. The other major component that can fail is the transaxle (transmission). If you go through with this transaction, have the seller pay for a transaxle fluid change.
