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I realize I'm late to the party, but I have a few things to add.
$2900 for a car of that mileage is high.
I've recently had transactions on 06 and 08 models here in the Phoenix area for around $4300 from original owners with 120-130K miles on them.
I deal with different Prius owners on a weekly basis and have a lot of exposure to their battery and overall reliability. Here's what I tell friends and family:
Regardless of the deal you get, are you okay with spending another $2000 on it the day after you buy it? If yes, then buy.
If no, I then extend the time frame to 90 days, 6 months and 1 year to find their comfort level. Then I go into the following:
The Prius is a fantastically reliable car. It is also substantially more complex than ICE-only with multiple EXPENSIVE additional failure points. If you're okay with additional potential failures that will either involve thousands of dollars in repairs or several hundred dollars and a lot of hard work, then a used Prius is a good idea.
I talk to a good number of people that have owned their 150K+ mile prius for less than a year and are already dealing with a major failure.
The worst so far was just a few weeks ago - a family that bought a 210K mile prius that had a transaxle failure after just two months. If you can replace a transaxle yourself, it's only $500-700 salvage. As most can't, your best option is a reputable independent shop that will source a salvage one for you and install for about $2000. They paid $2600 for the car.
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