Advice needed on buying a 10 yr old hybrid
 

I'm looking at a "new to me" used car, and am willing to pay ~ $10,000 for it.

My usual rule of thumb is that any used car will need an immediate $1,000 in maintenance or repairs before use.

These days, there are Toyota Prius's that are getting into my price range. Does anyone have advice or observations on entering this market?

Mark

About a year ago I picked up my 2004 Prius for $9k with 90k miles. It needed a front wheel bearing this fall, cost me $120 all said and done. My previous 2004 Prius (that got totaled from someone pulling out in front of me) had a few more miles on it, but never needed any work. I wouldn't hesitate picking up another one if I was in the market for a car.

Are you set on a Prius or just a hybrid in general? If you have it narrowed down to a couple, sign up on a forum that is for that car (e.g. priuschat) and ask them for things to look for in buying one. You can do the same for the insight as well. Of course, do the same here or even PM people.

I like planning ahead for maintenance and getting the car upto snuff. I've never spent $1000 on it though. Is that just a worst case scenario number?

Kelley Blue Book

2004 was the first year of the gen 2 body style, if you go with a first gen Prius you can get one for $3,000 or less, go with a 2004 and the blue book value ranges from $4,300 to $5,300, well within your budget.

Look for poor gas mileage, brake rotors that are rusty from lack of use and of course other things you'll find on any 10 year old car.
Test drive a bunch of them before buying one, you might even start out at a dealer looking at used just to get a feel for what they should drive like if everything is working right.

I'm not tied to a Prius, though I like the installed base they've built up.

The $1,000 number has a certain logic behind it: there's a reason a given car is being put on sale; when the PO's repair costs start going up, the car starts heading for the market. Things like tires and timing belts often show up on the to-do list quickly after purchase. These days, either of those is getting towards a grand. (Yeah yeah, your kid brother will put new rubber on your car for $225...) :)

MF

$10k will buy a heck of a hybrid. I'm in the market for a gen3 Prius, and don't plan to spend more than $15k. I'd like to get one with a branded title, which seems to be the only kind that Craigslist has. I'm starting to rethink this though, because people are selling salvaged vehicles for 80% of KBB value. This seems crazy to me considering the warranty is voided when the title goes to salvage. I'll pay as much as 70% of KBB value, but no more.

For this reason, I just might buy a non-salvage Prius. With my self-imposed $15k limit, that narrows things down to the 2010 model year without too many extra options.

It seems the retail pricing is not terribly higher than private party for used Prii. All other vehicles maintain a wide price difference, but for some reason the Prius is often only $1k more expensive from the Stealership. You might even talk them down to private party price.

For your budget, I'd look at 2006 or newer Prii. I'd go for a package 5 in the 2006, or a package 3 in the 2007 and newer. Toyota shuffled the packages in 2007, making a package 3 equivalent to a 2006 package 5, which includes bluetooth, homelink, auto dimming mirror, and rear view camera.

$10,000 will get you a good Prius that shouldn't require any repairs to get it usable. I got my certified preowned '05 with 85k miles this summer for a little less than that.
Just depends on the car and how picky/knowledgeable you are. Sometimes its fixing stuff that the previous owner just lived with or didn't even know about.

$1000 is a good minimum "emergency fund" to have with a hybrid that is out of warranty, more if you're going to be relying on the dealer to fix any issues that come up. Pretty much any of the major parts like the engine, tranny, inverter, and battery can be bought used or repaired for under $1000 and aren't as difficult to replace as you would think. However, any of those repairs would easily cost you $3000 or more at the dealer.

My '03 Civic Hybrid was less than $5500, no trades. I found some Gen1 Prii in the same range, GenII about $6500-7500 depending on condition.

Be advised that Honda hybrids of this vintage are experiencing battery pack issues, you may want to budget some money for a grid charger or a new pack ($500 vs $2000-3000).

Is the OP still around? Helloooo! Cooeee! What did you wind up with?