Civic stolen - What next? - Plug in Prius

[Xist]

I do not think that I have ever seen a rebuilt title on Craigslist for less than KBB. People are crazy.

One Prius battery may have lasted 600,000 miles, but this guy's died after 70,000: Prius hybrid battery fails at 70K miles, Toyota won't pay for $3700 repair | Copywriting and Marketing Ninja Skills

I imagine that more Prius batteries die under warranty than last 600,000 miles.

Fixing a bad battery is not always expensive. This guy took care of it for $7 and an hour of his time, but I never heard of this particular problem: Ha! Suck it! You work again you freakin golf cart!

[j12piprius]

Originally Posted by Xist

Fixing a bad battery is not always expensive. This guy took care of it for $7 and an hour of his time

That's awesome. Toyota reported the battery was dead and wanted $4457 to replace it The owner decided instead to replace failing cells on his own, but testing of individual modules showed normal voltages. He cleaned the severely corroded copper connectors, the error codes disappeared, and the battery pack was now fine.

[j12piprius]

I'll be traveling to look at 2006 and 2009 Prius' in a couple of days.

What should my process be to inspect them, and what all should I check for?

My plan is to look over the car first, then drive it, see how it turns, accelerates, and how the bars change. I've never been inside a Prius and don't know how the display works, nor how to check for things. After that my plan is to look under the hood, and see if there's any evidence of wear or leaking. I'm not sure how to apply load to the battery and check that. Suggestions are much appreciated. Thanks.

[Ecky]

The display is a touchscreen in the center console. If I remember correctly, you tap the "display" button to the side of the screen until you're in the mode where it displays fuel economy and battery, and from there you use on-screen buttons to reset the counter or switch between consumption and energy flow views.




Stomping it off the line a few times should put some load on the battery, it relies on it for most low-speed acceleration. It's hard to have a sense for how quickly it should drain, but I expect that if you accelerate hard and are heavy on the regen a few times and you don't get a christmas tree on the dash, you're probably ok.

[j12piprius]

I'm reconsidering my choices, and might postphone my trip to Monday. I'd rather not rush into this and make a mistake. The 2006 and 2009 Prii with 206k and 160k miles respectively are similar. The 2006 appears to have nicer condition. The prices are good, but they only get ~45 mpg, are becoming dated, and might not be the best choices.

The 2012 salvage PIP appears a better choice to me but the price is too high. The EVSE is included, plus a spare tire and updated jack.

Originally Posted by redpoint5

The fact that it's been driven for years since the repair speaks to the likelihood of having future problems.

I normally value a rebuilt titled vehicle at 70% of the clean title price.

Are you saying the 45k driven should indicate less future problems?

The seller paid $13k in 2013 (when car was 1 year old), then made the repairs, including hood replacement. They have several newer salvage cars now and need to sell this one for more space.

A price of $8k or less would make this car more attractive.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by j99civic

Are you saying the 45k driven should indicate less future problems?

The seller paid $13k in 2013 (when car was 1 year old), then made the repairs, including hood replacement.

Yes, I'm saying that all the miles driven since the repairs indicates a certain level of reliability. I know in the Portland area, the fact that a car has a branded title doesn't seem to slow the buyers down too much. My friend just bought a 2010 with rebuilt title and paid close to KBB price.

Never hurts to lowball the asking price. You're only competing against other buyers, and it's a waiting game of how long the buyer wants to hold onto the vehicle.

As a point of reference, I bought my Prius in Jan 2015 with repairs already made for $13k. It did not come with EVSE or even the correct keyfobs, but I was able to locate the original owner by looking up the address by pressing the "home" button on the nav. I've got 2 original fobs and the EVSE now, though I primarily charge using a modified Leaf L2 EVSE.

[vskid3]

Originally Posted by j99civic

The 2006 and 2009 Prii with 206k and 160k miles respectively are similar. The 2006 appears to have nicer condition. The prices are good, but they only get ~45 mpg

To be fair, 45mpg is what you'd expect out of a Prius with the average person driving it. With a little effort, 50-55mpg or more isn't out of the question in most situations. I still get over 40mpg doing 75-80mph with cruise control.

[j12piprius]

Originally Posted by vskid3

To be fair, 45mpg is what you'd expect out of a Prius with the average person driving it. With a little effort, 50-55mpg or more isn't out of the question in most situations. I still get over 40mpg doing 75-80mph with cruise control.

Yes, good points. I've quickly reconsidered. My updated plan is to see the 2009 and 2006 Prius' this coming Monday, and hopefully to be driving one back.

[j12piprius]

Today's the big day. I'm going to see the 2009, the 2006, and am going to try and add the 2012 pip just in case. After scouring the prius chat forums, the battery pack has me extremely nervous, primarily that all the modules are 12+ years of age, and replacing them one by one (or the whole pack for $1600) could be tiresome, and add cost. On the plus side the 2006 would give me plenty to work on and learn about. I'd probably have the car only a couple of years at the most, and then could move up to another.

The pip would be higher cost at the start, but could possibly last for another 10 to 15 years, which is major. It's a tossup between one of the gen2's and the pip at this point. The most I've paid for a car was $5501 for a 4 year old chevy in 1993, which would be about $10k today? Once I see one of the cars and move to the next one, the distance means I won't be going back and will have to count on the next one. Departure time's in 2 hours. I'm excited, and also quite nervous, like I'd be running a big race.

[j12piprius]

I'm back, with the 2012 Plug in Prius. The previous owner is quite a nice, helpful fellow, knew exactly what to do, and took excellent care of the car. The display was only 51 mpg for the 150 mile trip coming home, but at a pretty good speed so that's okay. The car is quite smooth and I like it, but I'm definitely not used to driving it yet. Thank you all for your helpful comments that helped me to sort through the choices.