Efficient, cheap beaters! Used car ads: 35 mpg highway or more for $1500 or less

[Xist]

Members still post cars for sale that are close because of course we can get at least 35 MPG with them.

I am tempted to buy a 2008 Prius. The seller claims it has 18,700 miles.

187,000?

Does it matter? They also say the engine is blown.

How much does it cost to replace that little thing?

They say that everything else works. "Two batteries alone are super expensive."

It would make a great trailer!

By that I mean that I could haul it to the valley and sell the exhaust system and other parts.

They are asking $1,000 or best offer.

By the way, welcome to the site!

What brought you here?

[Drifter]

My shop would charge me about $2000 to swap in a used engine (engine itself is probably $750 from a big dismantler). At $1,000 you couldn't go wrong parting it out - you could easily get half that for your catalytic converter.

But I would generally advise a random person against buying a random 10+ year old Prius off the internet because there are a number of potential problems that can cost as much as the car if you take it to the "wrong" shop.

The exceptions:

1) You buy a mechanic's special with the intention of fixing & selling it for substantially more than your total investment.

2) You drive at least 15K miles/year AND one of the following

• are capable of doing substantial electrical/mechanical work yourself
• you have a good reputable Prius-specialist repair shop and the financial capacity to weather repeated $2,000 repairs without worry.

Even with a number of potential $2,000 repair bills lurking (priced from good/reputable Prius shops), an old Prius can still be an economical commuter because it is so thrifty on gas.

Gen2 is more reliable than the Gen 3 (2010-2015), but Gen 3 gets ~8% better gas mileage. A well-driven Honda Civic or Toyota Echo, which are much simpler to repair, could come pretty close to matching a Gen2's mpg unless you do a lot of idling with A/C on.


In about 4 years & 60,000 miles my used 2010 Prius has needed:

headgasket replacement @ 128,000 miles ($2050 including new plugs & cleaned manifold/egr)
EGR replacement @ 135,000 miles ($0 under California's extended emissions warranty)
Hybrid battery replacement @ ~155,000 miles ($2200 for new Chinese cells)
Hybrid battery replacement @ ~ 180,000 miles ($200 labor, battery was covered under 5 year warranty)

More normal maintenance:
13 5K PMs (oil change, tire rotations, etc) $70/ea =$910
1 set of tires @ 155K $350
1 12V battery replacement @ ~185K miles $160
5 sets Sylvania H11 bulbs (they only last 160 hours!) @ $30 = $150
Toyota hatch struts @ 190K miles $75
6 wiper blades (all 3 every 2 years) ~$10/ea = $60
2 sets front sway bar end links: $90
HVAC blower motor: $45
1 set "beamtech" LED H11 bulbs @ $40
2 engine air filters @ ~$10/ea = $20
2 cabin air filters @ ~$10/ea = $20
1 set of LED parking light bulbs @ $10

I've averaged 51.4 mpg driving economically but without doing any crazy hypermiling pulse & glide type stuff. Gas here has averaged $3.78 over the last 4 years (currently sitting around $5). $4575

Fixed costs:
Registration: $160 x 4 years = $640
Liability insurance: $460 x 4 years = $1840
Biennial Smog Checks: 2 x $75 = $150
Depreciation: $0 !!! (bought it for $7,000 in late 2017 and its current market value is still around $7,000).

Close to total ownership costs (missing random car wash supplies): ~$13,550
Mileage driven: ~62,000

Total cost per mile: $0.22

My brake booster is starting to go bad so I'll be looking at another $1000-2000 repair soon. Yes, for a brake booster! And that's from a reputable prius shop - you might pay $4500 from the dealership: https://priuschat.com/threads/brake-...cement.191669/

[Xist]

Originally Posted by Drifter

I would generally advise a random person against buying a random 10+ year old Prius off the internet...

That would apply if I intended to fix it up, right?

Isn't the hybrid display another common failure point?

I haven't heard back from the seller. This is truck country, but I still expect there to be a number of people who would be interested, although I would tow it to Phoenix in order to sell for parts.

That sounds exhausting:

1. Rent a Uhaul and pay $450 plus the trailer and gas.
2. Drive 3.5 hours to Phoenix.
3. Rent a locker big enough to park the car, open all four doors, and store parts.
4. Advertise the car and start removing the exhaust and emission systems, then other components.
5. Either sell the body or haul it to a junkyard with the agreement you keep the wheels.
6. Drive home in an empty Uhaul.

Good times!

[Drifter]

The Gen2s often had issues with the MFD. Toyota charged a few thousand dollars to replace it, but according to youtube the fix can be done with like a $40 part and an hour or two labor if you DIY (or pay a prius shop a couple hundred dollars).

Why would you part it out in Phoenix if you live in Show Low? Seems like a heck of a drive every time someone wants to buy a $100 part...

[freebeard]

Why would you part it out in Phoenix if you live in Show Low? Seems like a heck of a drive every time someone wants to buy a $100 part...

He likely saw it in a get-rich-quick Youtube video. One with people's mouths hanging open in the thumbnail.

[Xist]

Why would I drive down each time someone wants a part? Ideally I would start this over a long weekend, selling everything I can, and then diving down the next weekend.

There are tons of things to do in the Phoenix area.

I can spend time with family.

[hayden55]

Originally Posted by Drifter

My shop would charge me about $2000 to swap in a used engine (engine itself is probably $750 from a big dismantler). At $1,000 you couldn't go wrong parting it out - you could easily get half that for your catalytic converter.

But I would generally advise a random person against buying a random 10+ year old Prius off the internet because there are a number of potential problems that can cost as much as the car if you take it to the "wrong" shop.

The exceptions:

1) You buy a mechanic's special with the intention of fixing & selling it for substantially more than your total investment.

2) You drive at least 15K miles/year AND one of the following

• are capable of doing substantial electrical/mechanical work yourself
• you have a good reputable Prius-specialist repair shop and the financial capacity to weather repeated $2,000 repairs without worry.

Even with a number of potential $2,000 repair bills lurking (priced from good/reputable Prius shops), an old Prius can still be an economical commuter because it is so thrifty on gas.

Gen2 is more reliable than the Gen 3 (2010-2015), but Gen 3 gets ~8% better gas mileage. A well-driven Honda Civic or Toyota Echo, which are much simpler to repair, could come pretty close to matching a Gen2's mpg unless you do a lot of idling with A/C on.


In about 4 years & 60,000 miles my used 2010 Prius has needed:

headgasket replacement @ 128,000 miles ($2050 including new plugs & cleaned manifold/egr)
EGR replacement @ 135,000 miles ($0 under California's extended emissions warranty)
Hybrid battery replacement @ ~155,000 miles ($2200 for new Chinese cells)
Hybrid battery replacement @ ~ 180,000 miles ($200 labor, battery was covered under 5 year warranty)

More normal maintenance:
13 5K PMs (oil change, tire rotations, etc) $70/ea =$910
1 set of tires @ 155K $350
1 12V battery replacement @ ~185K miles $160
5 sets Sylvania H11 bulbs (they only last 160 hours!) @ $30 = $150
Toyota hatch struts @ 190K miles $75
6 wiper blades (all 3 every 2 years) ~$10/ea = $60
2 sets front sway bar end links: $90
HVAC blower motor: $45
1 set "beamtech" LED H11 bulbs @ $40
2 engine air filters @ ~$10/ea = $20
2 cabin air filters @ ~$10/ea = $20
1 set of LED parking light bulbs @ $10

I've averaged 51.4 mpg driving economically but without doing any crazy hypermiling pulse & glide type stuff. Gas here has averaged $3.78 over the last 4 years (currently sitting around $5). $4575

Fixed costs:
Registration: $160 x 4 years = $640
Liability insurance: $460 x 4 years = $1840
Biennial Smog Checks: 2 x $75 = $150
Depreciation: $0 !!! (bought it for $7,000 in late 2017 and its current market value is still around $7,000).

Close to total ownership costs (missing random car wash supplies): ~$13,550
Mileage driven: ~62,000

Total cost per mile: $0.22

My brake booster is starting to go bad so I'll be looking at another $1000-2000 repair soon. Yes, for a brake booster! And that's from a reputable prius shop - you might pay $4500 from the dealership: https://priuschat.com/threads/brake-...cement.191669/

Wow you bought quite the lemon.

at 205k miles my 2010 has been pretty good (purchased around 95k). Only faults I have really had to deal with is rear brakes seized up, and I had to do an EGR delete (cleaned it but left the delete). Past that just standard maintenance: a 12V battery, spark plugs, coolant, cvt oil, 5k syn engine oil changes with super tech from walmart and toyota oil filters, wipers, tires etc...

Still on the og head gasket and hybrid battery. I just blow out the battery fan, cabin air filter, and engine air filter so I don't actually replace them. I know I am at less than $2000 for all of that over around 110,000 miles.

A friend of mine actually just let me convince him to buy a prius. 2012 prius off copart with 120k. Repaired the front end damage and the structure was good. We did the same egr delete and fixed the cooling system damage and it has been a good car as well.

If anything major goes wrong we won't hesitate to pawn them off an just go get an indestructible 04 corolla 5 speed.

(Wouldn't hesitate to rebuild the pack as I have quite a bit of experience with batteries but if the head gasket or brake booster goes... Off to the part sellers ye go)

[hayden55]

Don't get me wrong though I gotta keep mine below 3000 RPMs to not burn oil though lol. Doing that solves the ring issue and i make a 4000 mile oil change now with around half a quart of burn.

[Xist]

How fast do you need to go to hit 3,000 RPM?

[hayden55]

Honestly pretty fast. Maybe only on steep grades at 70mph. Past that I'm around 2000 rpm 99% of the time since the eCVT is not coupled to the wheels