Hesitant to buy a 2001 Prius for $3000...

[mechman600]

+1. Go for it. Boring but excellent cars. Not a typical CVT - far simpler. No belt/pulleys. Just one planetary gearset. That's it, nothing more. The motor/generators do the rest.

Yes, you can coast with throttle balance. Extraordinary mileage gains can be had with EOC this way, leaving regen as a last resort.

[Cobb]

Sounds ok long as it doesnt have a salvage title.

[Daox]

Originally Posted by dirtydave

why cant you EOC in a prius?

You can, and its actually extremely easy. As Old Mechanic mentioned, you simply modulate the gas pedal correctly.

[vskid3]

Prius boring to drive? I must be doing something wrong, I enjoy is almost as much as the '04 GTO I had (Prius can't compete with that V8 roar and power). Can't hypermile it? I guess it must be luck that's getting me to average more in my Gen2 Prius than most people get in their Gen3s (which should get a good 3-5MPG more).

No, the Prius isn't Jesus on wheels. Its just a car that gets good mileage even if you're not really trying.

Regarding the original question, what other options do you have in your area? $3k isn't bad, but it still has a lot of miles on the car. You might be better off spending $4k or $5k for a car with lower miles.

[kYLEMtnCRUZr]

Haha I telepathically took your advice^

Sorry for the late reply and thanks for everyones feedback. After reading that transaxles for hybrids can be up to a $4500 job to swap, I started looking at Corollas in similar price range.

So I am now the proud new owner of a 2002 Corolla LE 111K ex grandma car (assuming). I've been running around on CL so much that I never want to open CL ever again lol. Car was listed for $4395, Blue Book $4000, I got it for $3900. More than I wanted to spend but $1000 of that was "I'm sick of driving all over to test drive cars lets get it over with" Filled up 10 gallons in Santa Cruz to Sacramento today, 166 miles and tank needle still at 7/8's! I'm sure I'm hittin EPA's 41 hwy. And timing chain! Whodathunk? I browse through the maintenance intervals and all it really says is change fluids and filters!

Corolla has VVT engine. Don't know if this is good or bad for mileage but whatevs. It felt fast despite the slipping clutch which I will have to baby the next year hopefully.

Prius deal turned into bidding war. I was up to $3600 and said forget this. Some fancy hybrid part is gonna go out and this car will be "totalled" to me. At least we got the nice guy more money in his pocket to pay for his Electric BMW I-3!

Thanks again everyone! I now have a capable hypermiling canvas compared to my 2.5L Subaru!

-Kyle

[cowmeat]

I've been running around on CL so much that I never want to open CL ever again lol.

Man it, took me a month on CL to get the /black Widow back in the day.

It took another month and many test drives to get the original Lightning Rod, which was absolutely flawless for a 2007 car (and then it got hit by lightning three weeks later)

But it took TWO solid months of daily searching through every metropolitan area in Florida to come up with the Turtle!

I can't even bring myself to open up Craigslist now, and I used to get on there all the time and enjoy checking out the general items

[Xist]

I ended up with my 2.5L Subaru because of how much I hated Craigslist when I first saw it, but that was how I found Bacon a year ago, after several months of enduring Craigslist, but it definitely helped that I set up list alerts, so I did not need to check Craigslist anymore.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by kYLEMtnCRUZr

It felt fast despite the slipping clutch which I will have to baby the next year hopefully.

Probably a great car, but if the clutch is already slipping, you don't have much time. I think I got a month out of the Subaru when I bought it knowing it had a clutch going out. The parts were cheap though; maybe $100 for everything including the throwout bearing and resurfaced flywheel.

Originally Posted by cowmeat

Man it, took me a month on CL to get the /black Widow back in the day.

But it took TWO solid months of daily searching through every metropolitan area in Florida to come up with the Turtle!

It took me 3 years to find a 2006-2008 TSX, 6-speed, NAV, in any color except red. I'm going into my second year of looking for a good deal on a Prius. My guess is I'll have one by the end of 2015.

[kYLEMtnCRUZr]

I remember searching for an Lexus IS300...500 automatics nationwide...6 manuals lol.

[user removed]

I love CL. It has become a little rediculous lately with some people's insane asking prices, but for those who have the time and patience to wade through the garbage there are deals to be found. When I listed the Ranger I went back to see where the ad was and after 24 hours there were 950 new ads. The classifieds in the local paper are basically empty, but I like to look there for the few who don't use CL and still pay the paper for advertising.

regards
mech