What to look for when buying a used Prius

[MetroMPG]

That's very low miles for an 06. What's the story of the car? Going to start a thread?

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by oldtamiyaphile

Joined the Prius Club today, silver 05 one owner with 55K miles.

How can we be sure the miles are accurate with hackable digital odometers? Is there documentation of some sort from a thirdparty? I ask just because I'd like to know for future, not to dimjnish the find. How do we know with reasonable certainty that miles are accurate?

[oldtamiyaphile]

It's a 'one elderly owner' car, FSH. It has some paint chips from a walking frame/ cain on the driver's door as testiment. It was traded for a new Prius. Other than those chips, it's as mint as you can expect for what is still a 10 year old car, looks like it was always garaged.

I've never understood people who get conned by a wound back odometer. I mean if you see a car with 80K miles on it that looks like it's done 160K miles, you should have the common sense to question that. If the odo's been wound back 20K miles, you won't be able to tell, but I wouldn't necessarily care anyway. The overall condition of a car is far more important than the actual mileage. A low mile car can be neglected, just as much as a high mile car can be cared for an reliable. Even by the standards of a 55K mile car, this car is above average.

If you don't commute daily or you have more than one car, you won't cover a lot of miles and I don't personally find 5500 miles a year to be all that low.

Here's a summary of some of the cars in my collection:

2005 Jeep Wrangler (mine from new) - 16K miles in 10 years!
1989 Nissan Skyline (mine for ten years) - 46K miles in 25 years
1994 Suzuki Swift (my dad's from new) - 46K miles in 21 years!
2014 Fiat 500 (mine from new) - 5K in 3 years

None of them ever did regular commuter duty. I drive about 11K miles a year, 90% of that is on my Renault.

[oldtamiyaphile]

Is there supposed to be an undertray under the engine? It's been a long time since I've been under a car without one!

[Cd]

Hello everyone ! It's been ages since I last was on Ecomodder.
My parents just bought a 2008 Prius from AutoNation for around $9,000 - maybe more.
( $6,999.99 and nine tenths of a penny, plus another $2,000 or so for a 2 year warranty )
I found out after the purchase. They wanted to surprise me.

> The car has over 150,000 miles on the engine.
> The guy at the stealership said the battery pack was checked 'several times'* .
> I know it is not enough miles to make a good diagnosis of the MPG of the car, but A trip in city traffic ( max 45 mph and several stoplights ) gave 41 mpg over a distance of 14 miles with 50 Wh regenerated.

> The trip home driving at 70 - 75 mph gave 51 MPG. I thought city MPG was supposed to be better. ( 120 + miles )

>

> I drive a really slow automatic 1993 Civic, and the acceleration seemed as bad as my car.

Based on this info. , how badly did my parents get ripped off ?

I'll re-read the entire thread and some on PriusChat, but in case it wasn't asked here, let me ask you guys some questions that are worrying me right now.

> So a prius is dead in the water when the battery runs out. Even if my parents kept this thing in a garage and never drove it again, they are still looking at a several thousand dollar battery bill on top of the cost of the car when the battery dies, correct ?

> Does the car just die one day,or are there symptoms that begin to appear when the battery starts to go bad ?

> One thing that puzzled me was that I noticed that the gasoline engine was going when the car was backed out of the driveway. Is this normal ?
I thought the car ran on battery alone up to like 30 - 40 mph.

I had them stop while I listened, and sure enough it was the engine going. I had them put it in park, and then they drove off.
I noticed it then drove in EV.

I'm just really worried my parents got ripped off.

(* Meaning it went something like this -> Walks to car ..looks at battery ...yep - almost dead. Repeats again. Yep ...almost dead )

Thanks guys ! I've missed coming on the forum.

Here is the car next to mine. Just look at all of that FRONTAL AREA on the prius !

[oldtamiyaphile]

Mostly they got ripped off on the aftermarket warranty.

50mpg is about right.

A battery is around $2000, brand new, not several grand.

It doesn't seem like there's anything wrong with the car based on what you've said.

[RedDevil]

It does drive backwards electrically as it has no gearing for reverse (IIRC) but when the battery is low(ish) the engine will run to power the generator.
Motor and generator are actually combined functions of the motors in the HSD gearbox, so this is a simplification

Have your parents use it every month for at least an hour (total running per month); if not for the traction pack, then for the 12V battery.
It won't start when the 12 is flat either.

It does seem a bit expensive for the years and miles, but if it has enough fairy dust on it all is fine.

51 mpg at over 70 mph is neat. But go see what it can do at 55 mph.

[Cd]

Thanks guys. I'm assuming the 51mpg was at around 70-75 mph, because I told them to reset the trip meter when they got on the highway, and the speed limit on that stretch is mostly 70 mph.
They called me right as they got home, which means they went through town ( stop and go traffic ) I wonder if they got the reading for a combined trip of city / highway.

What about the battery life questions ? That is the main thing I'm worried about.

Thanks.

[LittleBlackDuck]

Go onto eBay and buy a cheap clone techstream cable. Use this to monitor the HV cell voltages when accelerating hard and also under heavy regen. This will give you a good idea of battery health. Combine this with comparing EV mode range should be comforting with regard to battery life remaining.

Simon

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by Cd

Hello everyone ! It's been ages since I last was on Ecomodder.

Nice to see you again.

> The trip home driving at 70 - 75 mph gave 51 MPG. I thought city MPG was supposed to be better. ( 120 + miles )

City MPG CAN be better (because the engine typically shuts off and it coasts whenever you release the accelerator -- that's the main city MPG advantage), but it depends on the specific traffic situation how the numbers will work out. Can't determine anything from that sample of one drive.

The car has over 150,000 miles on the engine... 2008 Prius from AutoNation for around $9,000 - maybe more. Based on this info. , how badly did my parents get ripped off?

That's A LOT (!!) of money for one with that many miles. Around here, I'd expect to see similar odometer and year for no more than $4.5k - $5.5k, with a mechanical safety certificate. (+ tax extra)

> So a prius is dead in the water when the battery runs out. Even if my parents kept this thing in a garage and never drove it again, they are still looking at a several thousand dollar battery bill on top of the cost of the car when the battery dies, correct ?

Correct on dead in the water if the battery dies completely. But the odds of the battery failing in their car are spectacularly low. Don't worry about it.

> One thing that puzzled me was that I noticed that the gasoline engine was going when the car was backed out of the driveway. Is this normal ?
I thought the car ran on battery alone up to like 30 - 40 mph.

The engine ALWAYS starts (after a delay of ~7 seconds) if the coolant temperature is below a certain level, and it will continue running until that point is reached, regardless of how much you feather-foot the accelerator.

I had them stop while I listened, and sure enough it was the engine going. I had them put it in park, and then they drove off.
I noticed it then drove in EV.

Normal. It passed the temp threshold and the ICE shut down. It will re-start when they pass ~40 mph, or when the battery state of charge drops below a certain level. Or if they demand lots of power for acceleration.

(* Meaning it went something like this -> Walks to car ..looks at battery ...yep - almost dead. Repeats again. Yep ...almost dead )

Not a valid way to check the "health" of a hybrid battery. That dashboard gauge only shows you the battery's estimated state of charge.

IF (unlikely) the battery is in poor condition, the dashboard screen is going to light up like a Christmas tree with check engine lights, Red Triangle of Death (icon) warnings, and related messages.

Aside from paying too much money for the car, it's probably fine. Enjoy driving it - they're fantastically fun to operate if you're a fuel economy nerd.