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Buying a used Prius (maybe)
Dachshund
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm looking to buy a used Prius, probably no later than a 2003 model. Having never bought a car before (work pays for rentals when I travel) I don't really know what to look for. What I do know is that I will be sending the car to a Toyota dealership for a pre-buy inspection and doing a test drive, as well as running reports of some sort.
About Carfax and Autocheck: Should I run both? So far I have run two vehicles, a 2002 and 2003 Prius, through just Carfax and gotten what appear to be bogus results. The 2003 showed the car registed in 2003 with 60 miles on the odometer, 1 owner, a lein and nothing else. Obviously the car has been registered and such between 2003 and now, but nothing is shown. It was sold before I could investigate further. The 2002 supposedly has 90k miles, but carfax again only shows registration in 2002 with 53 miles and a lien in 2002. I haven't gone to check it out yet because it's 2.5 hours away and I don't want to waste my time if these are red flags. Are they red flags?
Also, what do I do to make sure the lien is paid before the title is tranferred to me? How should I go about making payment? Do I make a down payment, get the title transferred, then pay the rest via cashier's check or something?
Is a 2002/2003 Prius a decent buy as a commuter vehicle? I travel 60% of the year for work and always rent cars on company dime, but if I use my own vehicle, I can get paid mileage from work which would actually pay for the car in about a year alone (a 5-7k car). I've only done internet research so far and the 2001-2003 Prius model appears to be reliable, relatively cheap and easy to maintain. I'm in CA so the hybrid battery should be under warranty until 150k miles? This is just something that I keep reading online but haven't seen proof of anywhere. If I were to look at comparable no-thrills gas commuters, what would I look for? I'm kind of set on a hybrid since I am a pseudo hippy, but I'll look at other cars to compare.
Any answers to my jumble of questions or other useful info on the 2001-2003 Prius that I didn't think to ask for would be greatly appreciated.
About Carfax and Autocheck: Should I run both? So far I have run two vehicles, a 2002 and 2003 Prius, through just Carfax and gotten what appear to be bogus results. The 2003 showed the car registed in 2003 with 60 miles on the odometer, 1 owner, a lein and nothing else. Obviously the car has been registered and such between 2003 and now, but nothing is shown. It was sold before I could investigate further. The 2002 supposedly has 90k miles, but carfax again only shows registration in 2002 with 53 miles and a lien in 2002. I haven't gone to check it out yet because it's 2.5 hours away and I don't want to waste my time if these are red flags. Are they red flags?
Also, what do I do to make sure the lien is paid before the title is tranferred to me? How should I go about making payment? Do I make a down payment, get the title transferred, then pay the rest via cashier's check or something?
Is a 2002/2003 Prius a decent buy as a commuter vehicle? I travel 60% of the year for work and always rent cars on company dime, but if I use my own vehicle, I can get paid mileage from work which would actually pay for the car in about a year alone (a 5-7k car). I've only done internet research so far and the 2001-2003 Prius model appears to be reliable, relatively cheap and easy to maintain. I'm in CA so the hybrid battery should be under warranty until 150k miles? This is just something that I keep reading online but haven't seen proof of anywhere. If I were to look at comparable no-thrills gas commuters, what would I look for? I'm kind of set on a hybrid since I am a pseudo hippy, but I'll look at other cars to compare.
Any answers to my jumble of questions or other useful info on the 2001-2003 Prius that I didn't think to ask for would be greatly appreciated.
Dachshund on
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Posts
So, if you could get a newer car with less mileage for the same amount of money up front, you will probably end up saving on maintenance costs from having a older car, even if it is a hybrid model.
I'm not positive since it's been awhile since I've used Carfax, but they only update at particular times (sales, accidents reported, sometimes dealer maintenance) so the 2003 probably had 1 owner who bought it and it never had any event that caused the Carfax to be updated. The same with the 2002 most likely.
Also, at least last year, they had some great prices on newer Toyota models - I bought a Corolla that's price was competitive with the similar prices for older vehicles, so you might consider opening your search up based on price. In my case, a Honda dealership near me was selling a bunch of rental Corollas for Hertz. While there are downsides to buying a rental such as abuse from customers who don't care, you are at least assured regular maintainance. If you buy from a major dealership, and by that I mean Toyota, Honda or others, they will already have looked the car over for you, so you might not feel the need to have a second Toyota mechanic do the same.
With a newer car, you're likely to get a better warranty as well. I'm not sure about the Prius battery, but the other warranties Toyota has usually have a mileage and time limit...like 36,000 miles or 3 years (whichever comes first).