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Hi all - our elderly legend of a neighbour passed away a few weeks ago and in chats with his family it has transpired that his 56 plate Prius will go up for sale at some point. It's probably not done more than 10k miles in that time and in their words "is unlikely to have done over 70mph". I'm just wondering whether it would be a foolish thing to chop in our also pretty old (06 plate) Altea for it or whether it could be an opportunity. Our Altea has been a bit of a money pit but in truth it's pretty old and gets used, so things like the central locking, timing belt and so on, have all been "not cheap" but at least I know what's happened to it recently, but it still has some "quirks" that might mean it could need replacing at some point. I'm not desperate for the Prius but in the grand scheme of things it's hardly done any miles and was looked after and never razzed (if you can even razz a Prius) so wondering if it could be a worthwhile consideration. Any thoughts?? TIA!
SIL took over FIL's Prius when he passed. It's the slightly better Gen 2, but it's got to be 14 years old now - 2010'ish. Our local taxi driver used to run two Mk1's and literally did monster miles. The battery is a bit old tech (nicad) but they still do reasonable MPG for a large car. If your own car is a money pit, and this looks good, offer them a fair value. They are pretty reliable if fugly. I suppose check the battery still works in hybrid mode
Mk2's are pretty tough and an un-ragged very low milage one would be a decent buy if its in good nick and they'll do 50mpg+ (or quite a bit more if you are gentle with them) . The only thing to check would be the hybrid battery: Toyota dealers do a Hybrid health check for this reason https://mag.toyota.co.uk/toyota-hybrid-health-check/
While a nice low milage one wouldnt be proper bangernomics per se, look past the slight percieved dullness of the mk2 and instead consider that all those Hollywood A-Listers and Uber drivers cant be wrong and realise they do make a canny buy:s https://www.autocar.co.uk/opinion/used-cars/bangernomics-best-buys-toyota-prius
As above, check the battery capacity and real world range. My 2011 Leaf had 109 mile range and will now do 30-40 miles but that is a battery only car. With the Prius you have an engine at least I guess. Again, I have seen taxis with 200,000 miles on them.
I have no knowledge
But I’d be tempted whilst at the same time doing battery research
Ours was a 56 plate. We'd still be driving it if we hadn't crashed it. A great car in many ways, with a few niggles. The lack of telescopic steering wheel annoyed me; the interior isn't as nice as you'd expect from the new price of the car, but if you're getting a cheap one you'll be fine. They drive very smoothly and easily, the interior is well thought out. The most effective and least intrusive climate control I've used too. Leave it on auto.
Economy was 60 or just over on motorway trips, we just left the cruise control on 70. Around town it was mid to high 50s depending on the driving.
From what I've read, the battery meant that the engine had less of a hard time so they can happily do big mileage
Just check it thoroughly!
and get into the hybrid driving style, do it right with the regen braking and pads/discs will last a silly amount of time, drive like those Prius taxi's, you'll get a sense of using the right pedal, to keep it on battery as long as possible.
My first hybrid was a Gs450h back in about 2006, and it had a mental at the time amount of power & torque, but at 50k the pads and discs were barely worn. Toyota do know how to build them.
My folks have two Prii^h^h^h^h^h Priuses. The older one is 19 years old, and has had a new exhaust as the original rusted and a new door handle after an electrical fault there started flattening the 12v battery. Their other one is a much newer plug-in hybrid and is very clever. I think they hardly ever put petrol in it.
I have a Prius+. It’s not a thrill to drive though it has great torque from a standstill. The stereo is tinny rubbish and ours is the posh spec. It’s a 2012 model and has been utterly reliable in the time we’ve had it. The catalytic converter was stolen though, and the old ones are very valuable for scrap so get the anti-theft kit fitted if it doesn’t already have it.
Also, keep an eye out for Dirty Mike and the Boys.
This is all great stuff, thanks so much. I'm afraid I'm not getting many of the Prius in jokes though hehe!!
Forgot to say: it's also pretty much been kept in a garage its entire life. Mind blown that someone actually used a garage to store a car!!
Mind blown that someone actually used a garage to store a car!!
Gulp! Where did he keep his bikes? 🙃
Can't think of a reason "Why not?" to be honest.
I've driven Priuses of various models as company cars for the last 15 years or so, never had any problems with them - well, 3 Priuses and an Auris estate, which had exactly the same powertrain. They're pretty uninspiring as a drive, but utterly reliable in my experience. The older version you're looking at will probably have the 1.5 engine, which is arguably a bit underpowered by comparison to the 1.8 that came afterwards, it'll probably feel a bit wheezy on a long hill.
The comment above from WCA about battery capacity & real-world range doesn't entirely make sense tbh. The battery isn't really meant for 'driving along' - you only get a mile or so of range out of it at best, even if you force it into EV mode with the dashboard button. It assists the petrol engine when needed with a bit of extra kick, and means the engine is quite often not even running if you lift off the accelerator a little. So in effect it improves mpg, to the extent that you'll typically get mid-to-high 50s or more in town and running about on country roads; less so on motorways.
I'd have it without a 2nd thought, I'd have a chat with the family when appropriate and let them know you'd be using it rather than flipping it for a few quid profit and that they'd still see their dads legacy buzzing about (if they are local?).
I was offered (and bought a dirt cheap Volvo in similar circumstances).
I’d have it without a 2nd thought, I’d have a chat with the family when appropriate and let them know you’d be using it rather than flipping it for a few quid profit and that they’d still see their dads legacy buzzing about (if they are local?).
I’d second all of this.
Hmm, found out today that it's actually got more like 60k miles on it, but just very few in the last five years. Not quite so attractive I guess, even though clearly would expect to get way more out of one of these...
60k is nothing, taxis use these for a reason, they go on for ever
Yeah I'm aware, as per many of the posts up there, but going from a ~18 year old car with 85k to a ~18 year old car with 60k doesn't really fill me with a huge amount of excitement. Although as has equally been mentioned, you don't Prius for excitement 😂
Fyi, hybrid batteries don’t like to be sat unused for long periods of time (we discovered this when my husband went back to his old Toyota hybrid after 6 months in the the uk. It’s been ok with 4 month trips/sitting that long). He’s just about to attempt to fix his by fitting a replacement hybrid battery, costs about £2k, on a 17 year old Toyota (not a Prius though) that done something like 200,000 miles. If it’s been sat a while I’d get the Prius battery life checked out, and it would be worth the family taking it out for a spin if they’re still deciding what to do with it.
He’s just about to attempt to fix his by fitting a replacement hybrid battery, costs about £2k,
You don't need the whole thing. I replaced a cell myself, with extreme caution because it's very much potentially fatal, but I subsequently learned you have to replace pairs. I paid a local specialist a further £400 to do three more cells.