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Should You Buy a Second-Hand Prius?

Maintenance costs may outstrip fuel savings

By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com

April 4, 2008

With sales of new hybrids increasing by almost 30 percent a year and gasoline prices following at a faster pace, a second-hand hybrid can appear to be a smart alternative in a tight economy.

But because of the car's relatively new design, there is little information available to help consumers judge the reliability of a used Prius other than reports from previous Prius owners.

Consumer beware. The risks may be higher than you think.

Battery blues

Doris in Smithville, Tennessee bought a used Prius in July 2006.

“Trying to inform myself prior to buying the car, I asked about the battery and was told never had they seen the whole battery fail, only a cell at a time to the tune of $200 per cell,” she was told. “I did not want to spend the money on a brand-new Prius. I wanted to test the waters on a used one first.”

The decision to buy a second had hybrid was costly.

The 2006 Prius had 73,200 miles on the odometer leaving 26,800 remaining on the hybrid battery warranty. “I bought it and thought I was living the dream, but only for a moment,” Doris told ConsumerAffairs.com.

When the weather turned cold her Prius would have no power. The engine was difficult to start. “Finally it went totally down,” she said. “No power!”

The Toyota dealer told Doris at first that she must have over-filled the gas tank and may have ruined the Prius computer system. The repair cost would be $1,900.

One year later the Prius lost all power while driving at 65 mph on an Interstate highway. "I was scared to death,” Doris wrote. The Prius was towed to a dealer and Doris was told “the main battery was down it would be $6,890 to fix it.”

Remember, the first dealer told her the battery never failed completely and the replacement cost would be roughly $2,000.

Doris was lucky as things turned out.

“They called tech support and found it was a leaf sucked up in a filter which in turn prevented gas and air from going to the battery and drained it." Doris spent $225 to tow the Prius to the dealer and $276 to charge the main battery plus tax, a lot less than the original $6,890 repair estimate but still $549.85.

But not all the repair news was good. "They told me it could happen again. So I'm stuck with what I feel is a defective product. I'm Toyota's rolling gunea pig,” she said. “I cannot trade the car because they tell I'm $5,500 up side down," she said. “I have to buy a new car to roll this amount with it. I can't afford a new car with a $425 per month payment.”

Transmission troubles

In Loomis, California, Sam tells the tale of expensive repairs with his 2003 Prius.

After a series of problems with the Prius engine, Toyota informed Sam that he needed to have the transmission replaced. The estimate for repairs was around $7,000, almost the value of the entire vehicle, according to Sam.

“Naturally the vehicle was no longer covered by the warranty,” he said.

The Prius had 116,289 miles on the odometer when the car began to malfunction. The check-engine light came on and the engine quickly shut down. The dealership informed Sam that the gasoline engine quit because the battery ran out of juice. The dealership checked the spark plugs and coils, detected slight misfire until warm but could not reproduce the problem. The cost of the service was $123.77.

The repair bill seemed too good to be true. And it was.

When the problem occurred a second time, the Toyota dealership said that the “problem was not really the spark plugs but that the sophisticated hybrid transmission needed to be replaced. The estimate for the parts and labor for this repair would be approximately $2,000.” The estimate was quickly revised to $7,000 with parts and labor. The “cost of the new transmission alone was $5,000,” Sam reported.

Early adopter

In Sunnyvale, California, Matt was one of the original 2001 Prius hybrid owners.

“Now, after 130,000 miles of driving the main battery is dead. The Toyota dealer is telling me the life of the main battery was 100,000 for my car, although the new Prius comes with a 150,000-mile warranty,” he said.

Matt said that the dealer told him he was the third Prius owner to require a main battery replacement.

“Labor and parts, plus tax was $4,500. Unfortunately, there is no third-party service provider who knows how to fix Prius,” he said.

Matt warns consumers interested in a second hand Prius to be prepared to pay $4,500 for the main battery before 150,000 miles have been recorded on the odometer.”

Complexity

That is not all.

“The car is loaded with electronics and solid state controllers. Be prepared to pay outrageous prices for diagnostics and repair. Very rarely you will walk out with a bill costing under $300,” Matt said.

“You will pay nearly $150 for having a duplicate key made to your Prius. That is because the key apparently has an anti-theft chip which has to be programmed by Toyota,” he said.

There's no doubt the Prius gets good gas mileage (though perhaps not as good as many buyers expect). But whether the total cost of ownership is reasonable is another question indeed.

Consumers who need reliable, inexpensive transportation are still better off with a simple, straightforward economy car -- a Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic or something similar with a four-cylinder engine and a manual transmission are likely to provide trouble-free, economic transportation for hundreds of thousands of miles.

Here are some of the reports we've received from other Prius owners:

Bob of Edmonton, Canada (05/26/08)
This problem has appeared 3 times on this site and involves the 2004 Prius. The monitor shows that there is a bad connection of the air conditioner. Sometimes the radio will cut out and especially going over a bump in the road the display shows no power coming from gas or battery. The rest works but when we took it in the dealer did not know what was wrong but said that it was not a conection to the air conditioner. We had bought the extended warrenty but the milage was over by 1000 km. or 600 miles. They replaced the monitor at 3500. but a week later the same thing is happening. It goes back tommorrow but after praising the Prius for 5 years have little good to say about the PR work and honisty of the dealers. Will log on to tell you the rest of the story as it unfolds.

Greg of Huntington Beach, CA May 25, 2008

Greg of Huntington Beach CA (05/25/08)
Severe troubles with the traction Control System on toyota Prius. In snow or Ice conditions the wheel lock up due to the traction control system and leaving me stranded in snowy conditions.

Almost resulted in my car sliding from a stand still off the side of the road down an embackment. People had to hold the car from sliding. Was not able to accelerate while they guided me and pushed me.This is dangerous and modifications need to be done to the computer software to allow more control for snowy or icey conditions.

Thomas of Princeton, TX May 19, 2008

Thomas of Princeton TX (05/19/08)
I have 40,000+ miles on my Prius, I have owned the 2007 model for 1 year. I tis rock solid, and with what little common sense I have; I have not had any of the problems reported by the people above::: Makes me wonder, why am I not having any proplems, doesn't seem fair, because I don't have anyone to blame for my lack of common sense. Why didn;t I get a car that has problems, then I could complain too.

Awesome CAR! I wish I had two of them.

Dean of New Rochelle, NY May 15, 2008

Dean of New Rochelle NY (05/15/08)
The Toyota Prius nearly killed a mechanic and me today, literally. I had the car stored for months in my flat level driveway for a relative who is traveling abroad. Naturally, the battery went dead after not being driven during this time. So, I had a mechanic come and he started the engine today. While the Prius engine was running, both the mechanic and myself were half in and half outside the car; the mechanic by the driver side and me by the passenger side. The car suddenly lunged in reverse and the driver side opened door of the Prius totally destroyed my car driver side door parked along side it, and somehow the mechanic brought the car to a stop. The mechanic claims the Prius was in neutral but the brake had been applied when it suddenly, with no warning, accelerated in reverse. Im thankful we escaped without injury but now I have a hefty expense to replace my car door. Just imagine if someone had been behind the Prius today, they likely would have died.

J. of Dublin. 7., OTHER May 15, 2008

J. of Dublin, Ireland (05/15/08)
June 2004 Toyota Prius....28,800 miles. Computer Display unit on the dash-board has gone faulty. Toyota say its not covered on the 8yr Hybrid system warranty? They are looking for almost 3500 euro to replace it.....after ONLY 28,000 miles!!! Have been offered a Reconditioned unit for half the price? There must be a manufacturing problem with this unit??

Air-conditioning unit not working and radio also faulty, plus no read-out on display unit. A right pain to say the least!

Sherry of North Las Vegas, NV May 12, 2008

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