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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:

Robert of Fort Mohave AZ (02/06/08)
Our Toyota Factory Navigation System in our 2008 Prius Touring Does Not Function As Advertised By Toyota. My Dealership Anderson Toyota in Kingman AZ. has done everything possible to assist in this matter. This Mavigation System Does Not Recognize and will not allow input of our listed home street address. Consequently, we are Unable to use the turn by turn navigation to any addresses or back to our home address? Toyota Customer Care blames this on the Navigation System Manufacturer, and the fact that this is considered a 'rural area' and is NOT mapped in detail by Navteq=System Manufacturer. Toyota stated to me just yesterday; Although you are experiencing continuous difficulties with your Navigation System, Toyota does not have a solution to the problem. You will need to PURCHASE Update Discs as they become available from the manufacturer? Toyota WILL NOT Supply you with these update discs as they are considered 'customer pay items'? The Factory Installed Navigation System Does Not Work As Is Advertised. My Dealership AND a Toyota Senior Field Tech BOTH Tried to Input my home address BUT Neither could get it to accept the address. The subdivison I live in has been in existance 15 years. All streets were mapped and platted out at the time of inception. County Maps, as well as the Local Phone Book Maps BOTH show this street! I asked for system update discs to be provided for me due to system failures. Toyota REFUSES to send them to me. WHY? That is the ONLY Solution making sense! UNLESS Toyota Wants To Refund Me The Price Of The Navigation System? As a sidenote; My wife was at Office Depot and input our home address in both the Tom Tom and Megellon aftermarket Navigation Systems. She HAD NO Problem with both accepting the address as well as providing Turn by Turn Directions Right To Our Home! It's a SAD Commentary when a cheap aftermarket system works much better than the VERY EXPENSIVE Factory System!

Heidi of Spokane, WA February 3, 2008

Heidi of Spokane WA (02/03/08)
I bought my 2007 Prius just over a year ago. It has been in the shop MANY times for various problems that seem like quality control issues, (ie: bolt missing on chassis, defective seat lock, rattle in dashboard, etc.) The biggest problem is that it is sitting in my garage and won't budge whenever there is the slightest bit of ice or gravel. Either the VSC or the Traction Control cause the brakes to lock. What good is a car that is unusable for many months of the year!?! Isn't that what buying a Toyota is supposed to prevent? My friends with Prius's are able to drive their cars, so I'm guessing that mine is a lemon. Also, my husband has the same problem, so it is not driver error.

L. of Milford, DE February 3, 2008

L. of Milford DE (02/03/08)
I was driving to Strasburg, PA. It started snowing and there was about an inch of snow on the roads. Everytime I used my brakes to slow down, my car became a sled. I had to resort to driving around 8 - 10 miles per hour, not brake and do a lot of praying. I thought I was going to wind up spinning out of control and getting into an accident. At one point, I thought of parking the car in an available lot and calling my family to come and get me. Thank God that the vehicles behind me were patient with my inching along at such a slow speed.

Cognoscenta of Spring Valley, CA January 29, 2008

Cognoscenta of Spring Valley CA (01/29/08)
I just want to respond with info re. the problem Dale and others had with fuel and fuel economy on the Prius. Here's my experience and what I found out today: I am getting great mileage, but about 4 months ago (at about 10K miles on my 2007 Prius), I noticed that I was getting fewer miles per tank than before. I had been getting 410-425 miles without breaking a sweat. My mpg was even improving at 42 mpg. I was completely dissed at the dealership when I went in to get this explained/fixed the first time.

The service specialist wrote down my complaint accurately (driving range but not mpg reduced), and after waiting 4 hours, he told me to replace the air filter. As I expected, this did nothing to affect the issue. However, today I called to find out about the fuel capacity of the tank and the fuel reserve that is left once the light starts flashing. I got a very helpful woman from the service department who told me that the gas tank is actually a bladder! This means that it collapses as it empties!

Furthermore, IF YOU ALLOW THE TANK TO COMPLETELY EMPTY, IT FILLS WITH AIR AND WILL NOT COMPLETELY FILL WITH GAS AFTER THAT. This is undoubtedly what happened in my case. This is something that is still under warranty and can be fixed, and I have high hopes of this being done. I have a service appointment tomorrow, and I will let you know what happens. I thought you might be interested to know what no one else, to my knowledge, has noted: That indeed the gas tank should be filled before it reaches empty to maintain maximum fuel capacity.

We might question the wisdom of putting a bladder tank in the car, but that's what's there, and there you have it.

Jeffrey of Los Angeles, CA January 29, 2008

Jeffrey of Los Angeles CA (01/29/08)
Yeah...the Japanese didn't bomb Pearl Harbor and the Toyota Prius gets 60 mph in the city...yeah. Try 35 if you're lucky...

Cynthia of Mandeville, LA January 28, 2008

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