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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:

Anthony of Berkeley Heights, NJ May 5, 2009

I own a 2008 Toyota Prius. It just turned 100k on the odometer. At 58,000 miles (3-18-08), I started experiencing problems with the driver's side headlight; it would go on and off intermittently. I was told that the headlight and the ECU needed to be replaced. Even though I had purchased an extended warranty (at Toyotaland of Springfield, NJ), it still cost me 406.97, out of pocket. To add insult to injury, I had to return again within a weeks time, because the headlight went out again. I was told that it was a "bad" ECU for the headlight. They replaced it at no additional charge, "Gee, Thanks!"

At 98,057 miles, the passenger side light started to exhibit the same symptoms (the headlight would go on and off, intermittently). I figured that I would get this done before my warranty expired at 100,000 miles. Toyotaland of Springfield replaced the ECU, only. They did not suggest replacing the headlight. I paid the 50 deductible as per the terms of the extended warranty.

On 5/1/09, at 99,873 miles, a mere week and a half later, the driver's side headlight that I had already paid to have replaced the previous March, started experiencing the same on and off symptoms. I also started experiencing a problem with both tailights periodically going out. I explained to the customer service person (at Toyotaland of Springfield, NJ), that the tailights would come back on when I tapped on the lens. I asked them to investigate that problem as well.

Later in the day, a reprensentative from Toyotaland of Springfield, called me back. He said that the technician was not able to "duplicate" the problem and that furthermore that the warranty company would not replace a part that was not "proven" to be defective.

I spent a few minutes in an intense conversation with this individual over the phone. I told him that the problem was intermittent and that my car was dangerously close to being out of warranty. I expressed to him that it was not reasonable that I had to replace 3 headlights within a little over 1 year. In addition, I explained that these headlights were also in the neighborhood of 300 apiece, not including the ECU. With the ECU, this would easily be a 500+ job, out of warranty. I asked to speak to a supervisor. The same representative called me back a little while later. He said that he spoke to the warranty company and that they had agreed to replace the ECU. He also said that they strongly suggested that the headlight be replaced at my expense (naturally).

I also inquired about any service alerts or recalls on this model for these issues. I said that "it was hard to believe that nobody else was experiencing these same issues". I received no response. I was also told that they could find nothing wrong with the tailights.

They also told me that my hatch was broken. This is something that I was already aware of. A "flimsy" plastic bracket had snapped under the handle for the rear hatch. I had inquired about this on a previous visit and was told that this was something else that my extended warranty didn't cover; surprise, surprise! The cost for this part (Back door garnish-Part# 7601-47060-BO) is 193 + labor, paint, etc.

5/4/09- My car now has 100,100 miles and is now out of warranty. Today my passenger side headlight is out, again. This is like a bad joke! I think that they have to remove the front bumper to replace the headlight. So, I guess I'm going to get stuck paying for the parts and the labor for that. It also seems that the technicians are not as knowledgable as they should be on this car. This is too serious of a problem, not to be addressed.

I have read other forums on this vehicle. There are other Prius owners experiencing the same issue. This is a saftey issue as well as a monetery issue. Toyota really needs to address this issue in the form of a recall. If they continue to ignore these complaints, then maybe a "class action lawsuit" would get their attention.

Paul of Sedona, AZ April 12, 2009

Paul of Sedona AZ (04/12/09)
I have had 3 accidents or near accidents with my new 2009 Toyota Prius due to a combination of mysterious acceleration and loss of brakes. The first incident (a near accident) occurred when the car in front of me stopped. I was driving slowly but my car suddenly seemed to accelerate on its own and my brakes failed. How I stopped my car I will never know. The second incident was when I was driving into my garage. Again the car seemed to accelerate and the brakes did not work. The garage wall was damaged on both sides. After this I took the car into the Toyota dealer. They examined it and said if I had more trouble, bring it in again. The third incident occurred in a parking lot. The self-accelerating seemed to have been fixed, but while driving slow and looking for a place to park, the brakes did not hold and the result was the car hit a parked car.

Although no one was hurt here was over 6000 damage to the Prius and some damage to the parked car. What is really scary is that by the next parked car (only a foot or so away) were a man and 2 children. If my car had hit that car there could have been some deaths - certainly serious injuries.

Mukul of Walpole, MA April 10, 2009

Mukul of Walpole MA (04/10/09)
I have an 06 Prius and the headlights went out. The dealer says that he has never heard of the problem and that I should come back when the light is out. Great idea, hopefully not when my car is wrapped around a telephone poll. I spoke to a customer experience representative at Toyota headquarters and they said that they have heard of this problem but they are not supporting the repairs of this issue. Not sure how they can get away with this, as this is not an issue of wear and tear. This is clearly faulty parts that they have installed in the vehicle. Can anyone help with this?

Tom of Laguna Niguel, CA April 8, 2009

Tom of Laguna Niguel CA (04/08/09)
I bought a 2008 tyota prius on december of 2007. I exprianced the following problems with this vehichle 1) All 4 tires was worn out around 20K miles with rutine rotation at every 5k miles 2) The navigation system is very unfriendly to the user. I have 1996 acura RL which is 12 years oldr way better than this. 3) The display on the monitor is desined so shallow that during the day time is abolutely usless. 4) the seat and armrest veneers looks so bad within the first 2 years.

I have contacted the dealership but they declined and told me inflate tire at 40 psi instead of 35 psi recomended by the manufacturer on the vehichle door. I red about the tire problem from so many other users of this car.

Ron of Leechburg, PA March 30, 2009

Ron of Leechburg PA (03/30/09)
The Passenger side headlight went out on my 2007 Prius at 41757 miles in Jan. 2009. Of course the light is not covered under warranty,BUT, the Dealer worked out a replacement cost. I called Toyota at this time and the Rep. said someone would look into it. Now my Driver side headlight went out at 47270 miles and I Have an appt. with the Dealer. Called Toyota AGAIN! and was told someone would look into it and would call me back within 3 business days. I won't hold my breath!

Michael of Tigard, OR March 20, 2009

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