Estimating 15 YRO Toyota Prius Selling Price with Moderate/Serious Problems

P

pc95

Recycles dryer sheets
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Feb 19, 2017
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Greetings, I'm waiting on an ODB2 sensor from a friend to check our 2007 Prius error code. The car lost propulsion on the freeway when a red triangle
, vsc ,and check engine light all triggered together. We needed a tow from shoulder. I'm thinking to sell the car which has 96100 miles, but I'm pretty sure will need a new battery pack (pending error code). Wife and I were thinking to go down to 1 car. We already carpool to work. I'm wondering about purchasing another car as I dont want to keep band-aiding the old Prius. It has also lost the electronic dash readout (intermittent). I'd gotten into a small fender bender in February so localized bumper and hood damage. Lost most its clear coat due to being in the desert with previous owner. A craigslist check shows similar Prius's with serious problems on sale for $2000-$2500....what is a reasonable pricing to sell to private party with localized damage, likely needing NIMH batteries, and an intermittent dash would you think? Of course I'd bought newer tires just 4 months earlier for $500 which I need to factor in.......thx. I'm thinking $1600 (would've said $1300 but $300 for newer tires). Thanks.
 
Sounds about right.

We had a 2007 Prius, for which we paid cash at the time (new car) so the title was clear.

In September 2020, the catalytic converter got swiped when I screwed up by leaving it parked in front of our house instead of pulling it into the driveway. I knew full well that Priuses in that age range are targets for catalytic converter theft. My bad.

Anyway ... our car had a bad door ding that was starting to rust and a couple other problems. The dash readout was starting to malfunction. I just wanted the car out of my life, and fast. I posted an ad on Craigslist and said that the first person to show up with $1,000 cash gets the title and the keys. I said I wasn't holding the car for anybody. Cash = keys + title, period.

It took three hours. The buyer had to do some quick work to find ten $100 bills, but he got it done.

I probably could have gotten a little more for it, but I didn't care.

We replaced it with a 2017 Ford C-Max plug-in hybrid, which we love. We don't drive much.
 
I always wondered what happened to EVs/hybrids when they reached the end of their life times. All the electronics and screens must be a potential nightmare. The only screen in my 2012 Toyota (bottom of the line) is for the radio. I like it that way.

I think the Prius specifically and hybrids in general are the sweet-spot of electric vehicles. I just wonder how expensive they are to keep going when they get up toward 100K miles. I've driven ICE cars (with minimal electronics) that go to 200 miles. Sure, some of the stuff on the cars quit working but the cars keep running and don't need towed for their glitches. YMMV
 
It's hard to sell a car that doesn't run.
 
Koolau said:
I always wondered what happened to EVs/hybrids when they reached the end of their life times. All the electronics and screens must be a potential nightmare. The only screen in my 2012 Toyota (bottom of the line) is for the radio. I like it that way.



I think the Prius specifically and hybrids in general are the sweet-spot of electric vehicles. I just wonder how expensive they are to keep going when they get up toward 100K miles. I've driven ICE cars (with minimal electronics) that go to 200 miles. Sure, some of the stuff on the cars quit working but the cars keep running and don't need towed for their glitches. YMMV
Click to expand...



I have news for you, even modern ICE only cars are loaded with electronics, screens, computers etc. May I suggest something pre-1980 with a carburetor ?

Just kidding of course. About the carburetor.
 
Chuckanut said:
I have news for you, even modern ICE only cars are loaded with electronics, screens, computers etc. May I suggest something pre-1980 with a carburetor ?

Just kidding of course. About the carburetor.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know all about the electronics that make our ICE cars work dramatically better than in the days of carburetors. Of course those electronic devices have been around long enough that they rarely fail any more. Even if they do, most ICE will still run - if badly.

All the cars I've had in the past 30 years are in the sweet spot between carbs and ubiquitous electronics - with absolutely no screens needed to operate the vehicle (maybe just the radio.) By the way, most of the electronics that have failed in my cars were things like O2 sensors or the odd coil. I know exactly what the car feels like when these happen and don't even need the OBD to figure it out.

Not a (total) luddite, and I appreciate the amazing electronics available these days. BUT I worry about the unintended issues that these newer devices bring. I've heard of folks needing $2500 infotainment replacements - just to operate the radio. I saw an article on a guy whose Tesla battery died and he was locked out of his car. My car has a "button" entry. When the button battery dies, I have a real key that still operates everything.

I'm not against progress and I understand how powerful and useful the new electronics are. I just acknowledge that each new layer of electronic control complicates cars and makes people more dependent on tow trucks vs a screw driver and crescent wrench. YMMV
 
Koolau said:
Not a (total) luddite, and I appreciate the amazing electronics available these days. BUT I worry about the unintended issues that these newer devices bring. I've heard of folks needing $2500 infotainment replacements - just to operate the radio. I saw an article on a guy whose Tesla battery died and he was locked out of his car. My car has a "button" entry. When the button battery dies, I have a real key that still operates everything.
Click to expand...

Yeah, just had to figure this out yesterday. Got home from a 2 week vacation and battery was completely out (left a charger plugged in). Not even the unlock key fob worked. Figured out Toyota has an unlock key inside the key fob. After charging, hopefully will be good to go.
 
Last edited:
RobbieB said:
It's hard to sell a car that doesn't run.
Click to expand...
+1
I had a 2001 Honda Civic engine blow up going down the freeway one day (~120,000 miles on it). I had it towed to my mechanic (a shop that only worked on Hondas) and he said ~$3,500 to put in a new engine. I asked if it was worth fixing and he said "yes" if you like the car. I told me I hated the car as the road noise was way too loud. He offered to buy it from me. I asked him why and he said it was guaranteed work to fix it and once he sold it to someone it would be future maintenance work going forward.

My recommendation is to find repair shop that does lots of work on Prius and see if they have any interest in buying.
 
Koolau said:
I always wondered what happened to EVs/hybrids when they reached the end of their life times. All the electronics and screens must be a potential nightmare. The only screen in my 2012 Toyota (bottom of the line) is for the radio. I like it that way.
Click to expand...

For the record, the screen's misbehaving on our 2007 Prius had nothing to do with the main battery, which seemed fine for 13 years.

I'll see how long our little Ford C-Max plug-in hybrid's battery lasts. It's a 2017 that we bought in 2020 for $11.5K, right before car prices skyrocketed (same car, last I checked, is going for around $18K). We've put gas in it twice this calendar year and probably will need just one more tank, because we don't drive outside the battery range very much. Selfishly, it was nice to consider higher gas prices a nonissue.

As for the battery, if it lasts another 5 years I'll be happy, based on what we paid for the car. I'm hoping EV technology will improve a lot in the next 5 years or so. We installed two charging stations at home in 2020 too, when tax credits were available. We shall see.
 
Mark1 said:
+1
I had a 2001 Honda Civic engine blow up going down the freeway one day (~120,000 miles on it). I had it towed to my mechanic (a shop that only worked on Hondas) and he said ~$3,500 to put in a new engine. I asked if it was worth fixing and he said "yes" if you like the car. I told me I hated the car as the road noise was way too loud. He offered to buy it from me. I asked him why and he said it was guaranteed work to fix it and once he sold it to someone it would be future maintenance work going forward.

My recommendation is to find repair shop that does lots of work on Prius and see if they have any interest in buying.
Click to expand...

At the beginning of the year, I sunk about $1600 in various repairs/maintenance into a 2003 Buick Regal LS with about 104,000 miles on it. The mechanic asked me if I wanted to put that much money in the car, or if I wanted this to be the "final nail in the coffin". Once upon a time, not so long ago, I would have just junked the car, but with the way car prices have risen these days, suddenly $1600 seemed cheap. I used to have a general rule of thumb that I'd take the cost of the repair, divide by $300, and that would tell me how many months I had to break even, roughly. I figured $300/mo would be the payment on a fairly decent used car. But these days, I'm guessing I'd need to use $400-500 as the divisor.

This car has a couple other issues that, eventually, will probably rear their ugly head. It has the infamous 3800 V6 plastic intake manifold coolant leak. However, it's had that for almost four years now, and it's not mixing with the oil. The mechanic told me to just keep an eye on the coolant level, and that it won't just fail catastrophically, but rather slowly get worse, to give me some warning. He said that would be about a $1200 fix. Again, my original plan was that, if it got too bad, I'd just dump the car and get something newer, but thanks to high car prices I'll probably just get it fixed. Similarly, every once in awhile the transmission will slip. Usually happens when fully warmed up, and I have to come to a stop. When I go to take off, every once in awhile there's a slight delay and then a clunk and then it lurches forward. I haven't priced transmissions lately. I'd always heard about $1800 for these relatively simply GM 4-speed automatics, but I have a feeling it might be more, these days.

I'm not sure what my breaking point would be with this car, price wise. It might be worth it to cut my losses if either the transmission or intake manifold failed completely. If I pay for the first failure, then there's more incentive to pay for the second, the whole "throwing in good money after bad" thing. And then, who's to say the engine won't go out? Or some major electronic repair?

But, if those repairs are spaced out far enough, in the long run it would probably still save money over buying a newer car. And, even a newer car can have problems. So, as long as it's a car that I still like, it could be worth it. I think the main killer for me wouldn't be the cost of a somewhat major repair now and then, but if the car starts breaking down and leaving me stranded on a regular basis. Or, if it's a somewhat minor repair, but keeps repeating itself because of crappy aftermarket parts.
 
Andre1969 said:
At the beginning of the year, I sunk about $1600 in various repairs/maintenance into a 2003 Buick Regal LS with about 104,000 miles on it. The mechanic asked me if I wanted to put that much money in the car, or if I wanted this to be the "final nail in the coffin". Once upon a time, not so long ago, I would have just junked the car, but with the way car prices have risen these days, suddenly $1600 seemed cheap. I used to have a general rule of thumb that I'd take the cost of the repair, divide by $300, and that would tell me how many months I had to break even, roughly. I figured $300/mo would be the payment on a fairly decent used car. But these days, I'm guessing I'd need to use $400-500 as the divisor.

This car has a couple other issues that, eventually, will probably rear their ugly head. It has the infamous 3800 V6 plastic intake manifold coolant leak. However, it's had that for almost four years now, and it's not mixing with the oil. The mechanic told me to just keep an eye on the coolant level, and that it won't just fail catastrophically, but rather slowly get worse, to give me some warning. He said that would be about a $1200 fix. Again, my original plan was that, if it got too bad, I'd just dump the car and get something newer, but thanks to high car prices I'll probably just get it fixed. Similarly, every once in awhile the transmission will slip. Usually happens when fully warmed up, and I have to come to a stop. When I go to take off, every once in awhile there's a slight delay and then a clunk and then it lurches forward. I haven't priced transmissions lately. I'd always heard about $1800 for these relatively simply GM 4-speed automatics, but I have a feeling it might be more, these days.

I'm not sure what my breaking point would be with this car, price wise. It might be worth it to cut my losses if either the transmission or intake manifold failed completely. If I pay for the first failure, then there's more incentive to pay for the second, the whole "throwing in good money after bad" thing. And then, who's to say the engine won't go out? Or some major electronic repair?

But, if those repairs are spaced out far enough, in the long run it would probably still save money over buying a newer car. And, even a newer car can have problems. So, as long as it's a car that I still like, it could be worth it. I think the main killer for me wouldn't be the cost of a somewhat major repair now and then, but if the car starts breaking down and leaving me stranded on a regular basis. Or, if it's a somewhat minor repair, but keeps repeating itself because of crappy aftermarket parts.
Click to expand...

I own a toyota prius and before that I was buick lesabre and century. buick/s were ususally in 2003 to 2005. they thing that really gets these cars where I live is the rust on the brake lines and fuel lines. the motors and transmissions are really well built, and will last a long time if you keep the oil and coolant levels checked. undercarriage rust is what I would be thinking about as far as longevity of the vehicle.
 
If it doesn't run and needs a full battery pack in order to be operational then I wouldn't expect to be able to sell it at all. I would take the new tires off and sell those separate then try to get a junk yard to tow it away without charging you anything. Maybe even get a couple hundred $$.
 
Isn't the cat con by itself worth $500 to $800?
 
First get the computer codes and see what it says is wrong. Your Prius being a hybrid should be able to drive on just the engine, so losing propulsion on the freeway seems to indicate a problem with the engine. Not the batteries or the electric motor. It might be something external engine sensor or similar fairly simple to fix, or could be more catastrophic internal engine part failed. Until you know that it doesn't make sense to decide, you need more information.

The main screen going out intermittently is also probably not the reason for current problem. It is something electrical causing that. But being just for display the car should still run and drive even if the screen goes dead.

I am not saying to fix and keep the car, just that you do not have a good understanding of what made it quit, and that is needed to determine a value. Simple fix means worth more. More complex fix and the car is worth less.
 
frank said:
I own a toyota prius and before that I was buick lesabre and century. buick/s were ususally in 2003 to 2005. they thing that really gets these cars where I live is the rust on the brake lines and fuel lines. the motors and transmissions are really well built, and will last a long time if you keep the oil and coolant levels checked. undercarriage rust is what I would be thinking about as far as longevity of the vehicle.
Click to expand...

Funny you'd mention that. Before the '03 Regal, I had an '00 Park Avenue Ultra, so my car history is somewhat similar to yours. I bought the Park Ave used in late 2009, with about 56,000 miles on it. It was pretty much shot by 2016, and around 115,000. Engine/drivetrain were solid, and no issues with the supercharger. But, at one point the supercharger pulley broke, and the resulting shrapnel ripped into the side of the battery, and it leaked acid. However, the battery still held a charge for a few days...I didn't realize it was damaged, until it wouldn't start one day! And yeah, that car had issues with the brake lines. Towards the end of its life, the rear shocks were shot (some kind of expensive "dyna-ride" or something like that). One of the bearing hubs was going bad, along with other suspension issues, and it also had electrical issues. When the mechanic went over what all it was going to need, and was adding it up, once he got to $3,000 he asked me if I wanted to keep going and I said nope, that's enough!

As for the Regal, Dad bought it used, at the end of '03, with about 19,500 miles on it. It had been a rental. He got it cheap though, something like $12,850 out the door, with tax, tags, and even an extended warranty he never had to use. When he died in 2017, I inherited it, figured I'd just drive it until it dropped dead, as it kept the miles off my truck.

When it went in for repairs earlier this year it was, you guessed it, brake lines! And, some fuel lines which were about to go. It also needed rear brakes, new front tires, and I forget what else. Here in Maryland (not far from Annapolis/Baltimore) rust isn't usually too much of an issue, and not like it used to be back when they built cars to be more throwaway, but the car is 20 years old now, and nothing lasts forever.

I've had a couple mechanics tell me that while cars look better, longer these days because of improved rustproofing of the sheetmetal and such, they've cheaped out on areas like suspension components, brake lines, and so forth. Back in the day you could have a car that looked like crap, but was still fairly roadworthy, while these days you can have a car that still looks nice and shiny, but the underside is about to fall out!
 
I had a car (Mazda RX-8) with problems. Locally there is a 501(c)3 that trains minorities to be mechanics and I donated the car to them. Because they repair the donated cars and are careful to keep the car for the IRS-required time, I was able to take the full NADA value deduction. Maybe I could have netted more selling outright, but the problem was intermittent and serious, so I didn't want a buyer to know where I lived!
 
Has anybody actually priced the battery pack replacement for those early Prius cars ??

I've been told by a reliable source that they can cost from $3K to $4K plus installation cost. Kind of wipes out all the savings on gas over the life span.

I'm all in favor of moving away from fossil fuels.....but Electric Vehicles are going to need more design engineering work before they can be considered an alternative to dinosaur-fueled cars and trucks. We seem to be limited by battery technology and by the lack of range or charging stations along the wayh. How are you going to get to Grandma's house for Thanksgiving if you're limited to 300 miles a day ? That Turkey's going be cold.
 
FiveDriver said:
Has anybody actually priced the battery pack replacement for those early Prius cars ??

I've been told by a reliable source that they can cost from $3K to $4K plus installation cost. Kind of wipes out all the savings on gas over the life span.

I'm all in favor of moving away from fossil fuels.....but Electric Vehicles are going to need more design engineering work before they can be considered an alternative to dinosaur-fueled cars and trucks. We seem to be limited by battery technology and by the lack of range or charging stations along the wayh. How are you going to get to Grandma's house for Thanksgiving if you're limited to 300 miles a day ? That Turkey's going be cold.
Click to expand...

The cost of a battery pack replacement isn't any more relevant than the cost to replace an ICE vehicles engine. Both re likely to last well over 100,000 miles so the vehicle will likely be replaced before the battery or engine need to be replaced. Most battery warranties on newer EVs are longer than warranties on motors for newer ICE vehicles. There are plenty of issues with EVs but that is not one of them.
 
Andre1969 said:
At the beginning of the year, I sunk about $1600 in various repairs/maintenance into a 2003 Buick Regal LS with about 104,000 miles on it. The mechanic asked me if I wanted to put that much money in the car, or if I wanted this to be the "final nail in the coffin". Once upon a time, not so long ago, I would have just junked the car, but with the way car prices have risen these days, suddenly $1600 seemed cheap. I used to have a general rule of thumb that I'd take the cost of the repair, divide by $300, and that would tell me how many months I had to break even, roughly. I figured $300/mo would be the payment on a fairly decent used car. But these days, I'm guessing I'd need to use $400-500 as the divisor.



This car has a couple other issues that, eventually, will probably rear their ugly head. It has the infamous 3800 V6 plastic intake manifold coolant leak. However, it's had that for almost four years now, and it's not mixing with the oil. The mechanic told me to just keep an eye on the coolant level, and that it won't just fail catastrophically, but rather slowly get worse, to give me some warning. He said that would be about a $1200 fix. Again, my original plan was that, if it got too bad, I'd just dump the car and get something newer, but thanks to high car prices I'll probably just get it fixed. Similarly, every once in awhile the transmission will slip. Usually happens when fully warmed up, and I have to come to a stop. When I go to take off, every once in awhile there's a slight delay and then a clunk and then it lurches forward. I haven't priced transmissions lately. I'd always heard about $1800 for these relatively simply GM 4-speed automatics, but I have a feeling it might be more, these days.



I'm not sure what my breaking point would be with this car, price wise. It might be worth it to cut my losses if either the transmission or intake manifold failed completely. If I pay for the first failure, then there's more incentive to pay for the second, the whole "throwing in good money after bad" thing. And then, who's to say the engine won't go out? Or some major electronic repair?



But, if those repairs are spaced out far enough, in the long run it would probably still save money over buying a newer car. And, even a newer car can have problems. So, as long as it's a car that I still like, it could be worth it. I think the main killer for me wouldn't be the cost of a somewhat major repair now and then, but if the car starts breaking down and leaving me stranded on a regular basis. Or, if it's a somewhat minor repair, but keeps repeating itself because of crappy aftermarket parts.
Click to expand...



In my state with its high tabs, another advantage of fixing an older car is the 200 to 300 dollar savings on the yearly tab renewal.
 
If you can't get a reasonable repair, you can donate the car.
 
aaronc879 said:
The cost of a battery pack replacement isn't any more relevant than the cost to replace an ICE vehicles engine. Both re likely to last well over 100,000 miles so the vehicle will likely be replaced before the battery or engine need to be replaced. Most battery warranties on newer EVs are longer than warranties on motors for newer ICE vehicles. There are plenty of issues with EVs but that is not one of them.
Click to expand...
Wow. From my casual reading, it seems that the lifetime of the battery packs is a well-known issue. For ICE, it is quite normal for a car to go 200K miles, an interval that (right?) would require that the battery pack be replaced. Also, even if a car is sold or traded at 100K, the residual value of the car will be seriously affected by a battery pack near death. Again from casual reading, my guess is that we have not yet heard the screaming that will arise as owners realize the economic impact of life-limited battery packs. We'll see, I guess.
 
pc95 said:
Greetings, I'm waiting on an ODB2 sensor from a friend to check our 2007 Prius error code. The car lost propulsion on the freeway when a red triangle, vsc ,and check engine light all triggered together.
Click to expand...
Sounds a lot like what happened to our DD. She inherited our 2007 Prius and it currently has very similar mileage. She took it to her trusted mechanic who sent her to a Toyota dealer. It turned out to be a transmission problem: the system shut down when the problem was detected by the car's computer. Toyota covered the repair under an unpublicized recall. No charge to her and (I think) they replaced the transmission completely. A Prius battery pack should last far longer than 100k miles so IMHO very unlikely that is the cause.
 
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