Should I Buy A Used 2010 Prius Hybrid?

[Ten Ninety]

When I was looking 18 months ago, prices varied ridiculously between dealerships for these cars. It looks like they still do, although they have definitely all hardened.

A quick look on the Toyota site for approved used cars does show a few T-Spirits for more 'reasonable' prices than £15k which is insane. There's one on a 59 with ~20k on the clock for £12,950. It's in Lincoln, which is a nice day trip out.

Many dealers are set up for remote buyers now and offer delivery, but personally I would drive a lot of miles to save £1000 being a Yorkshireman. To save £5000 I would cross continents.

You make it sound like that's unusual. You mean it's just us tight buggers who'd do that? It sounds perfectly normal to me - surely?

I'm not remotely Northern (although my wife is) but I've always travelled around the country to get the best car. Usually that's been because I had very precise requirements for specification, mileage etc but on occasion it has been driven by price. Over the years I have found there to be absolutely no correlation between price and condition, nor any opportunity to negotiate a larger discount or better trade-in off the higher-priced cars. I've saved thousands, and found cars I'd never otherwise have owned, from being prepared to look beyond my own doorstep and walk away from what appeared to be bizarrely overpriced clunkers.

That said, everyone else I know thinks I am mad for even travelling outside the town in which I live to buy a car. They seem happy to limit themselves to whatever's on offer within a few miles' radius, despite the internet age giving them better buyers' information than they've ever had. It takes all sorts, I guess, and explains why dealers who routinely 'overprice' their cars can stay in business, as there are people prepared to pay inflated prices for the convenience of not bothering to look further than their local area.

[Dacre]

I've just traded my September 2010 Prius T4 with 80,000 on the clock and was given a trade-in of approximately £8,600.

I traded it for a November 2013 T4 with 15,000 on the clock and a price of £19,000

[MEP's Yaris GS]

Many dealers are set up for remote buyers now and offer delivery, but personally I would drive a lot of miles to save £1000 being a Yorkshireman. To save £5000 I would cross continents.

You make it sound like that's unusual. You mean it's just us tight buggers who'd do that? It sounds perfectly normal to me - surely?

I'm a ex Londoner and traveled from East Anglia to Salford for a £3k saving.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Many dealers are set up for remote buyers now and offer delivery, but personally I would drive a lot of miles to save £1000 being a Yorkshireman. To save £5000 I would cross continents.

You make it sound like that's unusual. You mean it's just us tight buggers who'd do that? It sounds perfectly normal to me - surely?

I'm a ex Londoner and traveled from East Anglia to Salford for a £3k saving.

Must be some Northern in you some where :)

You don't even have to be born here. Mrs Cabbie is from Kent and after a decade she's as careful with her money (notice I didn't say tight) as any northerner.

But seriously, it does pay to travel for a significant saving. Those too laze are spending £2k-£3k extra and that's madness to me, especially these days.

[barrycoll]

mmmmm.......

once again, a new 2015 Prius T4 with full warranty is £19,576 from drivethedeal.com...

more than £4k discount, so £19k for a 2013 doesn't sound too impressive

£4k should be worth traveling for

[Dacre]

mmmmm.......

once again, a new 2015 Prius T4 with full warranty is £19,576 from drivethedeal.com...

more than £4k discount, so £19k for a 2013 doesn't sound too impressive

£4k should be worth traveling for

I looked at all the options and saw that I could get a new T4 for £19,576.00 The problem is the trade in of my existing car. The hassle factor of getting rid of the existing car with changing the private plate over has caused me problems in the past so I bit the bullet and went to a dealer who will do all this for me - I end up paying more but it's the time over money issue

[MEP's Yaris GS]

mmmmm.......

once again, a new 2015 Prius T4 with full warranty is £19,576 from drivethedeal.com...

more than £4k discount, so £19k for a 2013 doesn't sound too impressive

£4k should be worth traveling for

I looked at all the options and saw that I could get a new T4 for £19,576.00 The problem is the trade in of my existing car. The hassle factor of getting rid of the existing car with changing the private plate over has caused me problems in the past so I bit the bullet and went to a dealer who will do all this for me - I end up paying more but it's the time over money issue

Could always sell it to we buy any car, cannot fault their service when I used them.

[barrycoll]

I was in the same position as you Tim, when I was selling my 57 reg Golf estate to buy a new 2013 T Spirit.

Keeping the reg from the car wasn't a problem, as long as the right forms were filled in, and as I had to wait for the new car delivery this wasn't a problem......although I could have started the process earlier, and had it newly number plated when it was for sale.

Spent a bit of time valeting it, and took lots of pics, including ones of service docs, and MOTs for mileage...I even cropped and enhanced the pics for a more interesting presentation using Picasa

The ad was placed in Autotrader giving a personal history of the car, and the facts of zero accidents or spray work, wheels unscuffed etc, payed for an HPI check, and the phone never stopped ringing....I got £9,500, instead of £7000 as a trade in, and used the discount agent for another £4k off....payment from the young family was by a BACS transfer, and quite painless, in fact almost pleasant, as a good car was going to a good home

Autootrader ads are always pathetically worded with no info about the car, or simply Autotrader worded, with no personal component.

But I am the only person that I know (!!) that possibly finds this an interesting experience, and an extra £2.5k for a few hours 'work' seems easy pickings.....but maybe as I am an Aussie, I don't like getting rolled over by the motor trade

[Grumpy Cabbie]

I'd have to think twice about selling privately on Autotrader. In the past I got inundated with spam calls trying to sell advertising, or con artists and time wasters of that type. With all these log book loans out there that don't show on HPI is another complication that could go sour.

I think if you get a genuine family like you got then it's a nice experience, like you say a good car going to good people. But there are also a lot of idiots out there and scammers too.

[kevin h]

YEP, CERTAINLY HOLDING THERE VALUE. MINE IS A 59 T SPIRIT AND WAS OFFERED £11500 BY A DEALER AGAINST A USED YARIS.

[Julian30]

I'm almost tempted to drive around a few places to see what I get offered for mine :-)

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Me too, but then I was stumped with what I would replace it with. I could never, ever go back to a clattery diesel. I would need an automatic which means I'm stuck with BEV or hybrid to gain reasonable economy figures. The Honda hybrids are just so compromised to be not worthy of consideration. The BEVs like a Nissan Leaf are also holding their value and possibly creeping up too. The Renault BEV's insist on the Battery lease which starts at £45 pm for 5,000 miles, so that's out of the question. The Peugeot ion and Citroen C-Zero or Mitsubishi i-miev are cheap but too small for my fat a**e and ego.

So it's the Prius for me for now.

[PeteB]

Me too, but then I was stumped with what I would replace it with...

and me, my Prius takes some beating for the money - I like being able to run the tank down to almost fumes, then squeeze about £48-£50 worth of unleaded into the tank and drive some 500-550 miles before needing to fill up again.

I did check out the Lexus IS 300h F-Sport, the only Lexus with digital instruments, but there are too many bits of kit missing for around £45k, nowhere to put a spare wheel (except the boot) and only 3 year warranty!

I even looked at the Tesla EV (Model S) which has some fantastic gear and in the longer range 85 kWh Battery version could do almost all my longer trips and back on a single charge (over 300 mile range if you don't use the phenomenal 0-60 in 5½ sec acceleration all the time).

Downside is it comes to £65k for the longer range model with a few extras, including a rather nice tan colour leather interior - would be wonderful to get away from depressing black/dark interiors again! Plus I could buy a spare wheel and probably store it in the front boot and still have a large rear boot for luggage.

For my average 40 mile daily use I could charge it overnight for about £1 a day, although recharging after a longer trip would be a bit dearer because it would take longer than the economy 7 period, however after most journeys I could rebuild a full charge in 2-3 days if I'm not going too far afterwards. That is about a quarter of my current petrol costs, so would save me just over £1,100 a year at present prices - servicing should be cheaper too, and their service package even includes brake parts!

Of course, it sill makes no financial sense at all, but has a lot of super features, like being able to use a smartphone to see charge status, set charging start time times, and turn on heating or cooling shortly before getting into the car so it's set up whilst plugged in.

Add memory seats, powered boot lid, adaptive cruise control, a fantastic 17" split touch screen and customisable dash displays it's certainly appealing, but I can't bring myself to spend three times the cost of my Prius on one.

[Julian30]

I agree with you both although my new commute (1.1 miles) means I don't really need a car at all (except for bad weather).

If money were no object (upto and including if I were a billionaire!) the Tesla S is my 'dream' car.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

PeteB, just get the S. It would be as lovely as you imagine and make your life complete.

And when I said I couldn't think of a replacement for my Prius, I meant within my budget. The Tesla S has it about right if I could afford the £50k minimum bare bones version. I don't like that big 17 inch screen in the center and like to touch controls from memory without taking my eyes off the road, but every car is a compromise and that's one I'd be willing to take.

[Julian30]

I agree, the big screen seems somewhat off putting and also I'd love the sat nav to use a Heads Up Display (like some Prius).

[PeteB]

HUD was one of the things I found I sorely missed when I test drove the BMW i3. On the Tesla at least you can choose what's displayed either side of the speedo just by holding in the relevant thumbwheel on the steering wheel, then the thumbwheel and buttons control that function - includes climate and Nav. Next best thing I guess.

The climate buttons are permanently displayed on the bottom line of the screen.

I would find the full screen map mode with live Google traffic useful for journey planning whilst parked.