New to hybrids and Prius, need pointers on a 2012 model

[danowat]

Hi all, I have never owned a hybrid before, but I am off to view a 2012 T Spirit Prius this afternoon and wondered if someone could give me some pointers as to what to look out for when looking over it and test driving it.

Cheers

[Anthony Poli]

Hi all, I have never owned a hybrid before, but I am off to view a 2012 T Spirit Prius this afternoon and wondered if someone could give me some pointers as to what to look out for when looking over it and test driving it.

Cheers

 

How many miles has it done?

Full service history and has the 5 year warranty finished ?

 

 

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[danowat]

6 minutes ago, Anthony Poli said:

 

How many miles has it done?

Full service history and has the 5 year warranty finished ?

 

 

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34000 miles, yes, FSH, not sure about the warranty, from a bit of research I believe they upped the warranty around this age?, car was registered in Nov 2012 if that makes any difference.

[johalareewi]

Nov 2012 will have 5 year warranty (it was upped in 2010) and it should also be the face lifted gen3 with the touch and go head unit instead of the hard disk based head unit the original t-spirit had.  

[FROSTYBALLS]

The 5 year/100,0000 mile new car warranty was introduced from 1st June 2010. The hybrid components and Battery will have separate coverage - see https://www.toyota.co.uk/owners/warranty/toyota-warranty.json

So the new car warranty and hybrid components warranty will go up to November 2017.

[danowat]

Right thanks, so it'll have a warranty till November, what else should I look out for?

[Anthony Poli]

I bought my hybrid, when it was 5 years old and the same mileage.

So depending on the price I'd check what options were fitted.

 

 

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[Duffryn]

34K is a decently low mileage for a five year old car, so it's probably not been used for commercial purposes. Have a good test drive, although you may have had by now, but if not try and find a rough surfaced road to make sure you're happy with the road noise, possible rattles/squeaks etc. (some Prius can be a bit 'iffy' in this respect - in my experience!). If not happy check tyres to see what type are fitted, as these can affect road noise inside the car. And you could have a look at the Govt. website to see if there are any MOT advisories mentioned too.

 

[kithmo]

Just the usual things as on any second hand car really, front tyres may be coming up for replacing at 34K miles (or rears if they've been swapped over) as David said above a good test drive to weed out any rattles, steering, braking or handling problems. If it doesn't have a full dealer service history, check if it has any recalls pending.

[Chris Dance]

If it has a full Toyota service history it should also have had hybrid Battery annual checks. The Prius has a very small 12V battery; life of which is approx 5 years. The Prius is very reliable car. Check the bodywork for any damage.

[danowat]

Thanks all, car was immaculate inside and out, and drove like a new car, no noises, squeaks or rattles, I couldn't find anything wrong with it, all the gubbins seemed to work ok, interior spotless, paintwork spotless, tyres almost new, although they are different brands front and rear (michellen premicy front, Bridgestone rear) is this an issue?.

FSH, full HPI check all fine, I did a visual check on the 12v Battery, and it looks brand new, which I'd expect anyway considering it's position, but I've asked the garage to find out if it's been changed.

Only thing I didn't like was the slight blue drop shadow on the Toyota Badge!! (standard I assume?), just goes to show how good the car (seemingly) was if that's all I can complain about!

They tried to push an extended warranty, citing how expensive certain things are too fix, but I had a look at reliability index, and it 36, I am not sure it's worth spending £400 a year on a warranty, thoughts?

[johalareewi]

1 hour ago, danowat said:

They tried to push an extended warranty, citing how expensive certain things are too fix, but I had a look at reliability index, and it 36, I am not sure it's worth spending £400 a year on a warranty, thoughts?

AFAIK There is currently an offer on the extended warranty. Two years for the price of one.  The extended warranty is pretty good with unlimited mileage and includes Toyota Roadside Assistance (which is brilliant).  For £400 for 2 years, that is a good deal.

Things that could go wrong include inverter failure (£2000 to fix), Early gen3's could overwork the inverter causing it to stop working.  MrT did a recall and software mod to 'not work the inverter so hard' but the mod was too late for some and inverter failure on older gen3's can happen.  Yours being a later model might not be affected.  The inverter died on my 2009 gen3 (despite having the recall done).  I also had a wheel bearing replaced under the extended warranty.

[danowat]

3 minutes ago, johalareewi said:

AFAIK There is currently an offer on the extended warranty. Two years for the price of one.  The extended warranty is pretty good with unlimited mileage and includes Toyota Roadside Assistance (which is brilliant).  For £400 for 2 years, that is a good deal.

Which company are offering that?, I might be tempted at £400 for two years.

edit : Toyota I assume?

Is it also it's possible for Toyota to check if this car has had any of the recall / fixes that have been issued?

[johalareewi]

Toyota are offering two years for the price of one on new Toyota extended warranties (or they were a few weeks ago).  Check with your Toyota dealer.

For example

http://www.steveneagelltoyota.co.uk/aftersales-offers/extended-warranty-2-4-1-offer/

[Chris Dance]

Hi Danny,. Car sounds good, if you are buying from a Toyota dealer you will have a warranty, if you do a very high mileage extended warranty may be considered otherwise I do not think you need it.  I have a customer 3 year service plan, it cost £690.

Just seen the latest Toyota extended warranty deal with roadside assistance. That seems a good deal.

Edited June 22, 2017 by Chris Dance
New Information.

[danowat]

Just now, Chris Dance said:

Hi Danny,. Car sounds good, if you are buying from a Toyota dealer you will have a warranty, if you do a very high mileage extended warranty may be considered otherwise I do not think you need it.  I have a customer 3 year service plan, it cost £690.

No, from a non franchised dealer.

I have never had extended warranties before, but I assume it is something I can sort out after buying the car?

[johalareewi]

6 minutes ago, danowat said:

I have never had extended warranties before, but I assume it is something I can sort out after buying the car?

Yes.  Ask a few Toyota dealers for a quote.  One of the conditions of the Toyota extended warranty is that you have the car serviced by Toyota.  You can ask the dealer to quote for a combined extended warranty and service plan bundle.  My dealer also included free MOTs.

[danowat]

Just now, johalareewi said:

Yes.

Ok, cool, thanks.

The Toyota warranty runs out in November, so if Toyota are still offering two years for £400, I'll probably take the plunge.

I pick the car up this afternoon.

[johalareewi]

You can take out a Toyota Extended warranty before the current warranty expires (handy if there is an offer ;) ).  They will just add it on to the end of whatever warranty you already have.  See the notes I added to my previous comment.

[Anthony Poli]

So you'll be like kid with a toy then :-)

 

 

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[danowat]

Thanks all, appreciate the help.

[danowat]

4 minutes ago, Anthony Poli said:

So you'll be like kid with a toy then :-)

 

 

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Indeed!, just got to get my head around the driving style, it's quite different from a diesel, of which I have driven for decades.

[kithmo]

Actually, from a standstill, with the extra push from the electric motor, it's closer to driving a diesel than a petrol.

Re tyres, not my personal preference to have different brands of tyres on, but as long as each axle has the same on each side it should be ok, it's not as if you're going to track days with a Prius is it. 

It sounds like maybe the front tyres, which wear faster, have been replaced and swapped with the rears. This is ok as the (older ?) Michelins will wear out first, then you can replace them to match the Bridgestones. Check the manufacturing date on the tyres, it's generally recommended that they be replaced if they're over 5 years old.

[Anthony Poli]

So you'll be like kid with a toy then :-)

 

 

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Indeed!, just got to get my head around the driving style, it's quite different from a diesel, of which I have driven for decades.

 

Would imagine the only thing to get used to is the foot operated parking brake. Other than that it's like a standard automatic, but with stealth mode.

 

 

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[PeteB]

3 hours ago, kithmo said:

...Check the manufacturing date on the tyres, it's generally recommended that they be replaced if they're over 5 years old.

another reason I hate space savers, as you can't swap them onto the car for normal driving to wear them out (but I hate having no spare even more).

One of many reasons I kept my original Gen 1 Prius for so long was it had 5 identical alloy wheels and tyres, so each time I bought 2 or 4 new ones I brought the spare into use and put a new tyre in the boot.