06 Prius with 22k - thoughts?

[Stuckupahill]

Hi
I've been looking for a Prius for a while and I've found a likely candidate.

It's an 06 Gen 2 Prius T Spirit - that's covered just 22,000 miles.
It was owned by a man in his 1990s who only drove it 1500-2000 miles a year. Apparently he used it weekly but for very short journeys.
Otherwise it was kept in his garage (un heated)
The miles are documented and the car is in excellent condition (aside from some minor bodywork blemishes). It's had a service every year at a main dealer or local garage. 
The owner is only selling it because he's decided to stop driving.
The car is going into a main dealer to get the Hybrid Health Check this week - but that will only gave me a Pass or Fail and won't tell me what condition it's in.
Given the above, if it gets a Pass, how long can I expect the Hybrid Battery to last before I have to renew it?
Apart from the Hybrid Battery, other things I've been told to consider are the 12v Battery, the discs (rusting through lack of use) and rear springs corroding.
I'm wondering about other major parts like the Inverter - does that degrade over Time or Miles?
The car is a good price - though it wouldn't be such a good deal if I had to spend a lot of money on it.
Appreciate any thoughts, 

Andy

[danowat]

I am no expert, but I can't imagine sitting for that amount of time is good for the hybrid Battery.

[16_Auris_HSD]

This isn't that unusual in Prius' world. I know a guy who bought an 06 Prius with 18k miles on exactly one year ago (it even had original tyres). It's been faultless since, the only thing he did was freshen up the interior since it did smell somewhat musty.

[Stuckupahill]

 

21 minutes ago, 16_Auris_HSD said:

This isn't that unusual in Prius' world. I know a guy who bought an 06 Prius with 18k miles on exactly one year ago (it even had original tyres). It's been faultless since, the only thing he did was freshen up the interior since it did smell somewhat musty.

Thanks, that's reassuring!

[barrycoll]

My Gen 3 2013 prius had only done 18k miles, and most of those were trips to Spain, when swapped for a 2017 Excel this year.

No faults ever developed in just 4 years, but if I was leaving th car for 5 weeks in India, I would leave it on a smart trickle charger.

The new car is only used at weekends to take the bikes out into the country, so just 2.2K miles in 7 months....but returned 72 mpg on a trip o Norwich last week.

Your car sounds like a genuine vehicle, despite the potential for brake discs.......probably just needs a long fast run, to bring it back to full vigour

 

 

 

[johalareewi]

19 hours ago, danowat said:

I am no expert, but I can't imagine sitting for that amount of time is good for the hybrid battery.

HV Battery will be fine.  They are well looked after by the system.  It's the 12V Battery that is tiny and can die if left for long periods.

[danowat]

1 hour ago, johalareewi said:

HV battery will be fine.  They are well looked after by the system.  It's the 12V battery that is tiny and can die if left for long periods.

That was kinda my point.

"They are well looked after by the system"

Surely the system can only look after the Battery if the car is running?, if the car is left stationary for a long period of time, do the cells not degrade, like other Li-ion cells do?

[kithmo]

7 minutes ago, danowat said:

That was kinda my point.

"They are well looked after by the system"

Surely the system can only look after the battery if the car is running?, if the car is left stationary for a long period of time, do the cells not degrade, like other Li-ion cells do?

But the OP said it was used weekly, so not left for long periods of time. IIRC the HV Battery takes around 10 months, unused, before the charge drops to a level where it can't be charged back up by the system and has to be recharged by a dealer on a special charger, so a week's not going to hurt it.

[Stuckupahill]

Thanks for the replies. I'm told it was used weekly and hasn't stood around for long periods, so it should be ok. I think it's a risk worth taking anyway, fingers crossed!

 

[johalareewi]

Older hybrid models are nimh based. Toyota only recently started to use lion on new models.

[PeteB]

3 hours ago, johalareewi said:

Older hybrid models are nimh based. Toyota only recently started to use lion on new models.

IIRC even the UK Gen 4 Prius is NIMH.  In some markets (including US I think), the top spec models have LION and the lower NIMH.

The Prius Plus and PiP (original and new) both got LION, but I'm not aware of any other Toyota Hybrids with it.

[16_Auris_HSD]

The new Camry mid & high spec trim comes with lion batteries and low spec has nimh batteries. It's a sexy car but we won't get it unfortunately.

[MEP's Yaris GS]

Worst case its £1200 for a new traction Battery fitted by the main dealer, and you've then a low mileage vehicle with years of reliable motoring ahead :)

But as others have said, it should be completely fine.

[kithmo]

£1200 sounds cheap for a new Traction Battery, I thought it would be nearer £3-4K fitted. Even at that it would be worth it on a low mileage car.

[PeteB]

They've come down dramatically over the years.  I don't think that includes labour or vat though, which between them would add a fair bit,

The part price of the Battery alone was reputed to be around £5k when the Gen 1 came out in 2000. 

I knew of a firm that had to buy one for a 2007 Prius (in 2007) after a driver put diesel in it, and between him, his boss, the RAC (Club Toyota used the RAC in those days) and the dealer all letting the car keep trying to restart the engine, it flattened the Battery so much it needed the special charger.  There was only one such charger in all of Europe at the time, and it took a month before it got to the UK, by which time the Battery had died.  The part price by then was about £2,200, and I believe the firm got a substantial goodwill discount.

[johalareewi]

At least with a PIP there is a built in special charger. ;)

[MEP's Yaris GS]

On 11/10/2017 at 10:59 AM, kithmo said:

£1200 sounds cheap for a new Traction battery, I thought it would be nearer £3-4K fitted. Even at that it would be worth it on a low mileage car.

Nope, main dealer confirmed, and I've seen it repeated online also. Its only a 1.4ish KWh (can't remember the exact size) unit.

He was saying how it was nearer £6-7k for the traction Battery on the mk1 Prius originally! :O

[kithmo]

That's good news for SWMBO, hers is 11 years old now and she's quite attached to it.

[PeteB]

Just found this on Toyota's web site (https://www.toyota.co.uk/hybrid/hybrid-faq/batteries.json) while looking for something else:

Model                                           Battery cost 
Yaris Hybrid                                £904.23 ex VAT 
Auris/Touring Sports Hybrid    £1,003.80 ex VAT
RAV4 Hybrid                               £1302.43 ex VAT
Prius                                            £1,003.80 plus VAT and fitting charges 
Prius Plug In                               £4,355.23 ex VAT
Prius Plus                                    £3,102.58 ex VAT

The last two will be LION rather than NIMH, and of course the PiP is rather larger.

Interestingly, the plug-in conversion my former firm had done on a 2007 model 10 years ago cost £8,000 (later went up to £10k), and presumably they were able to recover some value from the Toyota Battery they removed.  This gave almost 40 miles of EV range and still left room for the space saver under the boot floor!