Buying a Gen3, Questions!

[SH4RKY]

Morning all,

Decided to buy a Prius for use as the family run around.  Have a Leaf that's used as a commuting car (100 miles a day) so the Prius will be used as the 2nd car and for various trips by the other half and for the longer range runs!  We live in the sticks so have a few hills to deal with and generally much less city driving, mostly A roads.  Considered other things like Astras etc and while they are about half the price to buy my running costs spreadsheet estimates they may be more expensive to run in the long term, due to higher maintenance, running costs, residuals, etc (dpfs, tax, clutches etc).  Hopefully its proven right!

I've found a 2nd hand 2009 G3 T4 Prius.

Slightly odd in terms of ownership, its private but the owner has died and the car is being used as an 'estate' run around.  So its not cherished by any means but it seems to be maintained and in decent enough condition.  Could do with some TLC in general.  But price and spec is ideal for us I think (leather + baby = win!).

So I had a few questions:

• It drove fine, as far as I could tell.  Difficult as the hybrid system has a bit of a mind of its own and revving the car bares no relation to pedal due to the CVT!  Sounded quiet and seemed to behave as expected though.  Is there anything in particular I should be looking out for?  What should the test drive reflect, if anything?
• They said if I arranged it they would drop the car off at the local Toyota dealer for a Hybrid Health Check.   Is there anything else I should ask the dealer to report back on?   Recalls / updates etc?  Confirmation of service history / warranty etc?
• What tyres are factory default / recommended?   The car had 4 random ones on it.  Check on BC came back at approx 70-90 for a tyre, but none had a great Fuel rating...
• I noticed some past MOTs reported the hand brake to have poor efficiency on the one side (approx 10%).  Is this a common issue?  Would it be a cheap / easy fix? 

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks

[drives]

I asked the same question a few months ago when buying and got some really useful pointers in relation to common faults. Post was here...

http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/170506-gen-3-prius-buying-advice/

[SH4RKY]

Thanks for the link.  Missed that.  

Some useful pointers.  Ill have to check the wheels and steering feel when i go back!

Car has only done about 60k so quite light use for a Prius.    Its now booked in for a visual check over and a hybrid health check.  

The car apparently (a letter confirming dates etc) has 4-5 months of warranty left from its 2nd hand purchase from the main dealer.  So ill try and confirm with toyota if that is still valid and ill make sure to give it a thorough going over to catch things within the remaining warranty period!

The car has been serviced by a non Toyota local garage.  As long as it was done at the correct intervals, I wonder if taking it back to Toyota for a service/health check would reapply the 1 year warranty boost thats advertised.   Or if that deal gets broken by non main dealer servicing....

 

[drives]

I would make sure that it has had the inverter recall as well. I believe this was an ECU modification to reduce stress on this component as a result of a few failures.

This is all viewable online when you register, along with any service history. I found all the cars I looked at, as soon as the warranty ran out, owners were going to independent garages for servicing and invariably no proof of the right oil being put in or brake fluid changes etc. Call me cynical but I doubt many independent garages are going to order in 0w20 and will just run with what they have. Annoying but I ended up buying one such vehicle and just servicing it myself as soon as I got it. I was surprised that people would spend 15-20k on a car, and then take it for a £70 quid service done by some spanner monkey who puts the wrong oil in it

Overall I found it really difficult to find a genuinely well looked after Prius on the used market I have to say. I just went with the only one that didn't have dents/scratches all over, good spec, was reasonably priced, drove ok and had decent rubber on it.

Best of luck! Luckily these cars seem to be pretty reliable touch wood so can't go far wrong.

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

23 hours ago, SH4RKY said:

The car apparently (a letter confirming dates etc) has 4-5 months of warranty left from its 2nd hand purchase from the main dealer.  So ill try and confirm with toyota if that is still valid and ill make sure to give it a thorough going over to catch things within the remaining warranty period!

The car has been serviced by a non Toyota local garage.  As long as it was done at the correct intervals, I wonder if taking it back to Toyota for a service/health check would reapply the 1 year warranty boost thats advertised.   Or if that deal gets broken by non main dealer servicing....

Depends which warranty it has. A 2009 car would only have had the 3 year/60,000 mile new car warranty, plus the hybrid components/battery warranty of 5 years/60,000 miles. The warranty could be the remainder of an extended warranty. If it is a Toyota extended warranty, then, to remain valid, the servicing would have had to have been done within the Toyota dealer network.

Hybrid Health Check - see  https://www.toyota.co.uk/caring-for-your-toyota/service-and-maintenance/hybrid-health-check.json?gclid=CIXwmvS4xssCFUwq0wodRGwLMg&gclsrc=aw.ds

[johalareewi]

On 15/03/2016 at 11:27 AM, SH4RKY said:

What tyres are factory default / recommended?   The car had 4 random ones on it.  Check on BC came back at approx 70-90 for a tyre, but none had a great Fuel rating

Being a 2009 T4, it will probably have the 17 inch wheels and low profile tyres.  These can be pricey :(

The Prius aims to get as many miles out of your gallon of fuel as possible and one of the ways is by using low rolling resistance tyres (also called fuel savers).

 

 

[SH4RKY]

Update.  

 

Toyota cant do a hybrid health check as the small starter Battery needs to be replaced (£110).  They cant even put a temporary Battery on the car as the system apparently needs to do a thousand or so miles before a health check can be carried out...  So, while it would have been nice to have a health check report, it doesnt look likely.  Would have been a nice to have...    But as said, there are no warning lights, cars seems to drive ok...  more than likely the system is fine i guess.  May ask for an extended test drive though!  ha.

 

 

6 hours ago, johalareewi said:

Being a 2009 T4, it will probably have the 17 inch wheels and low profile tyres.  These can be pricey :(

The Prius aims to get as many miles out of your gallon of fuel as possible and one of the ways is by using low rolling resistance tyres (also called fuel savers).

 

Yes, 17" alloys.  tyres have decent tread, but yeah, not exactly high end branded.  Was wondering what brand they come out the factory with?

 

15 hours ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

Depends which warranty it has. A 2009 car would only have had the 3 year/60,000 mile new car warranty, plus the hybrid components/battery warranty of 5 years/60,000 miles. The warranty could be the remainder of an extended warranty. If it is a Toyota extended warranty, then, to remain valid, the servicing would have had to have been done within the Toyota dealer network.

Hybrid Health Check - see  https://www.toyota.co.uk/caring-for-your-toyota/service-and-maintenance/hybrid-health-check.json?gclid=CIXwmvS4xssCFUwq0wodRGwLMg&gclsrc=aw.ds

The car is 6 years 6 months old....  so even if it had the longer 5 year warranty it would still be out.  I thought all batteries had 8 years....  Hmm, ok.

The warranty they have was given and extended as part of the purchase of the car from the main dealer.  We have now asked for them to contact the toyota garage to confirm if its still valid as the car has been serviced locally and what it actually covers.   also asked them to confirm how the original traction Battery warranty stands.

 

16 hours ago, drives said:

I would make sure that it has had the inverter recall as well. I believe this was an ECU modification to reduce stress on this component as a result of a few failures.

This is all viewable online when you register, along with any service history. I found all the cars I looked at, as soon as the warranty ran out, owners were going to independent garages for servicing and invariably no proof of the right oil being put in or brake fluid changes etc. Call me cynical but I doubt many independent garages are going to order in 0w20 and will just run with what they have. Annoying but I ended up buying one such vehicle and just servicing it myself as soon as I got it. I was surprised that people would spend 15-20k on a car, and then take it for a £70 quid service done by some spanner monkey who puts the wrong oil in it

Overall I found it really difficult to find a genuinely well looked after Prius on the used market I have to say. I just went with the only one that didn't have dents/scratches all over, good spec, was reasonably priced, drove ok and had decent rubber on it.

Best of luck! Luckily these cars seem to be pretty reliable touch wood so can't go far wrong.

Will call Toyota about the Inverter.   But what do you mean its viewable online?

depending on what comes back with the warranty and all, I may do a full fluid change if/when i buy the car.  Found the Nuts about bolts youtube guides and it all looks relatively simple. 

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

When a vehicle is within its new car warranty, regulations called Block Exemption allows owners to have their vehicles serviced by non-franchised dealers and maintain warranty coverage provided the manufacturer's service regime is maintained and parts of similar quality are used.

Block Exemption only applies to the new car warranty - in the case of this Prius, it would have been Toyota's 3 year/60,000 mile new car warranty. 

The provider of an extended warranty isn't covered under Block Exemption, and they can stipulate who should carry out servicing during the extended warranty period in order for the warranty to remain valid.

Toyota Extended Warranties require servicing during the extended warranty period, to be carried out by Toyota dealers in order to keep the extended warranty valid -  https://www.toyota.co.uk/caring-for-your-toyota/warranty/extended-warranty.json

[SH4RKY]

Thanks for the clarification

[Heidfirst]

1 hour ago, SH4RKY said:

Update.  

 

Toyota cant do a hybrid health check as the small starter battery needs to be replaced (£110). 

The price to supply & fit a new Battery for a Prius under Toyota's Fixed Price Scheme is £95.   https://www.toyota.co.uk/caring-for-your-toyota/service-and-maintenance/repairs.json

[drives]

7 hours ago, SH4RKY said:

Update.  

 

Toyota cant do a hybrid health check as the small starter battery needs to be replaced (£110).  They cant even put a temporary battery on the car as the system apparently needs to do a thousand or so miles before a health check can be carried out...  So, while it would have been nice to have a health check report, it doesnt look likely.  Would have been a nice to have...    But as said, there are no warning lights, cars seems to drive ok...  more than likely the system is fine i guess.  May ask for an extended test drive though!  ha.

 

 

Yes, 17" alloys.  tyres have decent tread, but yeah, not exactly high end branded.  Was wondering what brand they come out the factory with?

 

The car is 6 years 6 months old....  so even if it had the longer 5 year warranty it would still be out.  I thought all batteries had 8 years....  Hmm, ok.

The warranty they have was given and extended as part of the purchase of the car from the main dealer.  We have now asked for them to contact the toyota garage to confirm if its still valid as the car has been serviced locally and what it actually covers.   also asked them to confirm how the original traction battery warranty stands.

 

Will call Toyota about the Inverter.   But what do you mean its viewable online?

depending on what comes back with the warranty and all, I may do a full fluid change if/when i buy the car.  Found the Nuts about bolts youtube guides and it all looks relatively simple. 

 

You can register on mytoyota- can't remember whether you just need the registration to do this or something else like the VIN. Once registered you can see when toyota serviced it and what recalls it has had. There is also a separate website portal where you can check if there are any outstanding recalls. Just google toyota recall checker.

Those nuts about bolts videos are brilliant- fair play to the guy that did them all. It is all simple stuff really. I've just managed to install the techstream software on my win 10 laptop and apparently there's a way of basically doing a hybrid health check on it but haven't had a chance to have a proper look as yet. I'd think you'd have to be really unlucky to get a duff Battery in a 2009 with 60,000 miles on it

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

My Toyota - https://www.toyota.co.uk/tme#/my-toyota/

Reg.no or VIN needed.

Recall checker - https://www.toyota.co.uk/caring-for-your-toyota/owners/recall-checker.json

Reg.no needed.

[SH4RKY]

Amazing.  Thanks guys!

Recall checks out. 

Ill definitely query the Battery cost....  seems like something is out of whack there!!

Cant see service history as i need to verify the vehicle using the V5. 

 

"We are pleased to confirm that your Toyota is not affected by any voluntary customer service campaigns or outstanding safety recalls and no further action is required."

 

Well, few things loose ends to tie up, but if all goes well, aiming to grab the car saturday!

[Sagitar]

On ‎15‎/‎03‎/‎2016 at 11:27 AM, SH4RKY said:

Morning all,

Decided to buy a Prius for use as the family run around.  Have a Leaf that's used as a commuting car (100 miles a day) so the Prius will be used as the 2nd car and for various trips by the other half and for the longer range runs!  We live in the sticks so have a few hills to deal with and generally much less city driving, mostly A roads.  Considered other things like Astras etc and while they are about half the price to buy my running costs spreadsheet estimates they may be more expensive to run in the long term, due to higher maintenance, running costs, residuals, etc (dpfs, tax, clutches etc).  Hopefully its proven right!

I've found a 2nd hand 2009 G3 T4 Prius.

Slightly odd in terms of ownership, its private but the owner has died and the car is being used as an 'estate' run around.  So its not cherished by any means but it seems to be maintained and in decent enough condition.  Could do with some TLC in general.  But price and spec is ideal for us I think (leather + baby = win!).

So I had a few questions:

• What tyres are factory default / recommended?   The car had 4 random ones on it.  Check on BC came back at approx 70-90 for a tyre, but none had a great Fuel rating...

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks

My 2009 gen3 T Spirit came with 17" wheels fitted with Michelin Pilot Primacy tyres. 215/45 R17 87W front and rear. They were very good summer tyres but pretty awful in the winter. I recall that the handbook recommended a change of tyres for the winter.

You might like to investigate Michelin Cross Climate for all year round use. I have them on my PiP and they work well for me, but I have 15 inch wheels.

[MEP's Yaris GS]

On 17/03/2016 at 3:52 PM, SH4RKY said:

I thought all batteries had 8 years....  Hmm, ok.

 

Depends when it was registered, has changed over the years.

[johalareewi]

On 18/03/2016 at 10:59 AM, Sagitar said:

I recall that the handbook recommended a change of tyres for the winter.

 

The irony was that they didn't exist in the low profile version (at least not in the UK) even MrT couldn't get any.

You might like to investigate Michelin Cross Climate for all year round use. I have them on my PiP and they work well for me, but I have 15 inch wheels.

They have these on display at our Costco. They certainly look like they will give some grip in the snow (all the right bits are there).