Mechanic to check a used (Hybrid) car

yannakis

Would you know of a mechanic who can evaluate a used '10 Prius? It will need to be a call-out of some sort as the car is located about 45' from Dublin and dealer doesn't feel comfortable giving it to me for half a day..

grogi

YanisK wrote: »

Would you know of a mechanic who can evaluate a used '10 Prius? It will need to be a call-out of some sort as the car is located about 45' from Dublin and dealer doesn't feel comfortable giving it to me for half a day..

Any Toyota dealer will do hybrid system health check. If it drives fine, I would skip it. It does not need servicing, thus nobody can break it nor abuse.

The rest is like normal car, your trusted Joe Spanner will evaluate the body, breaks, tyres, suspension etc.

yannakis

grogi wrote: »

Any Toyota dealer will do hybrid system health check.

But the car can't go to the Toyota dealer. Do they do call-outs??

Give the reg number to a Toyota dealer and make sure any recalls have been carried out.

And do the obvious finance, crash checks. Any competent mechanic should be able to check the engine, body and so on.

Check it has a full Toyota service history. It's serviced every 15,000 kms. If the service book is empty, run, as you would with any car.

If you get it then bring it to Toyota for servicing, they're not expensive.

zilog_jones

There have been some reported inverter failures with the early third gen Prius ('09-'10), but if there is a problem I believe you'll see a lot of warning lights. There have also been cases of the petrol engines burning oil - I'm not sure what's the easiest way of checking for this (assuming levels are OK). Blocked EGR valves are also a fairly common issue which can affect performance, but can often just be cleaned out.

If the dealer's not happy about letting the car go for an independent inspection, then walk away.

yannakis

zilog_jones wrote: »

If the dealer's not happy about letting the car go for an independent inspection, then walk away.

Thank you for pointing out these elements.

Some elements make me want this '10 Prius (like the price, and inside out condition) but some other elements tell me to just walk away. Did a history check meanwhile, and the car had 59k miles on Sep 2013. Was imported to Ireland on Oct 2013 but there is no mileage recorded after that point. Now the car has 66k miles and the last service was not with a Toyota dealer.. 7k miles in 3 years is very weird, isn't it?

zilog_jones

Could there have been some clerical error with the mileage, e.g. maybe it was 59k km in 2013? Is there no NCT history? Mileage is recorded on the cert. If it's a UK import, would you consider going over there yourself? There is much better selection there and the exchange rates are in our favour.

yannakis

zilog_jones wrote: »

Could there have been some clerical error with the mileage, e.g. maybe it was 59k km in 2013? Is there no NCT history? Mileage is recorded on the cert. If it's a UK import, would you consider going over there yourself? There is much better selection there and the exchange rates are in our favour.

Its actually displayed in both miles and km. So the Irish owners either had it just lying around for 2 grocery runs a week or had problems nonstop.

I am considering to pick one up from the UK myself, but the hassle of travelling out and back, call-out mechanics over there, expenses, registering etc is putting me off.. And the price difference isn't huge most of the time.

grogi

YanisK wrote: »

Its actually displayed in both miles and km. So the Irish owners either had it just lying around for 2 grocery runs a week or had problems nonstop.

I am considering to pick one up from the UK myself, but the hassle of travelling out and back, call-out mechanics over there, expenses, registering etc is putting me off.. And the price difference isn't huge most of the time.

The newer you go, the bigger difference...

zilog_jones

YanisK wrote: »

Its actually displayed in both miles and km. So the Irish owners either had it just lying around for 2 grocery runs a week or had problems nonstop.

If it was laid up for a while and the correct procedure was not followed (as stated in the manual), then there could potentially be problems down the line with batteries.

I am considering to pick one up from the UK myself, but the hassle of travelling out and back, call-out mechanics over there, expenses, registering etc is putting me off.. And the price difference isn't huge most of the time.

UK T4 and T Spirit spec will be better than any Irish Prius. I bought in NI, which was cheaper to get there although I paid a bit above average for the car. The VRT process is quite painless these days.

I forget the equipment levels with pre-2012 models though, and as grogi said there's probably more of a benefit buying in the UK with newer cars.

yannakis

What are the potential problems for the battery if not used for long periods? What is the procedure stated in the manual?

I'm looking for 2010+ T Spirit - it seems to have the best specs with cruise control, parking sensors, rear view camera, BT audio streaming etc. I don't care about the GPS to be honest as I'm a Waze fan(atic)

n97 mini

The Satnav in the 2010 Prius is woefully expensive to update. It can only be done at a dealer and it comes in at about €430 inc VAT. If it still has the original maps they're missing lots of Irish roads, eg most of the M8.

Toyota dealers can do a battery health check which is no use if you are looking to buy one. It involves bringing it to the dealer (usually for half a day) and then bringing it back 1000 miles later for a second check. On the upside it only costs €50.

zilog_jones

YanisK wrote: »

What are the potential problems for the battery if not used for long periods? What is the procedure stated in the manual?

This is from the manual for the plug-in version, not sure if the instructions are any different for the standard Prius (Li-ion vs. Ni-MH batteries):

In order to prevent the hybrid battery (traction battery) from becoming
extremely low in charge, start the hybrid system at least once every 2 or 3
months, and turn the POWER switch off after the gasoline engine has
stopped automatically. (If the gasoline engine does not start up even after
approximately 10 seconds have passed since the READY indicator came
on, the POWER switch can be turned to OFF without any further action.)

I guess if it was left to discharge too much then it may stop working completely which is a much bigger problem, but maintaining a very low charge could also be bad for it long-term - again it depends on the types of batteries.

Also: Waze is actually useful in this country? Or is it just Dublin...

secman

My daughter bought a uk import Prius spirit, top of the range 5 years ago with 35k miles on it. It now has 105k miles on the clock. She put it through a main dealer check up a couple of months ago and it sailed through, battery has lost minimal power. Super car.

yannakis

zilog_jones wrote: »

Also: Waze is actually useful in this country? Or is it just Dublin...

Thanks for the info about the battery. Had suspicions that this particular car has been crashed so I walked off.

Waze is pretty pretty good around the whole island A few elements that I love:
- road/junction changes are reflected pretty quickly (by the community)
- if something is missing/incorrect, any user can report it on the spot
- planned closures are mapped in advance (by the community)