That car is too old to qualify for Toyota CPO status or CPO warranty. It may meet that dealers pre-owned inspection standards but for Toyota, vehicles up to 10 years/125,000 miles are eligible for silver CPO certification.
That dealer might offer an equivalate powertrain warranty and roadside assistance, but will the warranty be honored at all Toyota dealers?
I get what youâre saying. Donât really know and wasnât worried about it. I have it in writing from them, and if disaster strikes, theyâre the ones Iâm dealing with. Itâs just a basic powertrain warranty in any case, and the basic powertrain is the least of my worries.
But thatâs all beside the point. The discussion wasnât about the warranty. I was just saying that I had confidence that they delivered to me, in good faith, a car that was thoroughly inspected and turned over to me in good shape, including evidence that they were serious about it.
I have no illusions about the fact that Iâm talking about a 13yr old car on which all sorts of things could go wrong. Just like a zero yr old car. But in my case, 90% of âX goes wrongâ is my problem. For 40 years, thatâs been 100% my problem. Not worried. Iâve got tools.
That saying needs to be on a T shirt
It may mean a lot at this dealershipâs lot, but not necessarily all Toyota stores. Itâs really the owner that determines whether the CPO requirements are met. The checklist can be falsified. Consumer Reoprts says the same thing @VOLVO-V70 does about CPO vehicles. That doesnât mean your dealer cheats, but there are apparently enough that do to make the CPO designation suspect. This is a general comment since 2013 cars canât be CPO.
Over on TW, of course it is mainly a Tacoma forum, so lots of storyâs about how bad Toyota dealers are as well as lots of storyâs about how good Toyota dealers are, and it seems to be the same ones members complain about, it is like most any other retail(ish) business, it all depends on the people that work there, and of course managementâŠ
The little sister city (but still bigger than the current one) next to me has 3 Mickey Dâs, when I stilled lived there I mainly almost only went to one cause the other 2 messed up the order often and the employees just didnât give a crap, but the smaller one closest to my house was awesome, always got it right⊠(drive through only, havenât been inside one in 15 years)
Hereâs my opinion . . .
ANY vehicle will get very expensive to maintain and repair after a certain point, even a Prius
As for CPO status . . .
I worked at a dealer for a long time. In the beginning, CPO inspections were âgravyâ . . . meaning it paid well enough for the mechanic to actually perform a thorough inspection
after awhile, the times were lowered and management just wanted everything without a broken windshield or obvious wreck damage to just get âpushed throughâ
Every time I noted a car needed something, such as tires or brakes, I was treated with contempt and spoken to as if I was the one who committed an egregious error
The despicable way employees were treated is just one of many reasons I left
You remember what Joe Pesci said about drive throughs, right?
Yeah, I have learned to check my order before leaving the lot, sometimes the window⊠lol
A lot of the various drive throughs I go to know me cause I normally have one or both of my pitties with me and they love talking to them, at my old Mickey Dâs they called me the Pit Bull guyâŠ
Congrats on your new ride, Cigroller.
I did buy a 2010 Toyota Camry with 86k miles in 2012. It had 4 cylinders and was fully loaded for $16,000
The previous owner averaged 40,000 miles per year !
The interior smelled like new and there was no blemish.
I donât know why the car was listed for so cheap except the high mileage. It gave me zero issues while I owned it.
It was the SE model, too, so it came with my favorite feature ( moonroof).
Curious: how much does the battery cost ? I heard theyâre relatively expensive.
The car looks nice. Love the wheels and the body design 
I havenât researched it yet in depth, but the range will be wide. The original cells were MiMH, but I think there are also âupgradesâ to L-ion which are more powerful and would do good things for fuel economy (the biggest reason I bought another Prius - 46 mpg is addictive). Then thereâs ânewâ vs remanned.
Without having really looked around too much, all I can say is that itâs somewhere between about $1-3.5K for the battery pack. (Thatâs excluding any labor which Iâd do myself).
You only get 46mpg with your Prius?
I would have figured you get in the low 50s
I think the part of the country where he lives has a lot of hills and they are quite steep.
Ha, my sons recently departed 1992 Civic manual was getting 40-42mpg after doing a simple D16Y8 (OBD2) engine swap while using a P28 (OBD1) ECU and wiring harness, and had more power than stock, and yes what sensors that didnât plug up were simply not used, turns out you donât need all those sensors and it worked great⊠The VVT was on a toggle switch, hadnât gone into the ECU to hook up the wire and run it to the VVT solenoid yet (something like that, it was his thing)âŠ
We have hills here also⊠lol
He is not happy with the 09 Cobaltâs 25ish MPG thoughâŠ
The first gens, which is the one I had for years, were EPA rated for 41. Fuelly reports put the average at 42. I always averaged 46 overall - but I worked at it. During COVID when I didnât need to commute on an interstate I experimented. Basically, if I stayed on rural backroads (think 45mph or less roads) I got in the area of 53-54. If I included rural highway (55mph) in the mix, it came out to about 50.
And some of that. Mostly like rolling hills, but my normal interstate commute involves a small mountain. Thatâs an east coast âmountainâ tho,â so weâre talking all of ~1400ft
The 2013 is EPA rated at 49mpg, with a reported fuelly average of 44.5. I donât have enough miles in it yet to say, but right now the computer calculated figure is 46 and thatâs mixed interstate/rural roads/city.
I can say that there is nothing at all automatic about getting high mpgs. As with every car, one of the biggest variables is the nut behind the wheel. In the old 2003, I got high 40s. My wife got high 30s-low 40s, for example. Sheâs a bit whippy on the throttle and whatnot. I specifically drive it for max mpgs. Still learning on the new one how to coax the most out of the hybrid system. The old one, e.g.,was easier to keep in EV mode than this new one.
When I bought my new 2012Camry, I noticed the same language in my owners manual. Inspect transmission fluid every 30,000 miles.
I emailed Toyota US and asked how I was supposed to do that when there was no transmission dipstick.
They replied that it was a visual inspection for fluid leaks only and the transmission needed no service ever unless it leaked unless the transmission temp got too high which would turn on a light on the dash.
I went and double checked the exact text in the maintenance schedule, and it does say to inspect the fluid. It also says to âinspectâ the differential fluid. But I suspect that if I asked, Iâd be told exactly the same thing that you were. No matter, Iâll just change them - and Iâll be âinspectingâ what 13 yr old / 140-somthing K trans fluid looks like on a Prius. I wonât be nuts enough to send it out for an oil analysis tho. Iâll post pics whenever I get around to it. Itâs not high on my list right now. (Trying to finish a kitchen floor and still have to fix some leaky plumbingâŠand stuff).