I’m looking at purchasing my grandfather’s old Toyota Prius 2004, he passed away last year and my grandmother is looking at selling the car. The car has about 30,000 miles on it, mostly has been used for around town driving.
I’ve been trying to do some research on the car to see if it’ll be worth buying. Can anyone tell me of any problems they have had or have heard of having with the 2004 Prius’? Any input/advice would be welcome! Thanks!
Generally good cars. A 2004 will needs a repair now and again, but less often than the average.
Likely this car was maintained properly. See if there are service records in the glove box. If the car was taken to the selling dealer for service they should have a good record of any work done on it so far.
Most Toyota’s are due for a “major” service at 30K miles. Some dealers pump up this service with extras that are not called for by Toyota. In general the dealer tries to sell expensive “flushing” services where draining and refilling with new fluids is what mfg calls for in the manual.
All year Prius’s are rated ‘much better than averag’ by Consumer Reports, so in general it’s a good car. Have it checked out by the nearest dealer to make sure all the hybrid systems are in order. Was it maintained according to the manual?
Just make sure the oil was changed every 6 months. Other than that it is no different than any other used car. In town miles are actually hard on cars but Prius these are the “easy” miles since it is mainly electric until 25MPH or charge runs out.
What about batteries? I keep hearing people say that it’s expensive to replace them.
The batteries last about 300,000 miles, and cost $2000 approximately ( MUCH LESS THAN MAJOR ENGINE WORK)to replace. By the time you have 300,000 miles on the car, I’m sure it will be very old and you will have had good use from it.
And in 04 those batteries cost about $7k. So they keep coming down. By the time it needs a new battery it could easily be under $1k.
There are also two batteries in this car. One is the hybrid battery…the other is a normal car battery. It’s cost and usefulness is the same as any other car battery.
Good point Mike; the original catalytic converters cost about $500 to replace in 1976 when they were first introduced.
My Panasonic Viera 50" widescreen TV bougth last year for the Olympics now sells for $950 less; same model!
I have been very impressed with the reliability of those cars, especially considering all the new technology.Thanks SO much for all of the info! My grandfather took very good care of this car while he had it and my grandmother has been keeping it maintained since his passing. As I know w/ any used car (or any car for that matter) there are always repairs or general costs in up-keep that will have to be made. I just wanted to make sure I wouldn’t be getting myself into something that I couldn’t afford to take care of. I feel more comfortable about possibly purchasing this car from her.
Thanks again!
Yes, it is a great car with legendary MPG. You will have little repairs.