I got my 05 in july 2007 for 18,000 and it had 28,000 miles on it. I did no price comparison whatsoever, I got a "hook-up" from my mom who works at a dealership. She snatched it up for me before they even booked it and put it on the lot b/c it would be gone instantly.

 

Update, it's down to 16.8k, with, I think, PreOwned Certified Warranty. I'm going to test drive on Thursday. Anymore advice? I'm really wanting this car for our family. KBB says it should be around 18.2k at the dealership with 62k miles on it.

 

Excellent! Good luck!

Bob Wilson

 

Well double check to make sure it DOES have a CPO warranty!

 

I'm now looking at getting an 04 with 80k for $13,999. That's not bad, huh?

 

Bought, I'm in the club. I'm already in love with it just from the drive home. I did have to drive 180 miles to get the thing. I averaged about 51 mpg on the highway drive back.

 

Sounds great! Average speed about 70+ mph?

Have you had a chance to check oil level and tire inflation? The usual problem is over filled oil. Don't even try to read anything from the oil as everyone selling a car starts with an oil change.

My practice has been to replace the tires of my newly bought used cars within a year . . . usually for cause. So what kind of tires do you have on the car? I'm especially interested in the tire make, model, size and max side wall pressure. Also, when you get a chance, how does the wear look across the treads of all four tires? This often gives a clue to alignment.

Bob Wilson

ps. BTW, welcome to the CLUB but being an HCH owner, you already were.

 

Yes, I was anywhere between 65-70 miles per hour the whole way home. In the HCH, the cruise hurts your mpg, with my first trip with the Prius I felt like you don't take quite the hit in the prius with cruise control. Is that true?

Also, is it easy to check if the oil is overfilled?

The tires are Yokohama YK520.
The size is 185/65R15 88H
The max side wall pressure is 51psi, but it says not to inflate over 40psi. ???
Tread looks good, I'll post some pics.

Thanks for the reply!

 

Excellent! I use cruise control all the time including in the city. This chart will show show what I've found to be my expected mileage at any given speed and you should get at least as good or better:

Now it turns out that between 50-65 mph there is a notch where highway mileage appears to be better than expected. My current thinking is this corresponds to a sweet spot in engine operation and the efficiency is higher than the curve. At 70 mph, I see the start of a steep decline but this is probably unique to the 2001-03, NHW11 Prius.

I have one set of points from an NHW20 reported a couple of years ago:

I suspect that the NHW20 does a better job of following the drag derived efficiency curve due to the higher rpm limit of MG1. We don't really see the knee until about 85 mph.

Yes, just take a paper towel out and open the hood:

That yellow round thing near the bottom of this photo is the oil dipstick. You want to pull it out and wipe down the tip with the paper towel. Then stick it back in the hole, all the way down, and pull it out again. Look for where the oil level is relative to the "F" line. If it is above the "F" line, your oil is over filled.

I wouldn't worry about it now, you just bought the car. But when you have your oil changed, you want to emphasize that you do not want it over filled. Are you going to be changing your own oil? If so, we can go over what it takes.

Great tires!!!

185/65R15 88H - tire size
31715 - part number
520/A/A - UTQG rating
5.5 - measured rim width
5.0 - 6.5 - approved rim width
7.5 - overall width
24.5 - overall diameter
5.6 - tread width
10 - tread depth (new)
11.2 - static radius
848 - rpm
1235@51 - max load at 51 psi

I'm going to suggest you consider the following test:

1) set tires to 50 psi and drive for a week
2) bring pressure down 45 psi and drive for a week
3) bring pressure down 40 psi and drive for a week
4) bring pressure down 35 psi and drive for a week

Be sure to drive in both city and some highway driving and note your impressions. For good measure, go to an empty parking lot and try a few 'hard turns' at some given speed. You want to test the tires to understand how well they handle and make sure you feel confident with them. Running a week at 50 psi won't hurt and will let you know what they do. Also, if you feel unhappy at 50 psi, you can always let the air out to a lower pressure.

Tire pressure is pretty important and I would recommend getting a quality tire gauge that you keep in the glove compartment. Mine looks like this:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=95401

It holds the pressure and the little button on the left releases it. This makes accurate tire pressure readings easy. Having your own pressure gauge means you never have to guess about the accuracy of the tire pump machines.

Any questions about the Prius FAQ?

Bob Wilson

 

Great post and information, thanks! I'll read over the FAQ's to see if I have any other questions. Could I ask you a few questions about your graphs? What does mpg w/o fixed mean? Is it without cruise control? If true, that would explain with fixed. I'll check my oil right now and I want that tire gauge. I've always kept my HCH tires around 50psi with no problems. I'm used to over inflated tires.