Should I buy an old Toyota Prius?

The Prius is all those things. The battery degrades a bit over time but so long as it's giving you some kind of range that's good even if its not the full range originally promised. Yes it's possible that the traction battery would break tomorrow - but so could the clutch/engine/whatever on any used car. There is a huge network of indies fixing hybrids cell by cell (instead of the full new battery from Toyota OEM).

The petrol engine is an entirely conventional Toyota one so hard to kill. I think they were all made in Japan so well put together. If it has square number plates, aftermarket fog lamp or Japanese on the radio - its a grey import probably. Only problems there are Japanese radio isn't very friendly and perhaps some insurers won't bother quoting.

For some reason catalytic convertor thieves love Priuses. Don't know why.

I was looking recently and everything was either 150000 miles or very expensive! If you see a good one, grab it. As you say - there is a reason why taxi drivers love them.

Or a Corolla?

My wife drives a 2013 Toyota Auris estate which is basically the same car. We bought it at 2 years old with 20k on it and it now has 140k.

Apart from tyres and brake discs and servicing, zero money has been spent.In fact it just went through its MOT a couple of weeks ago with no advisories. Just be advised they have a short service interval of 10k and expensive spark plugs.

I drove it to Holland via France and Belgium over xmas (for the nth time) and it was so smooth on the autoroute it felt like a car a quarter of its age.

Recommend.

Get the battery checked, they should be able to percentage report on battery condition.

When i last looked a couple of years ago, there were plenty of 3-400,000 mile priuses for sale, so if you’re finding one with low miles it might be worth checking how easy they are to clock.

SIL inherited her dad's 59 plate Prius and it's been good so far. 12v has gone once and a cat was stolen (had to have a cage fitted).

Get the battery checked, they should be able to percentage report on battery condition.

Good point. Toyota will do this for a fee of £120 or something. I don't know if you can self-service it or if an indy garage can do it.

Drive one first if you can. I can't live with that gearbox, feels like the car is riding the clutch the whole time. I know it's a feature not a fault but if you're twitchy about these things it will drive you bananas.

Same experience on that little diesel electric train that goes through Reading, by the time I get to my destination my nerves are shredded.

You may not endure the same internal mental anguish, in which case, go for it.

Thanks guys.

my very limited understanding of batteries is they like to be charged regularly.

so would an old 07 plate with 50k on the clock actually be an indicator that the battery might not have had the optimal life.

I’ll check out the idea of getting a battery checked (I guess I could test drive it to garage for them to check)

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202410315784837

14 years of MOT history looks good:  https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history   1 poorly aimed headlight, 1 delaminated number plate, 1 washer jet not working, 2 worn tyres, and 1 perished tyre.  Mileage shows it hasn't been sat for over a year, has just not done many miles.  This and the photos in the advert tell me a story I could believe:  consistent with an older person not doing many miles, then a bereavement sale.

Lack of tyre photos on the advert makes me suspect it has Chinese ditchfinders, or ones that are old, hard and about to perish.  Please look for yourself, and if you do buy it, for heaven's sake please consider a decent set, possibly all season for your North West climate.  At least mid-price brands too, alphabetically:  Avon, Goodrich, Firestone, Hankook, Kuhmo, Toyo, Uniroyal, Yokohama.

Google search for reviews of the seller found five 5 star reviews on Autotrader, five testimonials on their website, none on Facebook, I couldn't find any others.

Go in with your eyes open, check it out carefully, like you would any 17 year old car.  Good idea to have the battery checked by Toyota or a specialist.  If you don't have the skills to check other things, consider asking a friend who does, or paying someone.  I have no experience of history checks like Car Vertical, but might be worth considering,  Perhaps someone else can comment.

Seems promising, certainly worth a look.

14 Toyota services...? Encouraging. This was what I would have been looking for a couple of months ago before I copped out and bought my current car.

As a driver of Priuses (Prii?) and an Auris estate for the last 20-odd years, the only word of caution I'd add to this is that the MkII around that age has the 1.5L engine, which always felt a bit underwhelming. Perfectly fine for day-to-day gadding about, don't get me wrong, but if you wanted to get past someone, or wanted to maintain speed going up a hill, it was struggling. As said above, try a test drive if you can. There's a reason they changed it out for a 1.8L unit in all the models afterwards. That said, mine (also a 07 reg, I think) averaged about 57/58mpg through the 4 years or so that I had it, so if that's important to you, then go for it.

Regarding battery life and what causes them to degrade. It differs by battery chemistry, and I’m not sure what sort a Prius of that age has. However, almost universally more charge cycles means more degradation.

So a battery that has been charged less times is likely to be in better condition that one that has been used a lot (everything else being equal). Those factors may be more significant and tend to relate to how full the battery is charged/discharged/left when it is full. You can’t tell that, so a health check is best. However, all batteries will have been managed by the same software, so I doubt it’s a huge gamble.