10 Things You Should Know Before Buying A Toyota Prius (New Or Used)

By News Update On Sep 21, 2024

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Not too long ago, the Toyota Prius was the best-known hybrid vehicle on the market. With a history of manufacturing reliable sedans that are great on gas mileage, Toyota sat pretty for quite a while. The first Prius came out all the way back in 1995, and in 2000, the first generation became available for sale outside of Japan.

As of 2024, Toyota has sold more than 2.44 million Priuses, according to Good Car Bad Car, and that number continues to tick up with the latest edition, Prius Prime. Though multiple versions of the standard Prius have come out — the most recent being the fifth generation in 2022 — many older models are still on the road and available for purchase.

Regarding achievements, the Prius has won its fair share of awards over multiple generations, including some surprising ones. Yet, over time, other electrified vehicles have proven to be strong competitors. With Tesla climbing the ranks in the EV world, not to mention countless other brands getting a piece of the hybrid pie, Toyota isn’t on top anymore. While it’s not a bad idea to purchase a Toyota Prius these days, it’s not exactly a no-brainer to spring for the newest model or even choose a Prius if you’re in the market for a hybrid car.

If you’re considering buying a Toyota Prius, whether new or used, there are a few things to think about before signing on the dotted line.

The Toyota Prius is the Best-Selling Electrified Vehicle of All Time

Prius is the best-selling electric vehicle in the U.S. not only in recent years, but of all time as of 2024. There’s time for other brands to catch up, but Toyota has had a chokehold on the hybrid market for decades already, and amid the Prius’s evolution, it doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

Toyota has done something right with the Prius. With so many sales, it’s evident that consumers, overall, trust Toyota and see the value in the hybrid sedan. Toyota has sold about 5.05 million units worldwide, which it states has helped reduce CO2 emissions by at least 82 million tons since 2022. That’s an impressive figure, not just because the Prius is relatively green; the Prius is a hybrid car — thus not purely electric — and still uses gasoline.

Perhaps thanks to its excellent reputation, the Prius has won plenty of awards, like MotorTrend’s Car of the Year for 2024, because of its design advancements, safety, value, engineering, efficiency, and performance (MotorTrend’s six evaluation criteria). Kelley Blue Book named the Prius its best new model of 2024, even commending Toyota for the flashy new look while praising its continued (albeit formerly boring, style-wise) practicality.

While not everyone loves the look of a Prius, it’s fair to say that the hybrid car is fairly beloved, even if you only consider the sales figures.

Toyota Sells Multiple Types of Prius Vehicles

One important fact to know before you head to the sales lot is the fact that Toyota sells multiple variations of the Prius design. In past years, there were Prius One through Prius Four, and later a Prius V. For 2024, both the Prime and standard, fifth-generation Prius are available. The two have very different specs and price tags, with the former starting at $32,975 MSRP and the latter at $27,950.

Whatever your style or model preference, you can expect impressive gas mileage, but it’s also not industry-shattering. A Prius Prime, for example, gets between 48 and 52 hybrid MPG, according to Toyota, while the 2024 Prius gets up to 57 MPG. In our research, the next best-selling hybrid after the Prius was the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, which gets close to 39 MPG, and the next after that, the Honda Accord Hybrid, averages 48 MPG. For another comparison, Tesla’s 2024 Model X gets anywhere from 90 to 100 MPGe, the average mileage compared to MPG.

Is it worth buying a brand-new Prius for better gas mileage? Maybe not, but older model Priuses shouldn’t be put out to pasture just yet. A 2022 Toyota Prius (the first year of the fifth generation Prius group) can get anywhere from 49 to 56 MPG. If the price is right, a used Prius could be a good investment — and not only because it’s gentle on your wallet at the pump.

There is No All-Electric Prius

There is one piece of bad news about Toyota’s Prius line. Unlike other electric vehicle brands (namely Tesla), Toyota does not offer a fully electric, plug-in-only vehicle with the Prius. Instead, every Prius is a hybrid, though some do have a plug-in function that you can choose to use (or not).

This is an important distinction because while hybrids arguably save on gas and emissions, a true fully-electric sedan is not something Toyota offers — at least, not yet. Currently, Toyota has the all-electric bZ4X SUV, but the Prius hasn’t followed suit yet. Toyota’s hybrid engine system basically recharges the battery as gasoline powers both a gas engine and an electric engine. Not that this is a bad concept by any means, but the Prius is not technically an EV, but a hybrid.

Despite its fifth generation Prius winning a design award, the Toyota sedan has nothing on Tesla’s form and functionality when it comes to charging capabilities and all-electric range. Powered by its battery alone, the 2024 Prius Prime can only travel up to 44 miles on a charge (anecdotally, my dad’s new full-featured Prime doesn’t hit that). Beyond that, you’ll need to plug in, use gas, or wait for the roof-mounted solar panel to charge it up (more on that later).

While our Prius Prime plug-in first drive showcased just how cool the Prime is, it might not be worth the price tag if your goal is gas savings or ultimate eco-friendliness.

Solar Panels Won’t Charge Your Prius

If you’re considering purchasing a new Prius and are thinking about splashing out on a Prius Prime, you’ll have decisions to make about a few different features. One important consideration is whether to take the solar roof option. Adding a solar panel to the Prime’s roof gives you an onboard recharging method, but it might not be the most efficient means of charging your Prime when you’re away from an outlet.

According to MotorTrend, the Prime solar roof option could take up to three weeks to recharge your car’s battery. However, the solar panel isn’t meant to charge the whole car. Rather, the solar panel helps power electrical functions like air conditioning and power windows. The Prime solar roof upgrade does cost extra — $610 — but it will likely (eventually) pay for itself if you regularly park in full sun.

In MotorTrend’s research, parking the Prime in full Los Angeles sun during the workday earned them about four miles of battery power. By the publication’s math, that could earn you about 1,000 “free” miles per year. Considering that every Prius battery will eventually need replacing, the solar panel addition could take some of the load off your main battery, so there’s more to consider than just the up-front cost of the solar addition and the potential range boost.

A New Prius Might Be Hard to Come By

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Although the Prius Prime has been well-received by the public to date, that isn’t necessarily a good thing. Prius Primes were not readily available in the greater Sacramento, California area from spring to summer of 2024. According to dealerships in the area, even a custom-ordered Prime would take months to arrive. My dad eventually decided to buy one that wasn’t in his preferred color just to take delivery sooner.

While there might not be a true shortage of the Prime model, there was a Prius shortage in 2021 that lasted some time, as Toyota Parts Center’s blog reported. That shortage was due to a few circumstances, from a computer chip shortage to a steep increase in demand for hybrid vehicles.

Precious metals like palladium and platinum — components in Prius catalytic converters — were also scarce, which drove up the costs for new Priuses and made it harder to obtain materials. Given that the Prius requires more palladium and platinum in its catalytic converter recipe than other vehicles, Toyota was particularly impacted by that dip in supply.

In early 2024, a recall impacting 2023 and 2024 Toyota Priuses also meant that those model years sitting on sales lots couldn’t be sold until their electronic rear door latches were repaired. Those fixes have since rolled out, but that doesn’t mean a new Prius will always be easy to come by.

Running Out of Gas is Still Bad

You might expect that driving a hybrid vehicle means that you’ll have a backup power method if you run out of gas. Unfortunately, that’s not the case at all. In fact, running out of gas could actually damage the hybrid system, according to Toyota.

Toyota explicitly — and perhaps ironically — states, “A hybrid vehicle can operate in electric-only mode when gasoline is in the tank.” It might sound counterintuitive, but gasoline provides energy to both the gas and electric engines, so when the fuel stops, so do both engines. Toyota seems pretty clear about the need for gasoline, so we can only assume that this applies to the plug-in hybrid Prius options, too. Even if you’re able to recharge your Prius by way of a solar panel or an outlet every day, you’ll still need to keep gasoline on board to keep things operational.

Not only does running out of gas mean your car will stop, but adding gas once it’s dried up may not start it, either. While Toyota doesn’t offer any official advice on the subject, Prius owners point out that you may need to disconnect the 12-volt battery to reset the computer before adding gas to an empty tank. The most practical advice is, however, to avoid running out of gas in the first place.

The Prius Holds its Value Well

The fact that the Prius holds its value well might not be surprising, especially with Toyota’s reputation for producing vehicles that run practically forever and are relatively easy to maintain. It’s important to know before shopping for a Prius, however, because car values could be a good or bad thing depending on which side of the purchasing equation you’re on.

For example, if you’re buying a brand-new Prius, it will cost you a pretty penny. Over time, your new Prius will depreciate like any other car, but apparently not as much as other vehicles. Kelley Blue Book, when it awarded the 2024 Prius its “best new model” designation, pointed out that the Prius, in general, “has exceptional resale value.”

The best Prius years to buy, according to Read’s research, include the fifth generation years between 2018 and 2021. Although prices vary widely depending on vehicle condition, mileage, and whether you’re buying privately or from a dealership (and if you have a trade-in), the numbers are interesting.

A 2018 Prius 4 sells for an average of $22,306, according to Carfax, while a 2021 Prius L Eco runs about $22,769. A more fully-featured 2021 Prius XLE goes for an average of around $26,000. With an entry-level price of about $27K, a 2024 basic-package Prius might be better use of your car-buying budget. You may also get some of your money back if you sell the car later.

The Toyota Prius Gets Top Safety Ratings

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Though there are pros and cons to purchasing any Toyota Prius model or year, the car’s overall safety ratings are impressive. No car is infallible, but the 2024 Toyota Prius earned the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) Top Safety Pick+ in 2024 designation. With only one “marginal” rating for its “rear passenger restraints and dummy kinematics,” the Prius performed admirably overall.

With the caveat that larger vehicles typically offer more protection than smaller ones, the IIHS explains that the safety ranking doesn’t mean that a Prius is necessarily safer than an SUV. Yet, among smaller cars, it stands out. The 2024 Prius Prime also earned the Top Safety Pick award (no plus) with similar safety ratings as the standard Prius.

Those safety ratings don’t mean the Prius is infallible when it comes to driving risks, as the early 2024 recall showed, but even 2023 and 2022 model years have very few recalls recorded on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) website. Toyota also doesn’t have the worst record when it comes to recalls. In 2023, USA Today reported the top 10 carmakers with the most vehicles impacted by recalls, and Toyota did not make the list.

A lack of recalls helps instill confidence in buyers looking for not just new Priuses but also used ones. However, there are still some safety risks involved in driving a Prius, just like any other vehicle on the market.

A Prius Can Still Catch on Fire

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After many Tesla vehicles made headlines for catching on fire seemingly spontaneously, consumers looking for a hybrid or electric vehicle might have been wary of purchasing a Tesla. True, it’s difficult to give precise answers to the question of how risky it is to drive an electric vehicle. However, according to experts that spoke to The Guardian, EVs are less likely to catch on fire than gas-powered cars.

A statement from Tesla also declared that Tesla cars experience fires at “11 times lower per mile” than all cars (including gas-powered ones). While it wasn’t clear from The Guardian’s reporting where Tesla’s data came from, it’s somewhat reassuring for other electric and hybrid vehicle drivers.

However, the risk is clearly not zero; Toyota has issued recalls for fire risk in 2018 for model years between 2016 and 2018. The recall only impacted 192,000 Priuses (compared to the five million-plus Prius hybrids sold since the first iteration), but the fire risk was due to wiring wear. The Guardian’s experts also suggested that age could play a factor in EV fire risk, especially because older batteries, by nature, are more likely to fail.

All that said, the risk of a Prius fire seems to be substantially lower than a gas-powered car fire, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen to you.

A Newer Prius Might Be a Better Bet

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Buying a used Prius isn’t necessarily a bad purchasing decision, though prices are probably not low enough to be considered a steal. Given that Prius hybrids retain their value well, you can consider your car an investment in terms of the vehicle value but also potential gas savings. At the same time, a newer Prius could be a better bet in terms of possible recalls and performance issues.

Based on NHTSA recalls, buying a Prius that’s newer than around eight to ten years old may be less risky. This generalization is based on the fact that on the NHTSA recalls listings, the record for most recalls to date goes to the 2010 Prius 4. Compared to other Prius years, the 2010 model has 10 times more, though it also only has 10 total recalls. 2016 is the newest Prius year with a large number of recalls (the Prius V had six), but newer years have markedly fewer recalls and complaints.

The 2010 Prius also had the most complaints made, per the NHTSA, and there are some common problems with the Prius that seem to happen to all years. A thirst for oil and some electrical issues could crop up, but that doesn’t mean a Prius is a bad buy — especially because a Prius could easily last upwards of 300,000 miles with regular maintenance.