Buy or No Buy: 2015 Toyota Avalon Hybrid
Buy or No Buy: 2015 Toyota Avalon Hybrid
It's got 250,000 miles and is $5,500. It's a former taxi service car, apparently. Obviously, a pre-purchase inspection would be a must. I've heard these cars are very reliable, but the mileage, accident history (3, not sure how serious), and potential status of the high voltage battery give me pause. I'm leaning against traveling to look at it, but I'm wondering if the model is just so good it's worth a try at that price point.
It would be replacing a 2015 Kia Soul with about 80,000 miles--Kia's engine woes have me spooked, so I'm considering trying to get something more likely to go for several hundred thousand miles. Any thoughts?
Big no from me, even dispite my (untrue) reputation on here as a Toyota dick rider. 250k on a former taxi car for $5,500 that you'd have to travel to even look at sounds horrible. There are plenty of better cars to be found at that price
As someone who's stupidly driven far distances for what looked like a good deal on a Used car, I'd never recommend it to anyone. Way too much pressure to buy at that point (sunk cost fallacy, I know), that you overlook issues you'll regret later
Yeah, that's my feeling. I just wanted to be sure I'm not rejecting a potentially good deal. Thanks for talking me though it!
That's way too much for that many miles IMO. Sure, the powertrain is probably fine, but it's all the other shit that breaks and nickels and dimes you to death. Water pumps will start falling, thermostats, O2 sensors, power windows and door lock motors, electrical stuff, light bulbs.... When a car gets that much use, everything is on the verge of breaking. If you're handy, then it might not cost a lot every time something breaks, but it's a huge PITA. We had an Accord with 240k on it, and it seemed like I was working on that thing every other weekend near the end. I wouldn't pay more than a couple grand for a car with that many miles, and even then, I wouldn't do it unless I had to.
I haven't done the research into the drivetrain in either car, but on the face of it I'd think your greater risk of pricy repairs are in the Avalon. If the engine in your Kia does die, I have to imagine replacing it would still be cheaper than replacing the engine in the Avalon for the added complexity of the hybrid system.
You do you though. If your heart says you gotta have that 250k mile former taxi Avalon, enjoy it.
Yeah, I'm leaning toward keeping the Kia. It's paid off, anyway. I'm just going to be starting some heavy preventative maintenance on that GDI engine. I haven't done a lot of diy in the past, but some of the work seems pretty trivial, and the car can anecdotally survive 200-300K miles if I take care of it.
Kia has their 10yr 100k mile warranty on their powertrains. I used to work for a Kia dealer, I was the guy that would be replacing engines and transmissions. If you take care of them they typically will last, Kias quality has really improved from the old days. But even if it does blow up and if its out of warranty, I have replaced some engines that were out of warranty but the dealer covered them under "good will." So youre probably better off keeping the Kia.