my friend is looking to buy this car
asking price is 10k
is it worth it and what to look for?
is it possible to asses remaining health of hybrid battery?
anything else known notable problem wise

thanks, heidi

 

The dreaded, OMG the hybrid batteries are going to cost you millions of dollars monthly should I buy it post lol.

This is a common question that everyone looking at a ct200 posts for their first question. So I'm making fun of this because I was there too. Same questions and more!!

Radin a member on here has 400k on his 14 ct200, my hero. He's a testament on the reliability of this little "not a Prius" although I am...I love mine, I thought I'd be scared of the hybrid batteries failing and costing thousands to repair. That's internet hype, reality is there are so many of these "wanna" be Prius and real Prius out there that on Prius chat there are many posts on how to repair the batteries. Even tons of YouTube videos on the subject.

Don't be scared of it. After all it's a Toyota, known for its reliability. Only thing I'll be scared of is it's history.

Bought my 2013 with 37k in April of 2016 almost 21 months later and 60k later. Things I fixed... New battery. Things I maintained oil and filter, cabin filters,

I'd try to get it cheaper than 10k lol, I'm cheap. Either way it's a great car.

 

Thanks, gshadow! Although I'm not quite at 400k yet, I'm currently at 366k.

Heidi, at 135k, you will want to make sure your friend knows if this car was serviced properly or not. It doesn't matter how reliable a car is, if it wasn't maintained well, it may not last much longer. As long as there's a good service record, your friend will be fine as far as reliability. Make sure he finds a reputable mechanic and has a used car check done on the car before purchase if he/she is ready to pull the plug.

As far as the hybrid battery, gshadow is correct. These batteries were designed for reliability as their primary feature. It's why Toyota went with NiMH batteries over new Li-Ion types. They were more dependable and more refined at the time. Most research will show you these batteries tend to last 10-12 years. After that, one or more cells might fail (the battery is made up of several battery cells that act together as one big battery).

A replacement from Toyota will probably run you $3,000 or so, with a warranty. There are, however, many shops that specialize in refurbishing these batteries. You see, when this car detects one or more cells have died, it flags a hybrid battery warning. Usually people just go to the dealer and have it replaced. These batteries get bought by these specialists and they test each cell, taking out the bad ones, and replacing them with working ones from other batteries they pulled from cars. After some wire replacements, everything is put back together and tested, then sold as refurbished batteries with a smaller warranty (usually 1 year) for something like $1,500-$2,000, maybe less? (as long as you give them your battery in exchange).

Beyond that, there are no outstanding issues with the car specifically to look out for. Just look for the usual stuff on a used car, which is what a proper used car check at a local shop will reveal.

 

One can run the battery as empty as possible, and then check module voltages with Techstream. They should be about the same on every module.

 

what about things besides the battery?
is there a timing belt?
water pump?(assuming yes)
spark plugs (difficult to replace?)
does not look like the car had anything done besides oil

 

It has timing chain, that should never need replacement. There is no auxiliary belt either, as everything is electric like the water pump, no need to worry about that.

Spark plugs are easy to replace, anyone can do that:
It might be a good idea to change tranny oil if it still from the factory.

 

This car is very-low maintenance. Most of the parts should last well beyond 100k miles. Especially since, as nacke pointed out, they are all electric. No belts driven off the engine to power anything. Even the timing chain is said to not need replacement in the manual.

Other than oil changes, the major services are spark plugs and coolant. The spark plugs are to be changed every 120k miles, and the coolants (there are two cooling systems in this car and both need coolant flushes) need to be changed at 100k and 150k (I can't recall which is which, it's in the service manual). After each initial coolant change, they both get changed every 50k miles.

Looks like this car will need a spark plug change plus one of the coolants changed, and the next one soon after.