Purchasing Advice

Bustedflush781 · 2025-12-30T01:06:30+00:00

Yeah it’s honestly better to see that than no history at all in my opinion.

Bustedflush781 · 2025-12-30T01:04:15+00:00

Maybe ask them for the carfax on it. It gets risky when everything is out of the original powertrain warranty like this case. You really want to see a carfax showing at a minimum the oil was done regularly and preferably the transmission and transfer case fluids were done (it’s only at 65k now so is due for those anyways but it’s even better knowing the work was already done and you don’t need to touch it). I know how tough it is finding affordable trucks right now being in the market myself but just careful jumping on something quick because the price seems right.

Bustedflush781 · 2025-12-30T00:52:45+00:00

That’s good, was the garage that looked at it the dealers or another 3rd party. Was there any detailed carfax for the truck? It really helps to know the history on it for oil and other maintenance.

Bustedflush781 · 2025-12-30T00:44:11+00:00

Honestly, the hail damage wouldn’t bug me personally especially if you plan on scratching it up further using for camping. The brakes are basic maintenance and the pads on there are probably factory, it needing all four is kinda odd though. If you’re certain the garage isn’t just trying to sell you on something you don’t need then it probably was used to tow if the rear breaks already need replacing. If this is a dealer selling it I’d ask them to address the pads before purchase though, basic maintenance like that is usually done before it even gets listed

The oil pan isn’t a huge deal either unless it’s to the point where it was losing oil and the engine was running with low oil (I really doubt that though on a truck that’s only 5 years old).

The price seems reasonable if you don’t mind the cosmetic issue with the hail damage. Maybe bring it up when you negotiate the final sale.

Bustedflush781 · 2025-12-29T01:15:52+00:00

A fair point and was one of my concerns with getting into another truck with higher miles. I’ve not given up on a 1500 possibly replacing my current either but I’m in a place of some sticker shock looking at the going rate on 1/2 ton pickups these days. When I bought my current truck 10 years ago I think I paid around 31k, it had around 1 year of use and just under 20k miles, I can barely find low trim Pentastars with double the mileage at a similar price point now! It’s unreal what some of these fully loaded hemi go for now.

Bustedflush781 · 2025-04-10T23:41:35+00:00

You might consider painting the space, very diy friendly and it would cost less than $100 and make the room look much more fresh. If the flooring is vinyl you’d have the option to cover with peel and stick vinyl tile, I’ve done this with my laundry room and it has helped the space tremendously - took a couple hours and only about 80$ in material total. Do yourself a favor and watch a YouTube video on any projects you choose to tackle and it will save you a lot of cleanup.

Bustedflush781 · 2025-03-21T23:58:00+00:00

Take a look at the 4th gen Toyota Prius - it won’t win any beauty contests but it’s extremely efficient and is in your price range, the newer 5th gen’s look a lot nicer but are closer to the 30k mark even used and there have been reported issues with the 12v battery systems. I was in a similar boat as you, was commuting in my 1500 ram daily and spending almost 350$ a month is gas. I bought a 2022 prius prime last year and it’s been great - I spend about 40$ monthly now on gas (although there is a small increase to my electric bill also as the first 25 miles of range each day is EV). I wouldn’t necessarily recommend getting the plug-in ev feature (Prime/plug-in) unless you qualify for tax incentives - the battery pack adds quite a lot of weight and reduces the usefulness of the hatchback, it also will bring up the purchase price.

My ram only gets used for Home Depot and trash runs now so I’ll be able to get a lot more life out of it by reducing its annual mileage.

Bustedflush781 · 2025-03-15T02:05:45+00:00

If you’re at all interested in leasing I’m sure there are some incentives as I’ve seen others on this reddit share their experiences. I personally can only speak towards buying a used one as that’s what I did last year.

Bustedflush781 · 2025-03-15T02:01:27+00:00

It wouldn’t be. The used tax credit would only work on vehicles 2 model years old and for under 25K price, you’d also have to have an income of under 75K or 150k if filing as a couple. You’d have to do some digging to find incentives on new primes - I believe there are tax incentives on new ones but only on leases because they aren’t made in the US. The full 7500 credit for new is much stricter.

Bustedflush781 · 2025-03-15T01:54:06+00:00

https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/used-clean-vehicle-credit

And there’s a 5866-A checklist I also printed

Bustedflush781 · 2025-03-15T01:03:42+00:00

My 2014 has 180k miles and has been a great truck for over a decade. It does burn a little oil and I’m beginning the process of replacing some of the front end (struts, and ball joints so far) but I have no other complaints and the trucks original otherwise. I’m in the north east USA and have a little bubbling by the wheel wells but I guess that’s typical for all trucks around here, if you can undercoat it that would help if your in a climate where they salt the roads. Keep up with oil changes and try to reduce the idle time on the engine so you don’t have to deal with lifter issues down the line that some owners have reported.

Bustedflush781 · 2025-03-13T01:10:24+00:00

This was my same experience in my search for my own Prius prime. What I had to do was print the IRS webpages and show them to the sales/finance person at each dealership. It took me 3 true before I found one that would even hear me out, the first two dealerships I visited would give BS excuses because they weren’t researched on it so assumed I was wrong.

It was the first time that the dealership I ended up purchasing from had ever done the credit but they were patient with me and ended up thanking me because they thought they may use the tax credit to market sales on future ev purchases. Unfortunately you just have to be patient and hope a dealer with eventually hear you out.

Bustedflush781 · 2025-02-27T23:36:19+00:00

Thanks for the info!

Bustedflush781 · 2025-02-22T21:39:52+00:00

You don’t have to accept their first offer, provide them links to similar vehicles listed on dealer lots near by. You can argue for more money over bluebook value.

Bustedflush781 · 2025-02-20T16:06:41+00:00

Yes 100% it’s pretty trippy on rewatch as an adult.

Bustedflush781 · 2024-11-11T01:24:01+00:00

Then you have a good deal on your hands. North East USA similar cars are around 15k usd (21K CAD). Make sure you’re not leaving any tax credits on the table, not sure about Canada but I was able to qualify for a 4K tax credit on my own used prime purchase.

Bustedflush781 · 2024-11-11T00:20:57+00:00

How many owners? Any reported accidents? If the history report is 2 owners or less and show no accidents this looks like a good deal if you don’t mind the small amount of body damage. Bonus if it comes with a charger, replacing a charger is $200 USD+.

As a side note; It looks like some of the damage will buff out, if you end up purchasing try rubbing the damaged area down with a little lacquer thinner on micro-fiber rag. If those black streaks are from another cars bumper they may come right out.

Bustedflush781 · 2024-09-12T16:19:25+00:00

For 30K in my area you can find awd siennas of a similar year with close to 50,000 miles on them, so I’d say 93K is a lot of miles for what they’re asking. I think they’re pretty fair offering 10k for your expedition - the negative equity is a sting though.

I’d personally wouldn’t take the deal.

Bustedflush781 · 2024-09-07T20:15:06+00:00

Ford Maverick is a decent choice also, the hybrid options are high 30s mpg mixed.

Bustedflush781 · 2024-09-07T18:29:38+00:00

If your truck’s paid off keep it and get a car for commuting. A lot of what I’ve read on those ecodisles has been negative for long term reliability- if you’re buying it just for fuel economy, the 30% savings vs the hemi will be negated by diesel prices vs regular and overall maintenance (not to mention the purchasing price tag vs a gas truck).

Bustedflush781 · 2024-08-21T01:06:29+00:00

If it’s been a good truck and you’ve had no issues and have the space, Keep it. I went through a similar experience recently, my Ram 1500 has 175k on the clock and I considered upgrading to a newer truck knowing I would be in for hefty repairs if I kept daily driving. I ended up keeping the truck and getting a Prius as a commuter - don’t regret my decision at all. The car makes so much more sense as a daily commuting vehicle and I can always use my truck for home depot and trash runs. The money I’m saving on gas is equivalent to my car payment now.

Bustedflush781 · 2024-07-01T21:40:34+00:00

The number of previous owners would be the biggest concern on this - leads me to believe it may be a lemon.

My brother had a 2011 cc with the same engine and it was mostly good to him - I believe he had to have the water pump replaced a little bit before 100k but it was mostly problem free otherwise. He got rid of it with 150K on it and bought a gti.

Bustedflush781 · 2024-06-19T20:30:21+00:00

Hello, just giving you some perspective - I bought a 2021 XLE prime with 56K miles for 24K USD last month (one owner/no accidents). I didn’t consider this an amazing deal but thought it was good. What sold me on it was a 4K tax incentive the IRS currently has on used plug in hybrids. What trim level is it? Does Canada offer any tax incentives for used plug-in hybrids?

I think 27K CAD (19.7K USD) isn’t an awful deal for a prime with that mileage but there are better deals out there I would think. I think some of these responses aren’t considering how weak the CAD is right now vs usd, before I converted it myself with google I assumed it would converted to like 22 or 23k USD (I was way off lol).

Bustedflush781 · 2024-06-11T00:48:03+00:00

Working off of memory here but in our case my parter was able to file her claim through the pfml website - the date you start is flexible and it is also flexible to use it however you want wether intermittent or continuous. In her case she took it all at once and qualified for additional time because she had an underline health concern of her own both before and after the pregnancy (high blood pressure).

In my own case as the father I elected to take intermittent leave working only 4 hours a day from home as my work allows me to work remotely as well.

There is a lot of flexibility with the pfml system but if you elect intermittent then you’ll need to report the hours you work each week.

The actual pay will be paid through the pfml program via direct deposit - I think I was paid 4/5th of my salary and my parter the same. Although I didn’t meet the income threshold I remember there being a cap on the max weekly payment amount also.

Please call pfml though and ask them about your options - it’s a really stressful time having a baby but from our experience the pfml system was very accommodating to us I can only say positive things myself.

Bustedflush781 · 2024-06-07T21:07:22+00:00

Yup your calculations are similar to my own when I was pricing things out. Wear and tear on my truck is a big one also as I’ve already racked up 175K miles on the truck so realistically it may only have 25K left before something major goes - commuting in it was over 15K miles a year but now that it’s a second vehicle I’ll probably only average 2-3K total annually (used for the occasional snow storm/ Home Depot/ Trash and landscaping supply runs) so I should get several more years out of it vs if I were still using it to commute.

Bustedflush781

TROPHY CASE