I have made a deal to buy a used prius from Budget rent a car in Canada for $16,000 USD with 26,000 km on the odometer. Car is one year old and has no damage. Any thoughts from posters? Budget had 8 others that they have auctioned off at 16,770 (or so the sales person says..yaa!!). There is one aqua ice (correct?) with same mileage still for sale, you can have it delivered this week!!. Apparently the others that were autioned have gone "stateside" as the demand is higher there.<br><br>If enough people are interested in the remaining blue one, I will post the contact at budget, but I don't want him to be deluged with email becasue of me (I have no relationship with budget, just had the idea thay might be getting rid of their cars).<br><br>Cheers

$16,000! That is a good deal. I wanted to buy a used Prius from the Toyota rental fleet in Redwood City, CA and they quoted me $19,900.<br>Wish I lived closer to Canada.<br><br>Ann

Last week I posted my estimate of 17,000 for a used one with 15,000 miles on one of these sites. Now it looks like that may not be too far off. The problem with the high price from the dealer is that there is not a source of cars from the public yet. They only pay a $1000 below low wholesale in most cases when buying from the public. Right now their cost basis is much higher with the cars coming from internal sources than it will be in another year. Besides the cars from Budget in CN, the best deal going is a new one ordered on line for MSRP.

$16,000 (US) for a 1 year old Prius sounds like a reasonable price, but there are a couple things to consider (assuming you checked out, or will check out the car to make sure it's ok). You didn't mention if you intend to move the car to the US or keep it in Canada.<br><br>If keeping it in Canada, make a quick check at local Toyota dealers to see if there are any low price new Prius available. Canada doesn't use the web order system, so you just have to look around for one on a lot. A recent Washington Times article (May 27) about tax credits suggested that some Canadian dealers are having a hard time selling them. The article also drew some bad conclusions about the effect of tax credits on hybrid manufacture, so this item is also suspect, but at least check.<br><br>If you plan to move it to the US, insist on being allowed to talk to someone else who bought from Budget and moved it stateside. There have been stories here about difficulties getting permission to import new cars. I don't know if it's easier with used cars, so you should talk to someone who has actually done it.<br><br>One other thing, the Canadian Prius warranty isn't as good as the US warranty.<br><br>Otherwise, it sounds like you've made a lucky find. The Prius computers make it pretty tough to abuse the motors/engine, so it's probably in better shape than most rentals (check the body though).<br><br>Robert Snyder<br>NJ-PIKACHU

Before you buy a used one, it might be worth checking if the Federal and state tax credits are available towards used vechicles. If it only applies to new ones, then you won't be saving much, if anything, by buying used. Of course, you won't have to wait 4-6 months to get it... :)