The first thing to say about a high-mileage Prius, indeed any seriously high-mileage car, is don’t expect the dealer selling it to set much store by opening hours, a smart premises and a welcoming cup of coffee. The profits in high-milers don’t encourage such practices.
Although I was at his Portakabin for 10am sharp and stayed for 30 minutes, I saw no sign of the dealer.
I did see his remaining Prius, though: a 2004-reg 1.5 T Spirit with 168,000 miles, priced at £3995. That raised alarm bells, confirmed when, on checking its MOT history, I saw that at some point between 2011 and 2012, it had been ‘adjusted’ from 238,000 to 108,000 miles. This meant the car had in reality done 300,000 miles.
It looked like it had, too. Its pale velour interior was darkly soiled, the steering wheel was shiny smooth and the column shroud wore a light dusting of skin cells and assorted detritus. Elsewhere, the plastic windscreen scuttle had become brittle and cracked and the alloy wheels corroded beyond saving.
I had seen enough and left to view another Prius, a 2014-reg 1.8 T3, with a genuine 230,000 miles on the clock. With still one year of its PHV licence left to run, this £9000 example was a rare thing, but sadly neither it nor the dealer was anywhere to be seen.