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RightHandOfIkaros

Buy or No Buy: 2015 Toyota Avalon Hybrid (self.cars)

submitted 4 months ago by slingstone to c/cars

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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?

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[–] slingstone 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] RightHandOfIkaros 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] slingstone 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Thanks: that really makes me feel better. I'm hoping my little car keeps going, but I do need to take better care of it. I just had the crankshaft position sensor replaced to take care of a stalling/starting issue, and I feel like there's more to be done.

Would you mind answering some questions I have about my Soul as I look to do some of my own maintenance? If you don't feel like it, I totally understand, because I'm trying to solicit free advice from an expert.

[–] RightHandOfIkaros 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Ask away, but please understand I haven't worked for Kia since 2012, and I haven't worked for Hyundai, which shares a lot with Kia, since 2018. So some answers may eb outdated information by now.

[–] slingstone 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Thanks. Sorry to take so long to take you up on this. I've recently had my crankshaft position sensor replaced, which the shop said required some work with the computer after the replacement. The replacement seemed simple enough, but I had to get the shop to do it since I didn't have a lift, ramps, or a proper jack to get at it underneath my car. If I replace my PCV valve, would I need someone to do similar work with the computer, or can I straight up swap it out myself? It does not appear to have any electronic components on first examination.

[–] RightHandOfIkaros 2 points 4 months ago

Typically a PCV replacement is just a straight replacement and doesn't require anything with the ECU. Actually, CKPS is the same, they should just be plug and play. Its possible that Kia may have added a function that can reset the CKPS or tell it to learn a new sensor or something, but I dont remember seeing that, nor have I ever needed to use a computer after replacing those parts except to clear the stored codes in the ECU and watch the PID values while on a test drive to verify the repair.