US YouTuber buys $100 Prius headed for the junkyard and quickly learns why it’s only worth $100
Published on Jan 25, 2026 at 3:38 PM (UTC+4)
by Ben Thompson
Last updated on Jan 23, 2026 at 3:53 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
This UK YouTuber bought a $100 Prius that had been heading straight for the junkyard, but he soon learnt why it’d gone so cheaply.
Rich Rebuilds had lost a bet, which meant he could only drive cars worth less than $5,000 for six months.
He decided to go along with this by investing in a $100 Prius, with the aim of trying to fix it and turn it into a daily driver.
He landed on a junkyard Prius that looked surprisingly decent from the outside. But things weren’t quite as they seemed.
EXPLORE SBX CARS – Supercar auctions starting soon powered by Supercar Blondie
What was wrong with this $100 Prius?
Whilst the exterior looks reasonable enough, the problems didn’t take long to start presenting themselves.
The interior was gross and smoky, but not totally beyond saving.
It had 357,000 miles on the clock, which isn’t exactly what a car buyer wants to see.
Doing basic checks becomes something of a hassle when checking the spark plugs requires them to remove the windshield wipers to gain access.
But the real doozy would become apparent when they looked at the rear area, where they discovered this hybrid car had no battery pack.
It’d been stripped or abandoned.
No wonder it’d been going for $100.
It also didn’t help that the battery cooling area was filled with hair and lint, suggesting some seriously shoddy maintenance.
Or maybe this car had been owned by a Wookie, who knows?
By the time Rich got this Prius on the move again – after putting in a donor battery from a different Prius – another problem reared its head.
Coolant was leaking out of the car. But that was a problem to be solved in another video.
Click the star icon next to supercarblondie.com in Google Search to stay ahead of the curve on the latest and greatest supercars, hypercars, and ground-breaking technology
Cheap cars often carry a lot of baggage
On the face of it, cheap cars can look like a win-win.
You get a car, and you don’t break the bank doing so.
But of course, the adage comes to mind: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
That’s certainly what this California woman found when she got her hands on the world’s cheapest Porsche 911 GT3.
It was a similar story with this man and his Range Rover from Facebook Marketplace.
But bargains can come with happy endings, too.
It’s always important to remember to do your due diligence and not be lured in solely by a low price sticker.
To see what Rich had to deal with for yourself, pay a visit to his YouTube channel.
DISCOVER SBX CARS: The global premium car auction platform powered by Supercar Blondie
Following stints at LadBible, The Sun, The New York Post, and the Daily Mail, Ben joined the team full-time in February 2025. In his role as Senior Content Writer, his sparkling copy, the ability to sniff out a good story at 100 paces, and a GSOH quickly led to him becoming an integral and invaluable member of the writing staff.
