Should I buy 07 Camry Hybrid with 30% battery left?

Hi Melissa,

30% of a hybrid battery is pretty low. There is no set time amount because it will vary on driving style. A brief overview of how this works is the battery is the primary driving system. However, there is a gas engine that will come on automatically when it senses that more power is needed that the battery cannot provide or the battery is discharged to much and the gas engine will come on to "recharge" the battery. Now keep in mind this is not like a cell phone that will gain all the battery life back when it is charged. Those type of vehicle are called plug in hybrid or full electric vehicles.

Think of the battery as an additional power source. It is called a range extended vehicle. Which means your fuel tank is smaller and does not take as much fuel to fill it up but the vehicle can still go around 500 miles per tank just like a regular gas engine. Basically, you will still fill the tank the same number of times per week or month but when you do it will cost less each time because the tank is smaller. This is the most attractive part of a hybrid vehicle.

The negative side is the battery itself. Once it becomes discharged to the point the gas engine is running all the time, it defeats the purpose of having a hybrid because you will be filling the gas tank twice as much. Furthermore, once the battery is discharged this much it will turn warning indicators on and the only correction is to replace the battery which is about $4,000.00 the last time I checked. I am sure there are alternatives out there but in most cases it will be in the thousands of dollars to replace it.

I attached a short document that explains how this cars engine and battery work together. In my opinion, I would not buy one of these cars unless the price was worth it. Given the fact that it has taken 12 years for the battery to get down to 30% (assuming it has never been replaced) then you could assume a couple years worth of use. So if the price of the car makes it worth using for that time with the expectation of getting rid of it when the battery finally discharges completely, then it may be a good idea. However, I would strongly suggest pricing this car against a non hybrid and seeing if it is worth it.

Please let me know if you need any more information. Here are a couple links that will have some more helpful information.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-a-hybrid-car-works

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/hybrid-motor-and-transmission-information