Considering buying a '99Prius for $1500, comments pls.

I discovered a local Prius that was written off on insurance as repairable here in Australia. Owner bought a new gen Prius with the insurance money and is seeking to quit the original car for not a lot of money (IMHO).

It's had a slight rear-ender but the catchis that since the accident it apparently sometimes starts in the driveway, sometimes not.
I'm thinking of buying it, hopefully resurrecting it and using it for the daily 9km each way commute to work (40 mph/60kph speed limit) when it's too wet to take one of my ebikes.

In the long run I'm thinking of packing it with a bit of lithium and making it full electric specifically for that trip.

I had thought of converting a 'standard' ICE car to electric some day soon, but to me this seems like a less difficult donor car in the long run (if I can solve the intermittent starting issue).

Anyone care to comment? I've done plenty of ebikes but electric cars are completely foreign to me.

Id noticed that to, a lot of old pries's for under 2k, Id be intrested to see how it goes, how would the pries motor handle the power needed to propel the car withoult a bit of help.

I'm looking to buy a prius too . hopefully 5-6K for 04 and newer. I'd recommend '04 and newer lower voltage and then a kit like these:

http://www.pluginsupply.com/

IIRC they use the same battery cells/sticks as the Honda Insight G1 and HCH1 Civic, so new battery sticks are available and you could repair the battery if that is bad which is likely on such an old car. Go for it.