Prius battery life and replacement cost?

[Flying White Dutchman]

Originally Posted by longterm

Not to cast cold water on your assertion, but I have a 2007 Prius that I just got back from the shop. The battery failed.

I turned the car on one afternoon at the grocery store, and the front panel lit up like a Christmas tree. There is a large red triangular warning light; it lit, along with the brakes, transmission, and engine warning lights.

I brought it to the local dealer where I bought it, and after putting it on the diagnostic machine, they determined that the battery had failed.

This was on the July 29, 2009. I got the car back today, August 25th. My car was out of commission for almost 4 weeks.

The battery was backordered, and I was told that it was being shipped from Japan. The words "container ship" sent shivers down my spine.

Finally, when it arrived in California last week, they FedExed it to me, and I got my car this morning.

My extended warranty covers my Prius for 100,000 miles, including the battery. However, the warranty company excludes batteries, and since the failure was my battery (albeit not the type of battery their warranty was originally talking about), they refused to pay for a rental car.

I rented a car for almost 4 weeks; Toyota, to their huge credit, picked up the entire rental costs and is reimbursing me.

Unfortunately, batteries do fail sometimes; as much as I love my Prius, I suffered through this, not wanting to tell anyone about it lest they think less of this amazing car.

maybe a stuppid question but was this the HV battery or the 12 volt one that you wanted a org. one back that was not instock in the us?

or a misdiagnose and it was the 12 volt that needed replacment
o will whe will never now i guess

[richard schumacher]

Originally Posted by Shawn Clark

WTF??? You just responded to a 4 year old post about what was then a relatively new vehicle. Geez, what is it with folks dragging up outdated threads recently.

Eh. It happens when people use the "Search" function. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, though often by different deities :_>

[richard schumacher]

Originally Posted by Flying White Dutchman

maybe a stuppid question but was this the HV battery or the 12 volt one that you wanted a org. one back that was not instock in the us? or a misdiagnose and it was the 12 volt that needed replacment. o will whe will never now i guess

Pretty clearly the traction battery. It doesn't take four weeks to get a new 12V battery in North America.

This story reminds us of the importance of reading the fine print in extended warranties.

[patsparks]

Originally Posted by richard schumacher

Pretty clearly the traction battery. It doesn't take four weeks to get a new 12V battery in North America.

This story reminds us of the importance of reading the fine print in extended warranties.

I think you missed FWD's point.
It is possible the dealer misdiagnosed the fault. Sometimes when the 12 volt battery fails the symptoms mimic those of a failed traction battery.
If the traction battery was replaced even though it was not faulty we will never know.

[SageBrush]

The Toyota hybrid warranty should have kicked in, no ? The story sounds fishy to me. BAck to the dustbin of history.

[Flying White Dutchman]

Originally Posted by patsparks

I think you missed FWD's point.
It is possible the dealer misdiagnosed the fault. Sometimes when the 12 volt battery fails the symptoms mimic those of a failed traction battery.
If the traction battery was replaced even though it was not faulty we will never know.

yes

[richard schumacher]

If the 12V battery was faulty then replacing the traction battery would not clear the fault. longterm, what has happened since? Any problems?

[Flying White Dutchman]

good point but maybe also the 12volt was changed later on?

[terrygsb]

I was one of the original "believers." I bought an original 2001 Prius which I have had for over 8 years and it has 105,000 miles on it, so I was shocked to find out last week that I am going to have to replace the battery at a cost of $3,000!!!!

I protested to the dealer that when I bought they said it is guaranteed for 100,000 miles but that they expected it to last much longer and that it would be about $1,500 when that happened.

The dealer said they couldn't do anything but they would contact Toyota since I bought it there, had all the maintenance done at the dealer and had referred NUMEROUS people to buy them who actually had done so . I still haven't heard from Toyota.

I feel very betrayed after being so effusive with praise to so many people over the years about this car. If I had known I might need to spend $3,000 on the battery after $105,000 I would not have purchased the car and I doubt if many of you would have either.

I'm still hoping Toyota will make some compromise and I'll keep you posted.

[SageBrush]

Good luck, Terry.
Have you looked for a used battery ? I think you have a pretty good chance of cutting your total charges in half, and at that point you are in the ballpark of the unlucky couple percent of car owners who get to replace their transmissions after 8 years or so in conventional cars. I don't think you should feel betrayed. Bloody unlucky, yes.

These hybrids do differ from regular cars in being much more reliable on average, but when they break often a high repair bill comes along for the ride. This seems like a perfect place for an insurance company to spread the risk. For e.g., around 1 - 2% of G1 Prius have traction battery failures before the car's end of life. A pool of people could have paid $60 at time of purchase and covered all failures. Of course the failure rate was not known 8 years ago, but I'd like to see an insurance scheme for G2 and later hybrids, now that we know approximate failure rates. A $5 buy-in would be enough, not including administrator costs and profits.

Perhaps something for Danny to think about.