2005 Prius w bad hybrid cell

[Ogo]

Also a bit of my thinking. New battery with installation costs 3 k $. What is the price of new equivalent Prius currently? Most probably above 23k $, so let say around 24k, which brings 3 k $ to around 1/8 or 12.5% of the price of the new car.
So you can see this battery failure as the 12.5% price increase of the new car. But with this price increase you will also probably gain additional 150 k miles of your car life. So it is not all bad.

We all know that battery in Prius will die. On some sooner, on some later. 150 k miles is not so bad in my opinion.

If you buy a modern VW diesel car, you will probably have some major component failure during this time anyway. Usually the turbo charger, but also other stuff usually dies in a typical VW TDI car. Not to mention higher costs of maintenance.

Also few technical questions of mine:
How was the car driven? Mixed terrain, hilly roads, flat highways, city driving ...

So keep us posted and good luck of course.

[richard schumacher]

The failure rate you reference to to is usually the "Warranty Failure Rate", that means the failure rate within the warranty period. When the warranty period is expired the failure rate will rise drastically to 50%, like in your case.

Buying a Prius for high mileage usage is not a good idea to save money, because the warranty will expire so much sooner and the battery replace cost will wipe out your fuel saving. You should have sold or trade in the Prius before 150K.

This is a perfect example that the cost of ownership should include the battery replacement cost if you expecting to keep it past 150K miles.

Rubbish. Data show no such thing. The OP was merely one of the unlucky few.

[bedrock8x]

Rubbish what? He is just one of the unlucky ones that fall into the statistic of failure.

Originally Posted by richard schumacher

Rubbish. Data show no such thing. The OP was merely one of the unlucky few.

[richard schumacher]

Perhaps I was hasty: you gave the failure rate as 50% after the warranty expires. How do you define failure rate? It's certainly not 50% per ensuing year; 50% per ensuing decade, maybe.

[jayman]

Originally Posted by bedrock8x

Buying a Prius for high mileage usage is not a good idea to save money, because the warranty will expire so much sooner and the battery replace cost will wipe out your fuel saving. You should have sold or trade in the Prius before 150K.

Duffy's Taxi in Winnipeg does not agree with that. They have a large fleet of Prius as taxi's, with several needing battery replacement. Overall the fuel savings more than pay for a small handful of failures, though it sucks when statistics conspire against you

Consider that for a taxi fleet, there is no way in hell they'd get +150,000 miles out of a Crown Vic transmission. In hard city use, they will replace quite a few in the fleet.

Overall, the Prius holds up well, even in Winnipeg with -40 winters, and horrible road conditions. They are usually totalled in crashes involving stolen cars driven by joyriding punks

[donee]

Hi All,

So, we are talking cost of Ownership. Lets see, $3000/156000miles is $.0192 per mile. Having that battery in there results in getting 50 instead of 25 mpg. So, over 156000 miles that saves 3120 gallons. Using an average of $3.00 per gallon since 2005 we get $9360 saved over 156000 miles, or $.06 per mile saved.

Putting it altogether, even if Aryiana buys the new battery, and the car gets into an accident the next day, she still has saved (.06 - .0192 - .0192)*156000 or $3837.60. Or more than enough for even a third battery and still come out economically ahead!

So, I do not see the reason to carp about the lifetime of the Prius battery in this situation. The original battery in there car saved $9360 in gas, but cost $3000 installed new (presumably). Right now, they are $6360 ahead. If they put in the new battery at $3000 they will get back to $6360 total savings in only another 50000 miles at $3.00 per gallon average cost, and 75000 miles at $2.00 per gallon. I am sure there are plenty of people out there willing to buy Aryiana's car sans battery and take that bet.

Oh, Aryianna, be sure to put $500 away for new brakes. At 156000 miles your about due for your first brake job on that car.

[Frayadjacent]

Donee, factor in the fact that the car is driven for work/business and a considerable portion of that mileage (should have been) is tax deductible, or that mileage compensation is probably paid by her husband's employer, furthering the savings in your comparison dramatically.