My dealer tells me I need over $1000 worth of repairs

Hi all,

I'm new here but I've been reading and gleaming a lot of useful information from you guys. Recently my car, a 2008 Prius with about 86k of miles, was having issues starting. The interior and dash would light up, but the power button would stay amber and never go to green. Eventually it wouldn't start up at all and no lights would come on. and the electronic door locks had to be manually unlocked/locked. I had to get it towed to my local dealership since I wasn't really sure who to take it to. I finally got a list of things the dealer says needs to be fixed/repaired:

PER OUR INSPECTION FOUND VEHICLE NEEDS AS FOLLOWS:


MASS AIR FLOW CLEANING $229.00

CABIN AIR FILTER $94.00

HV INVERTER SERVICE $269.00

HV BATTERY SERVICE $129.00

HV TRANSAXLE SERVICE $239.00

ALIGNMENT $129.00

EMISSIONS SERVICE $279.00

DRIVE BELT $199.00

LICNESE PLATE BULB $39.00

AND WIPER BLADES $60.00

They quoted the inspection as $229 and said that would go to the cost of any repairs. I originally thought I had a dead 12v battery, but the dealer said it was fine, and that the Mass Air Flow needed to be cleaned and normally it's $280 but they'll do it for $229 and then he said everything else was going to cost over $1,000 which I think is extremely high. Especially when I see things like Cabin Air Filter at $94 and " LICNESE PLATE BULB $39.00". The biggest kicker for me is Emissions service which from what I've read here seems to be a bunch of bunk.

I told them just to hold off on whatever they needed to do until I got in writing what they were doing. Can any one offer me any guidance? They definitely are pretty scummy because I know I can replace the air filter myself for less than $15. Anything I definitely shouldn't get done besides what I've mentioned? I'm planning on picking up my car ASAP and taking it to a second mechanic for another opinion. I just feel like I'm being screwed over. They said the battery was fine and I'm just curious as to how they were able to get it up and going.

 

The car is currently at the dealer's shop so I can't really check anything out but I questioned him about the battery and he said it was fine and then started to talk about the HV inverter. Which as I'm re-typing, am realizing that spelling isn't this person's strong suit. They just closed and I'm at work so I can't really give them a call and ask them but I will firs thing in the morning.

I had tried jumping my battery with a jumper pack and via my neighbor's new Jeep Cherokee, and neither of those things worked. I told them to just hold off until I got everything he was talking about in writing. I knew these guys would be scummy, but I really didn't have much to go on since yelp reviews are notoriously unreliable and they were also a 20 minute walk from my apartment. Essentially I feel like they're trying to dupe me, and there's already a sunk cost of $229 just to look at the car and now they want to do the mass air flow cleaning. I don't know what the following items even mean:
HV INVERTER SERVICE $269.00

HV BATTERY SERVICE $129.00

HV TRANSAXLE SERVICE $239.00

EMISSIONS SERVICE $279.00

I feel like he thinks I'm stupid and will be able to milk money out of me. On the tow ride over the driver said normally it's $125 but they had a deal with the dealership and it would only be $80. The service guy said the tow would be $100 and I said no the tow driver said you guys had a deal for $80 and he paused and accepted the $80. It's pretty frustrating, and the fact that I'm in Brooklyn seems to increase the scumminess of these dealers/mechanics.

 

No I was really careful about all of that, I think I may have accidentally drained the battery overnight, beyond the point of me being able to jump it. I've sent an email to another mechanic that comes recommended to me via my co-worker who also has owned several Prii, so hopefully they can get back to me as well. I just really felt like I had no choice at the time since I'm new to the area and saw the Toyota Dealer was relatively close to me, and I was concerned that a local mechanic may not be Prius/Hybrid certified.

 

Well, I'm pretty much on the hook for the $229 mass air flow cleaning since that's also the cost of just to look at my vehicle. I'm just going to tell them to do that but to explain to me how they were able to get the car to start since I wasn't able to. But I'd like to know if anyone else has a had the mass air flow cleaning and if so how much did it cost. I'm not afraid of negotiating with these guys since they're obviously scumbags and will end up screwing someone more timid than me to make up for it anyways. I also added up everything and they want me to pay $1,666 for all of this garbage. I sent another mechanic the prices I was quoted but it's after hours and they have AOL email addresses so they may not be entirely computer savvy. I'll try to give them a call in the morning with the quoted prices, and then call the Toyota dealer. I also emailed Toyota directly saying this place is basically running a racket.

 

I bought the Prius September of 2013 from a used Toyota Dealer in Maryland. I asked them if they had done all of the recalls and they affirmatively replied they would have done all of those things after the car was sold if the previous owner did not have that taken care of. But I'm highly skeptical of dealers, obviously haha. But the guy on the phone seemed to indicate that the biggest problem was the mass air flow, so I will have to call him back tomorrow and find out how/why. So I guess I'll let you guys know how that goes tomorrow.

Thanks for all of your help so far!

 

Now after watching that clip I'm definitely not going to be paying them over $200 to do that. What in the world. I know labor can be expensive but that's nothing.

 

I did a dry run of the cabin air filter replacement (just saw how it came apart didn't change the filter out) so when I saw that $94 I was like these guys are horrible people. I'm not really sure what I can do besides force them to change everything on this list for the $229 inspection fee. Like I said I couldn't even get the car to turn on by the time I had to call a tow truck out to get it to the dealer.