New Owner Already Trouble

I'd suggest you try the goodwill warranty first.

 

First step is to look up the lemon laws in your state and examine your bill of sale (if used). Some states have laws where sellers are required to disclose information such as that and failure to do so allows you to return the car for your money back. However if the bill of sale specifies "as is" there's probably not much you can do legally.

The warranty should be attempted first! Florida is a California emissions state, which means the battery should be warrantied for 10 years/150,000 miles! Your car was likely purchased in 2006, and as they have a record of the hybrid battery failure 5 months ago, they'd have to replace it now, so long as the record of the battery failure was logged within 10 years of the first sale of the car.

Otherwise you have 4 options:

1. Purchase a new hybrid battery and have it installed for a little over $3000 at Toyota with an included warranty
2. Purchase a reconditioned battery and have it installed, probably for around $1500
3. Pay a hybrid specialty company to recondition your battery and replace the bad cells (rarely done and cost would be about the same as #2)
4. Recondition the battery yourself (requires good understanding of batteries and basic electronics, significant research, and time)

For a Prius with so few miles, option 1 is probably best if you plan to keep and drive the car for many years. Options 2 and 3 are cheaper, but as the modules of the battery will be used, the life of the battery will be much shorter. If the car had 200k, I'd tend towards 2 or 3, but for you option 1 makes sense as a new battery will likely last 150k in Florida's climate, and a reconditioned battery likely a little less than half of that. Number 4 is great if you're very technical or if you have a husband or wife who is technical or has a background in electronics. Th

Note that heat is your batteries' worst enemy and keeping your car stored such that the interior temperature is kept down should be done if at all possible (park in garage, use sun visor, get window tint with high heat rejection, etc.)

 

So basically he was trying to flip the car for a profit.

Shortly after buying the car he saw the check engine lights go off and had it checked out. Afterwords realized the fixes were too expensive to do, then reset the codes and sold the car without informing buyer of problems.

I bought my Prius from a Toyota dealer with full service records and had similar check engine and battery failure within short period of time. I fixed the issues myself so it cost me very little.

Bottom line some people are just dishonest and there is no way to prevent a similar situation from happening.

 

welcome!
florida is not a california emissions state. it's an emissions state. they don't even do annual inspections.
gotta love craigslist. all the best!

 

I only hope that as buying a used, auction vehicle you had a low buy in price.
That might make investing into a Hybrid Battery worthwhile.

That assuming the vehicle doesn't have more hidden problems.

Too bad the seller lied. But I would be suspicious of any "auction vehicle" being sold 3 weeks after the auction.

You have nothing to lose in seeing what assistance Toyota may offer. But you're not a long time owner of this vehicle. I tend to think the track record is of Toyota offering assistance to original owners that bought new and maintained the vehicles consistently.

And once you're past warranty...Toyota has every right to say...sorry..past warranty.

 

Didn't Florida pop positive for CARB in 2009?
Some Prius nerd out there ought to know.
This may not mean anything for your G2 but if you get ANOTHER Prius then you need to find out.

Three thousand isn't out of line for a dealer-replaced battery, but I'd also see if there's a independent shop that will stuff a battery into the car and assess the water pump.
If the records are "impeccable" then I'd compare that with the maintenance SCHEDULE to make sure that all of the prescribed maintenance was done.
You also have a possible small claims action against the seller since there is a clear trail showing that they should have known that this is a pre-existing problem.
The only two problems will be with Florida's small claims procedure being probably two decades behind the times and also with turning a judgement into a payment.

I'd do a couple of things.
1. Invest
Spend about $150 and get a sleezy small town lawyer to fire a shot across the previous owner's bow. Talk about a settlement in the $1500 neighborhood. If you're one of those people with a lot a of free time on their hands, look into small claims and use $3k as the approximate damage figure. Keep it short and sweet. You're not trying to earn a chapter in a legal textbook.

2. Assess.
Can you replace the battery yourself? How many times a month do you check your oil?
How is your financial health?
A 10-year old car might not be your best ride if you aren't able to do basic maintenance on a car and you're not in the habit of doing basic pre-flights.
Me?
I HAVE TO do basic checks, because all of my cars have over 90,000 miles on them.
The reason I mentioned about being able to replace the battery is that you can buy one and replace it yourself.
They're connectorized and I'm almost certain that there's a video out there somewhere on how to do it.
There are videos out there on how to do nearly EVERYTHING on a G2, and it's all pretty basic stuff, but one of the first things you need to determine now (after the battery is replaced) is whether or not YOU need to keep the car or sell it and get something without regenerative brakes, an inverter, and a [sic] CVT.

I think that a G2 is good bet, but like many money things, sometimes you have to invest a little more time and effort.
That's the assessment, and it will more or less apply to ANY 10-year-old car that you get.

Good Luck!
Let us know how it turns out.

 

Florida sees the light - adopts California's emission standards - Autoblog

This is why I believed it was true. Is the article false?

 

news to me. don't you need emission inspections? my brother lives there, i'll ask him.

 

it looks like crist wanted it back in 2007, or he was gearing up for a run at the presidency. but i can't find anything on line, or in @JimboPalmer 's posts, who is our resident expert.
probably killled by the following admin, or never got through the legislature.

 

Good Question: Why doesn't Florida require vehicle inspections - NBC-2.com WBBH News for Fort Myers, Cape Coral & Naples, Florida

Most of the story is regarding why Florida doesn't inspect for properly maintained cars (tires, illegal window tinting, up to date registration, etc.) but the last two sentences refer to emissions testing:

"As a side note, back in the 1990s, Florida required emissions testing in major metro areas like Miami, Tampa and Jacksonville.

Governor Jeb Bush did away with the program for two reasons: the $50 million cost and because Florida met federal standards for air quality."

 

if you have to go that route, i would shop around.

 

Personally, even with a valid chance at some level of success, I don't think I'd bother trying to launch a law suit against the seller.
He had only owned the vehicle for 3 weeks.
The "Legislature" was the previous owner.
He DID reveal he had bought it at auction.
He had a "Friend? Buddy?" that was a uniformed Sheriff present at the sales presentation.


If it boiled down to You Say...He Says....with what he did reveal, and potentially a law enforcement officer as a witness...that might be a losing battle.


I also don't know what you paid for the vehicle...but you knew you were buying a USED vehicle that had just been purchased at an auction, off of Craigslist.
I don't think anything shouts "Buyer Beware" much louder.

 

Never happened. FL cancelled both CARB and E10 mandate. The E10 is a mute point as Feds basically mandated it, but you can get E0 in FL.

What might be interesting is to see first state of purchase of the vehicle, so it might have value if transferred to a CARB state. Also if 2007 warranty is phrased as vague as 2006, it just says California cars are warranted, and all Prii are CARB certified, so there is some wiggle room on goodwill warranty under 10-yrs and 150k miles (at least for 2006) in my mind.

Of course if the title is salvage I assume all bets off

 

Low expectations is good but we've been surprised before. It will not be fast but if you have a few weeks time to be patient and persistent and don't take the first no as the answer, there is a chance. If you need speedy repair then you have to forget it and go to a 2nd hand batt shop

 

Keep in mind the good will approach (see threads) normallly requires the owner to call Toyota to negotiate (not the dealer). On a rare occasion the dealer will call Toyota to argue on your behalf, but not usually. But you do need a dealer to give you the diagnosis. I think they are used to having owners call Toyota for resolution on warranty issues, I assume cars sit at the dealer during that time. If you read any cars warranty manual they talk about the warranty process and contacting manufacturer for resolution, so that is just part of the automobile game. Many consumers feel they are under pressure to solve the problem that very day based on dealers preferences, so they never go through the process.