Toyota Canada no longer stocks 12V batteries!

Hi everyone, wife and I decided to keep the Prius as our company car to shuttle around shipments to the local post office. Just to fill you in, I fixed the exhaust leak on the Prius. Turns out it was just the exhaust donut. Sheesh. $280 and back on the road. Car ran well for about three weeks, and then the 12V started misbehaving. I was getting an average of 10.5 Volts disconnected from the car, which in itself is very low. The car barely started, but now it is dead, unless I keep it on a charger. What happened next was unreal!

I called my local Toyota dealer, and they said the battery was $421.80 + tax!! I paid $204.20 a year and a half ago! But that was not the best part, he then told me that they are on a 9 month backorder, with 37 other owners waiting and with no batteries in stock. The parts manager then called Toyota HQ, and they informed him regrettably, Toyota Canada will no longer stock 12 Volt batteries for the 2001-2003 Prius, as the car has exceed the 10 year parts warehousing law in Canada. Further, because it was a limited volume vehicle, they will no longer carry this part. They offered two solutions. They said I could buy a Battery Tender and keep it plugged in everyday. Or that I drive the car for at least two hours every day! Amazing!

I am still awaiting an direct email from Toyota HQ with regards to a reply but I will keep you all posted. Also of interest, 12 Volt batteries for hybrids carry no warranty, only a labour warranty for three years. I am extremely surprised at Toyota's attitude towards this situation. At any rate, I bought an Optima Battery from SaskBattery ( Saskbattery.com Optima battery, odyssey battery, Deka battery, rebuild drill batteries, inverters, ) and they were extremely helpful. He said he is aware of this problem and has had numerous orders from Canadian first gen Prius owners across Canada. It is a 51R series battery with the correct vent tube on the side. If anyone needs a new battery, call these guys up, they were so amazing. Free shipping too.

 

PS. The Volt is on its way!

 

Hi everyone, this Optima Battery is amazing. The car just runs like a gem now. Trouble is, I just got a check engine light this morning. Code P0420. It is intermittent, and only happens when I travel at high speeds I just found on a highway trip. I can clear it easily with a code reader I have. Since it seems to be Cat Converter related, and not impacting the car in any way, I will leave it. Not worth spending much more money on.

At any rate, the installation was not entirely plug and play. The Optima battery is the same height, and while narrower, is a shade wider, about and eighth of an inch. It would not fit in the tray. The solution was very simple. I took my 2 lbs sledge hammer and flattened the lip on one side of the tray. I installed an anti slip mat to keep it from moving around, and then simply reattached everything. The terminals were bang on, then vent tube slip right in, and everything just flat out works!

The voltage reads about 11.8 at -2 Celsius which is excellent, and this morning at 4 degrees it reads at 12.1, which seems a little high, especially compared to the Panasonic battery under similar conditions. The car nevertheless responds very well. It starts instantaneously and the cars "seems" faster. Fuel economy with my usual excellent driving hovers around 48 mpg to about 50.6, even in this crazy weather, which is about where I expect it.

I have still yet to hear anything from Toyota. They seem to be quite immature and continue to shrug me off. This sort of reaction from HQ is not acceptable from any business, and I now feel quite confident that my decision to go for the Volt and not the PIP was indeed the correct one. If this is some underhanded tactic to force dedicated first gen owners out of their cars, then they are doing a great job. My 2002 Chrysler Neon has been far less troublesome, and has seen 220,000 kms of mostly city driving, and still happily supported by the excellent Team Chrysler dealer my wife routinely takes it to. When I tell my friends about my experience, their reactions are of shock. It is not uncommon to own a car for more than 10 years. Here in Canada, the TV is bursting with commercials by Toyota about how a 92 Camry has over 300,000 kms and still going, or the lady with a 97 RAV4 that has over 400,000 kms, or the family with a 90 Tercel with over 500,000 kms. Those are all far older than my 2002 Prius, and yet they are gouging us with insane pricing ($561 for a rear wheel bearing!), and nearly $500 for a 12V battery is out of this world. I still love the car enough that we have kept it, as I said, for business. But Toyota has made ownership of this car a nearly financially unbearable experience.

I took pictures of my installation, and if any of you would like to see how I did it, step by step, I am more than happy to do so. Awesome car. Irrational and unprofessional service.

 

Well Patrick, your statement is fair, however with the exception of the GM EV1, which was not a true production car anyway, GM supports their vehicles exceedingly well. Example is a friend of mine with a Saturn Astra, and he can go to any dealer and still get plenty of support, and you want to talk about a rare vehicle. They have never price gouged him, nor increase the price of any parts. My issue with Toyota is that 10 years is silly. This was not such a limited edition car that warrants such behavior. Further, GM did not use a proprietary style design 12V as Toyota did, and if they did so, then they are obligated to carry such a part. After all, it was their decision to carry this 12V design, not ours, so why should we be punished with 2700lbs of useless steel and rubber if a suitable substitute cannot be found?

 

Well Jim, Oldsmobile vehicles are still covered as many of them were simply badge engineered, with the exception for the final models like the excellent Alero (Malibu based but almost nothing else in common), the Intrigue which was phenomenal but shared some mechanical bits and the Aurora which shared many bits with Cadillac. I understand what you are reaching for, however the issue is not the age of the car, but the refusal of carrying common wear and tear items that keep the car functional, and then pricing parts out of house and home when they get low on stock.

If we were talking about replacement radio, or CD player, these are not necessary to the basic function of a car. However, how would you feel if Toyota suddenly said, well no more brake pads for your 2006 Prius (I know it shares pads with other Toyota models, but bear with me here!), would you not feel totally aggravated?

While I have no problems putting non-OEM parts in my car (and in fact do so where possible with this model Prius), you cannot simply stick any old AGM battery in the trunk and call it quits. Its a question of safety in operating a car that has the potential of putting out hydrogen in the trunk or passenger compartment and representing a possible danger to myself or family. The fact that Toyota does not seem to care about that fact is disturbing to me.

At any rate, I will keep on driving it for now, and see how long she goes for. I don't blame the car itself as it has been good overall. Toyota is the one I point my justifiable finger at, and it is not good customer service to simply ignore my communications.