What Toyota doesn't want you to know

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 :cheer2:. 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. :angry:

I thought the Battery is covered longer in the CARB States?? Is that not the case?? I am in NY and the poster is in CALIFORNIA, both are Carb States, so I would have thought the warranty was extended to 125K or 150K mileage??

Do anyone know if this is the case or not?

Thanks,
Bob

A $3,000 repair after 100,000 miles doesn't sound so unreasonable, though I can understand how you feel if you were promised otherwise.

Yeah, consdiering how many repairs on a lot of normals cars add up by the time you hit the 100,000 mark and that is not including things like a blown out tranny with is common on a lot of domestics....


I just turned 100,000 last night and I've only had 1 repair during that time and it cost me a grand total of $0.89.

I'm sorry to hear of your situation but $3,000 is not that uncmmon with regards to car repairs after 100,000 miles.

You other option is to buy a used batery that has been tested and have it installed. I doub't you'd spend half of that original quote.

Terrygsb, I too understand you don't want to pay $3,000.00 to repair a vehicle after 8 years and 100,000+ miles. I don't blame you; but I hope my approach will be different.

A few years back, I didn't want to pay almost that much ($3,000.00) for numerous repairs to a Jeep Cherokee, which after 4 years and just 50,000 miles, when everything seemed to star failing all at once. I don't want to buy a new laptop, summer two year ago, but mine stopped working and technician could repair it for more than the new one cost.

If the product exceeded the express warranty, but not the sales-person puffing, why do we think the manufacturer 'owes' us? In 8 years, if I have to pay $4,000, with inflation, to replace my Prius' battery, I'll be unhappy, too. But, it's mechanical, with moving parts, in the rain & snow, with wind, smog, sand, salt, and who knows what else; I've saved hugh bucks on gas bills, and I hope I'm fortunate enough that I experience minimal repairs over the years (as others have stated, here, on PriusChat) so I hope I will figure replacing a battery in the overall cost of ownership is relatively cheap compared to other cars. --TK

If this is your first major repair:
I would not be happy but you didn't get screwed by Toyota. Your car is eight years old, I know of a two VW owners who paid about that for a transmission on a 5 year old car. Other owners have had sludged engines after far less time and spent more then $3000. After 8 years no matter how many miles bad things can happen to cars.

Not for us pioneers. Has to be 2004 or later.

In 2001 they had no idea about the true life of the batteries. Many folks have exceeded your mileage w/o changing the TBattery and some around the same mileage. I agree with the others. Lack of brake and tranny and other costly repairs more than make up for the price of a battery replacement.

Yeah, right. I have a 15 year old Honda with 160k miles and no major repairs. That's why I stopped buying American cars, because of the expensive repairs, and now this after 105,000 miles? That's absolutely not what I expected, and most people would be shocked at knowing this in advance.

I would politely and patiently pester Toyota and the dealership on this. This has happened so close to the warranty that it is almost within odometer error. Others have has success with this approach and one person even had his transaxle replaced for free after 110,000 miles! Just play the card that you will never buy another Toyota ever again if they don't help you so close to the warranty expiry. Contact Toyota yourself, Don't rely on the dealership.

Good luck, Don't give up yet.

You also have the option of buying a rebuilt battery.

Has the TSB been done on your battery? There was a free fix for leaking batteries which cause the connectors to corrode and can show a dead battery. If it has not been done you could pursue that angle too. You could prove that the damage was hidden from you and had happened before the warranty expired.

My Prius purchase decision five months ago was made with the expectation of buying one replacement traction battery during the time I own it.

Considering that the 23-year-old Honda it replaced didn't start consuming repair money until 175,000 miles, and those repairs cost much less than the depreciation on any replacement, this Prius has a very tough bar to meet. I will not be at all upset if eventual repairs consume as much as the Honda plus half the fuel savings. It will still keep carbon out of the atmosphere and dollars out of the pockets of Hugo Chavez and Vladimir Putin.

Thanks, that's good advice. Do you know when this TSB came out? I always had the dealer do everything. Also, I've seen mention of a rebuilt battery, but can't seem to find who would put it in. I hear it's only for a pro to do.

The Prius seems to be extremely reliable over the first 100,000 miles or so, but you must remember that the 2001 was the first generation and as such was full of new technology, much of it unproven over the longer term.

As I read this forum, I discover that there are many very expensive things that can go wrong with a Prius as it ages, such as the following:

1. HV battery $3000.00 - (higher failure rate in hot and mountainous areas).
2. Transaxel $4800.00.
3. Steering Rack $1600.00.
4. ECU $1500.00

See this link for a poll of common failures:
PriusChat Forums - View Poll Results

Looks much like the list of any modern car or truck with respect to price. You can expect at least a tranny repair or replacement on most modern domestic trucks/cars by the time you get over 100,000 miles unless you get lucky. With the Prius replacement of any of the above listed parts seems more rare than a typical engine, ECU, or tranny failure on a typical domestic.

I may just be jaded after being part of Mustang and Camaro/Corvette/Truck car clubs and online forums for over a decade. lol

Since some are comparing apples to oranges, I have a 1995 Ford Escort, manual transmission, with about 210,000 miles on it. I have had to make repairs and maintenance on it, but no single repair on the order of a thousand dollars.

At this point, plan to get rid of it because I anticipate repairs (original transmission, clutch, alternator, engine) and some minor glitches will require some effort to fix (seat belts no longer retract, broken rear bumper allows rain water to collect in the spare wheel well, rear hatch lifter no longer works well).

So, I guess the need to replace the batter at 100K is a little disappointing. You could be on the short end of a bell curve; I am hoping to get over 150,000 miles on my traction battery. (But since I have a 2004, I guess I would like it to fail under warranty.)

This troll is in the wrong forum. Should be moved to Gen I.

your escort sounds like it's in pretty good shape, can probably score seat belts from salvage or eBay, same with the pneumatic "hatch lifter," salvage rear bumper ... are you on the water or a little inland, hows the paint?

you religiously change the oil?

i bet someone gets a good deal on that little beauty

Bit early to tell and a bit harsh don't you think?

I'm guessing this is in the newbie forum because the poster is new and would like to warn other newbies.

Burying it isn't going to make the fact that this guy feels a little betrayed and has to replace his battery any less real. In fact, I think it would be disingenuous to do so.

I know how you feel. I expect to spend near $3000 every 15k miles on just tires and brake pads (not to mention differential servicing) on my other car.

If you have to pay $3K for a new traction battery, then maybe it is time to pay the same amount for a new car.. 100K miles of use is not shabby....