2010 prius taxi blew its transmision

wow, and that is 160k miles, well what kind warrant are you looking for?

 

Did he regularly change out the ATF (every 50-100k km)? If not, he should not blame Toyota as taxi service is hard use for the tranny.

JeffD

 

Kind of a confusing post.
You say your "neighbor"....is this a Prius Taxi?
Then you say batteries (plural) are dropping like flies, and "we" also need transmissions? Are we talking taxi fleet here? Is something being lost in translation?

At a 160K, there are a LOT of vehicles that might start to experience transmission problems, if you are talking about a Prius Taxi...I'd consider it that much more likely just from the heavy use of being a Taxi.

And really at 160K? Very few standard automotive warranties are going to cover you. I don't know if you can blame Toyota for not doing something. Every warranty has to end. All machines will eventually fail.

 

You might find that the US and Euro service regulations are different. I have asked a number of times and was told that there are NO service differences for taxi service use! You also have a schedule for clearing of the HV battery fan, yet my dealer hadn't ever heard of it.

Still, 160,000 miles on taxi use is pretty good going but it's an expensive part. Funny how Euro Prii are dropping like flies and the US, Canadian and JDM versions are fine. See the other thread which is speculating on whether the Euro versions are made at just one factory and whether they're not upto scratch. I've been on this forum for years and people who know me and my posts who I try to be honest and open and have given numerous posts on my experiences and breakdowns. My Prius, a car meant to be reliable, has been worse than a Peugeot! That's saying something!

 

I doubt you can be sure considering it is a "lifetime" fluid that isn't lifetime but should be changed early and then every 60K miles or so after that. And you should know that a taxi is hard service for a vehicle so you should follow the service suggestions for rugged use, not what some random guy at a dealership that gets paid pennies says.

 

And many more people on here know personally that they do NOT fail that early in the majority of cases. There is something unique either about you and your greek buddies' taxis, the region, the construction, something. But we don't know what yet.

Why should Toyota forbid you to run it as a taxi? Especially since it works perfectly fine for thousands of other taxi drivers in GenII and GenIII taxis. Running any vehicle as a taxi, is a tough job. But it is your choice to make. It is like selling running shoes. The majority of people will use them a couple hours a week and they will last a while. If you use them 18 hours a day as your only shoe, and walk everywhere you go, and like to hike or climb, should they forbid you from buying the running shoes because your extreme usage will wear it out quicker? Or should you, the buyer, realize that you are putting more miles than average in a more extreme use scenario than average, so the lifetime will be below average... on average.

The batteries are almost fully recycled. Yes they make a profit, that's what a business does.

 

Pssst, it is called a 'caps lock' key. Your posts would be much more readable if you learned to use it.

 

They can be rebuilt, but it is usually much cheaper and easier to get a junker. Because they fail so rarely, you should be able to find one in a junkyard that has been totaled that will work like new.

I am extremely curious what is wrong with the "transmission" because there is no transmission in the historical sense, only in a literal sense. The static gearing of the MG's to the ICE means no clutching or moving plates or anything like that. So if something were to fail, it would be almost unheard of. In the early (pre-2003) without regular transmission fluid changes, it could develop a high content of copper I think in the oil which was the copper windings coming off of the MG. I am not really sure about it, as I do not follow the Gen1 closely. But HSD failures are so rare, that nobody even pays attention.

Do you have any actual info on the failure? What codes? Why do they think it needs to be replaced? When was the transmission fluid changed? At that milage, it should have been changed 3 times at a minimum.

No I assume that your average or even great mechanic has little knowledge on Toyota hybrids. They do not work the same, and need less but different maintenance than a normal car. Since the majority of taxis are not Toyota hybrids, if you only go to a taxi-specific mechanic, they may not have any clue what they are doing to your car.

I have a great mechanic I use for big jobs on my "normal" vehicles. They no almost nothing about the Prius than what they can read in the book though.

 

Hmm...

I sense you are slightly disappointed.

 

Let's see here... I had a Ford Taurus which had to have the transmission replaced at 80K, a Focus which had to have the transmission replaced at 50K, and my partner's 2007 Mustang with <50K miles is having issues with his transmission. So you're bitching about 160K miles and having to replace the transmission? REALLY!? HELLOOOOOO Nothing lasts FOREVER! 160K miles is a LOT of miles on a car. Just sayin...

 

It's not just Socrates! I had no end of trouble with my Prius and only ran it as a cab for 2 years and 64,000 miles. I'm now at only 74,000 miles and other issues have occured since. This is NOT what any car should do, let alone a Toyota. I have run Prius and Fords as taxis and neither of those caused any problems to this degree. My petrol Ford ran to just short of 300,000 miles and whilst a little 'tired' (lol) it was fine. A few clutches but nothing much else. The Peugeot I only ran to around 100,000 miles before I sold it to another taxi driver colleague and he ran it up over 300,000 miles with just one manual gearbox and couple of clutches. Sure, it had many interesting electrical gremlins but it was otherwise fine and these never caused it to brake down.

My issues with the Prius are well documented on here and they are crazy for only 64,000 miles. I tried to suggest it might be that European taxi use is different to the big city block driving in America and hence Euro drivers are having issues but American cabbies are not, but this was rebuffed. I now wonder if it was that the European versions (both lhd and rhd) are built at one factory and the US and JDM Prii are built at others. It appears that this might be a correct assumption as the European chassis numbers all relate to one factory whereas US versions are built somewhere else. I also wonder if this factory just puts the cars together or whether they use different suppliers for transaxels and parts too? That would also answer why Prii in Europe are turning into lemons and in the US and Japan they're bombproof mechanically. I do wonder if the US versions use superior parts because of the 150,000 mile hybrid warranty in CA?

I still like the smooth ride of the Prius and the fuel economy is great, but would I suggest a taxi driver buy one over here? Not a chance, well not a chance once the new warranty expires at 100,000 miles. They DO NOT take the hammer of taxi use here in Europe. Sorry, but it appears they just don't!

 

I would not make the statement that they don't take to taxi use in Europe quite so suddenly. There appears on the surface to be some difference between everywhere else and Europe to cause them to fail early. We have creeper city's in the states, big hills, flat land, ultra-urban areas, and farm nothingness just like Europe. Climate is similar. Since the failures are mostly electrical/hybrid in nature, the differences in petrol (which there are) should not matter.

I don't believe Toyota uses different parts on the Prius for different regions. There are different firmware flashes... Especially for the MFD (L/100km vs MPG, temp in C vs F, etc) but the hardware should be the same.

Then again it could just be a coincidence that the rare failures all happen to know each other and come to this forum.

We just simply do not have enough information to make such broad statements. Only repeat anecdotal evidence and guess.

 

Taxis operate on a severe duty cycle. From a mechanical stand point, I personally would not purchase one for long term commercial use as I feel it is to fragile for that kind of service. This opinion has come from almost 50K miles of use and my experience as a Mechanic. As a personal car it is quite adequate and I am happy overall. Grumpy I read many of you posts as it related to mechanical reliability prior to and after my purchase and agree with your assessment with one exception. I do not believe the US and Japan cars are any more "bullet proof" the the rest. While there is a lot good information and shared experience on this site, I feel most of the opinions here are based on light to moderate "civilian" use, tempered with a little "Kool Aid". But what do I know?

 

I agree, BUT I have heard taxi reports near me where issues with the Prius. I just don't get how taxis in the US have run to 400,000 miles with minimal issues, yet the 2 European taxi drivers in Europe have both had or heard of significiant issues.