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New Traction Battery Cost: Start Shopping Here

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by SageBrush, Sep 5, 2014.

  1. DaneH5

    DaneH5 Member

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    Aren't the so called 'NEW' refurbs also??
     
  2. SageBrush

    SageBrush Senior Member

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    No.
    Brand new from the dealership.

    If you are questioning how long the battery has sat on the shelf, that is an interesting question (to me, at least) that I do not know the answer. Best to ask the dealership and try to parse the manufacturer code. Please report your findings here.
     
    #42 SageBrush, Jan 13, 2015
    Last edited: Jan 13, 2015
  3. kiwi

    kiwi Member

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    My QR code reader on the smartphone gets the Bar-code decifered from the battery enclosure (easy) but for unknown reason has not being able to "read" QR code recently on the 2009 module itself. In the past I was converting photo to the negative and it was reading and transcoding it.
    When I challenged couple of times local Toyota dealership with that exact question of the manufacture date of the "brand new" 38-module packs they are offering online - they refused to comment and blocked any futher questions from my account :( so that those questions are no longer visible to the general public.
     
  4. SageBrush

    SageBrush Senior Member

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    ^^
    Hi Kiwi,
    Does the bar code on the enclosure have a manufacturing date ?
     
  5. DaneH5

    DaneH5 Member

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    My understanding was the packs were all from a certain company and if you check with that company they only deal with "refurbs". That is why the dealer needs the CORE back and charges so much for it. It is then sent back and "refurbed" for the next one.
     
  6. SageBrush

    SageBrush Senior Member

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  7. SageBrush

    SageBrush Senior Member

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    Hi everybody,
    NAPA is selling a 'new' battery for ~ $1400, but it is actually a refurb from Dorman.

    Sorry for the confusion -- that offer has been removed from the table in the OP
     
  8. Wonky

    Wonky Junior Member

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    As of today, the table in OP shows $2070 as price available from "Toyota Parts Cheap" and from "San Bern Toyota".
    "Toyota Parts Cheap" is a web-page run by someone at Mossy Toyota in San Diego.
    I woke up at 8am and called the Toy Parts Cheap #, but no one answered, so I called Mossy Toyota.
    They quoted me 2588.67. I said their web page showed $2070. The guy said that's the internet price. I said I want the internet price. The guy said I should talk to the guy who ran the web-page - who wasn't there today.
    I called the TPC # again (about 9:15am) and they answered! I spoke to another guy who said I couldn't pickup battery, it would have to be shipped to me. He said shipping would cost so much - because the battery was considered "hazardous material" - that shipping costs practically equal savings of purchasing from TPC. Let me repeat, if you buy from TPC you, you MUST pay shipping - according to the person I spoke to. In other words, nobody can obtain a battery from TPC for $2070.
    Maybe there's some internal quarrel at Mossy Toyota, and if you call and speak to the right person, god will smile on you and you'll save $518 - but don't count on it, as I did.

    So, I called "Toyota of San Bernadino" and spoke with parts-dept, and was quoted $2588. I said there was a web-page that indicated their price was $2070. The guy said that was their internet price and I should go to the web-page of "LoveToyotaParts" (run by Toyota of San Bernadino). He said I must place the purchase through the web-page. He also said that the battery would have to be a special order and might be available in four days. The LTP web-page that summarizes purchase, forces you to add a shipping-cost of $200 - there's no in-store-pickup option. If you make a purchase through that web-page, you will be charged $200 shipping.

    I ended-up purchasing a battery for the MSRP of 2588, because I needed a battery today.
    Even if I could wait to have a battery "shipped", I wouldn't, because of added risk of damage occurring between dealer and my house.

    From my perspective, the prices in the OP should be verified long before they are relied-upon.
    Specific instructions describing how to obtain posted-price would have been a huge help.
     
    #48 Wonky, Mar 22, 2015
    Last edited: Mar 22, 2015
  9. exstudent

    exstudent Senior Member

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    You've missed earlier threads where some poor guy in the Midwest was getting nearly the same run-around.
    Olathe Toy (Olathe, Kansas), Gulf Toy (somewhere, TX), and another TX Toy dealership, wouldn't sell a retail/Internet person a HV Battery unless they were a mechanic or worked for an auto repair shop, and were doing a will-call pick-up.​

    Every Toy dealership has %OFF parts/service coupons. These are usually mailed, or sometimes they appear on the individual dealer's website. Hooman Toyota (Long Beach, CA) seems to always send out a monthly service and parts promotion, and the same coupons regularly appear on their website. They have a decent percent off ONE item in parts department coupon, but the time frame for use is limited to one week each month: 20% (wk1), 15%(wk2), 10%(wk3), 5%(wk4).
    Parts Specials - Toyota Specials serves Long Beach, Huntington Beach, Lakewood, Westminster - Hooman Toyota of Long Beach
    Other dealers say they will meet/beat other Toy dealer service/parts prices. 20% off MSRP would have helped a lot.
     
    SFO and Wonky like this.
  10. Wonky

    Wonky Junior Member

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    Thanks for the heads-up. I went back and read (perused) them. It's interesting how different our experiences were. Still, in both cases, internet-price is not honored. No shipping to customers who need shipping, (costly) shipping required for customers who want store-pickup.
    By the way, since my call this morning, Mossy Toyota (Toyota Parts Cheap) has upped their internet price from $2070 to 2183.48. However, it says in fine-print that only Martians can purchase without paying shipping, the internet-price for non-Martians is $2401 ($218 shipping.);)
     
    bisco likes this.
  11. DaneH5

    DaneH5 Member

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    If you are a Costco member , there should be a parts off coupon available in your area for a dealer they use in their car buyers program..
     
  12. Ryan_01

    Ryan_01 Junior Member

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    Anyone have any success with Toyota dealers in Delaware or New Hampshire? No sales tax in those states.

    If you live in NYC, Philadelphia, Baltimore, or DC -- you're ~2 hours or less from DE. If you're in Boston, or much of New England, you're not far from NH.
     
  13. kinglew

    kinglew Member

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    Refurb is what they are you are correct
     
  14. kiwi

    kiwi Member

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    Question: have you ever seen an original Toyota "recycled" sticker on the packs from the dealer on NHW11 or NHW20 packs?

    If yes - please upload on Imgur.com and share.

    I am asking because there is one rebuilder in US who a) claims that what you get from Toyota for your NHW20 Prius as a spare pack is recycled battery and b) they can do "the same quality" for much less price (I have doubts about their claims about quality but that is off topic).
    Their conclusion about packs being "recycled" is derived only from the 2 year warranty Toyota gives on that spare part. Unless I see with my eyes a sticker, I would not believe those claims.

    I just had another intake of Prius packs from wrecks. Those are first ever Prius (NHW10, 1997-1999) and NHW20 (2004-2009).

    I have noticed that 5 out of 6 packs (NHW10) had red coloured "Toyota Recycled" sticker with a 10-dgit part number attached alongside the original black coloured sticker. I cut those out and keep.

    I have not seen anything similar on NHW20 (you call these Gen-2 in US) or NHW11 (you call those Gen-I in US).

    I've noticed that labelling on NHW11 (2000-2003) pack which had been recently changed by Toyota had different labels vs original (had plenty of old before to compare). Serial numbers on modules suggested that pack was not recycled. Those were NP-1 - i.e. plastic side prismatic - no longer in production. Measured URC was very high.
     
  15. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    toyota usa only gives one year warranty. is that the guy on here who keeps screaming that they are not new but can't prove it?
     
    #55 bisco, Jul 23, 2015
    Last edited: Jul 23, 2015
  16. SageBrush

    SageBrush Senior Member

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    I thought it was kiwi who pointed out a few days ago that the module serial numbers of these replacement packs has been increasing, as would be expected if Toyota was using current modules.
     
    #56 SageBrush, Jul 23, 2015
    Last edited: Jul 23, 2015
  17. kinglew

    kinglew Member

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    They are recyled you are correct .1 year warranty not a good buy for the money
     
  18. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    You didn't answer the question.
     
  19. kiwi

    kiwi Member

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    Was not me. I mentioned few times before that replacement packs for NHW-11 still have NP-1 modules - no longer in production. Nothing wrong with that, just URC could decrease because of the long storage. But the price in USA for those from Toyota to garages seems to be fare reflection of the fact.

    FYI: As for serial numbers - modules have the date encoded in the QR code and origianl packs may not necessarily have sequential numbers.

    This weekend volunteered to charge and test NHW20 pack for friendly wreckers - it was stored (according to them) for about a year and they just wanted to know if it is still alive and how much Usable Remaining Capacity was left in it in order to get most out of it when selling. Serial numbers in that one were also not sequential.

    After being stored for long - the pack has not discharged completely and remaining capacity was about 1AH.

    Tested Usable Remaining Capacity was more than 3.0AH.

    That is an indication of low self-discharge rate in good packs.
     
  20. kiwi

    kiwi Member

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    EV Energy removed information about NP-1 modules which were used in NHW-11 from their site in 2013 (I still have screenshot from then).
    For me it is an indication that NP-1 are no longer in production.
    They make NP-2 (7.2V) and NP2.5 (9.6V) modules. The link is from my site here:
    NiMH Battery Specifications - HYBRIDS

    P.S. I have volunteered to conduct free tests on those so called "new packs" to dealership a year ago - the offer is still standing....
    Got one of those packs from fresh wreck - the car did not make much after the pack has been swapped - it had > 4AH URC. But not anything close to 6AH which you would expect in the new pack.
     
    gdanner likes this.