Putting car in neutral with dead battery?

you need the 12 volt charged to get the car to do anything...
go with your gut and sell it.
cars are worth less as they get older not more so if you reached your breaking point its time to wave bye bye.

but before you do see if Toyota will give you a discount on replacing the battery pack, some people have saved 50% by calling customer care, not the dealership.

 

Just remember.....with normal engines and normal transmissions come normal operating costs and repair bills!

Here's the deal.
Priuses don't need to have start batteries with 780 cold cranking amps, because you're not starting the car up......you're booting it up.
The teeniest pocket jump starter will be fine in booting your Prius for the remaining time that you have the car before you go on to whatever lies beyond.

While it may be time for you to explore 'normal' cars, don't cheat yourself out of the chance to get some more money out of this one.
There's a Prius shop in Southern Indiana that repairs these cars and they might give you some advice on re-batterying your car and selling it used if it's in otherwise good condition.
Their web site: Prius hybrids sales and service Scottsburg Indiana

Good Luck!

 

I've heard more than one person complain that re-manned batteries have a hit-and-miss track record.....and for a 1.5 year old battery I think I'd pop a flare over Scottsburg IN and try to work something out.
My thinking is that an 06 that's a hangar queen would be worth less than an 06 that's running - even if the battery was recently re-replaced.
There's a break-even point however for just cutting bait and selling a non-running ten-year-old car off as a project car.

That's your call of course, and yeah.....for some people the hybrid thing isn't the way to go for vehicle number next.
My thinking has always been that if you get the battery, inverter and regenerative brake thing dialed in, then there are other parts that you just don't have to worry about with Priuses.
The CVT has proven to be much more reliable over the years than a regular transmission, brakes last longer, no belts (for the G3) no starter motor, etc.
I'm just all the way over $40 gas fill-ups....but there are a lot of ways to do the car thing.

Good Luck with yours!
Let us know what you decide.

 

I'm sorry, but one of the most knowledgeable Prius repair facilities in the nation is in southern Indiana - Prius hybrids sales and service Scottsburg Indiana - and it is not a Toyota dealer.

JeffD

 

^^^^^^^ Highly recommended.

 

If you can't get under the hood then open a door, crawl in the back seat, drop the seat back, crawl to the back, pop the cover and release the latch manually. The 12v battery is under the deck on the right side of the car.

We just went through the analysis in Pittsburgh. Just looking at the numbers you'll net more dropping in a new battery then selling a running car than selling it as is for a lawn ornament.

Since the price of gas spiked in your area this is a better time to sell a Prius.

 

If the 12 V is flat, how do you know the main (HV) battery is flat?

If your 12 V battery is flat, it does not necessarily mean you need to replace it -- it depends how long it has sat in a discharged state. It may just need to be fully charged overnight. If it can hold a charge, then you will be ok, if not, then yes, you will need to replace it.