no start: every warning light is on

Jumpstart would have got you going, even with dead battery.

 

It was a weird situation. Dead of winter. Hood wouldn't open because the cable release failed. The rear hatch wouldn't open because of an obstruction of where it was parked. Nothing worked to be able to get through the car and to the rear battery area. And it had to be dragged out of its parking spot with a cable and winch - sideways, and also then pulled - badly - onto the flatbed, which couldn't get into a proper position because of the parking lot it was in and all the cars parked around both my car and the flatbed. Lots of things had to be fixed following that. Then the dealer's charge for the battery, which was not as bad as some, but still $279 alone. A bad Prius day. It could never happen again due to the way all the variables lined up against me. Let's just say that 5 years to the day a new battery will be put into the car, no matter how it tests.

 

Yes, just treat it like an oil change.

You can jump start under the hood, fwiw. Understand you couldn't pop the hood either, tho.

Funny, I changed ours around 5 year mark, and on the advice of someone here, kept the old OEM battery, for a backup. It's held charge surprisingly well. I recharge periodically, and it's in good shape: testing shows CCA higher than spec too.

Seems to me batteries in the car are constantly subject to phantom load, however small. If you're not driving daily it starts to take its toll.

 

sounds like a horrible experience, but i just load tested the 5.5 year old 12V battery in my prius and it's still is OK. it's driven daily and it was never totally discharged or deeply discharged. even if i use a 12V tire inflater, i make sure to put the car in ready. I even replaced the inside lights to LEDs (couple of $ on ebay), in case my wife leaves something on (she is known to do that). But, i'll probably replace it this fall at the 6 year mark.

 

na, going to take a chance on it lasting till the end of the year and unload it on someone else to replace. If I were going to keep car, would probably take your advice. I plan on getting 2016 when they offer incentives on them, that may happen Sep or Oct

 

I carry a jump start with me, did have to jump start from under the hood once when we left lights on. In my experience with batteries. Some die and unless there is a constant charge being applied to it, car want run. I do not know how the Prius is. You could always hook the jump start up to battery in trunk and leave it on to get the where you need to be(maybe) Most of the time a battery does not die completely and like previous poster stated, you can jump it off with jump starter. My lawn mower battery died a few months back, jumped it off but would not continue to run when I disconnected jump drive so I just left it on battery and got mower back to house.

 

If you can get in any door and aren't carrying cargo too large to pull out through the side doors, you can get to the 12-v battery, if you're not above crawling to reach it.