2006 Prius 82,000 Miles Dying Hybrid Battery

So I am just back from the mechanic shop...he specializes in Toyota's and there were several Toyota's there along with a few owners who love this guy. He did a free diagnostic. It is my hybrid battery...block 4. He gave me copies of the diagnostic report. All of my other blocks are normal. He gave me three options.

He would buy the car for $3000
Repair the battery for $1200 parts and labor with a 1 year guarantee. He would need the car for three days.
Replace with a new Toyota battery $1950 + tax + labor ($350) total $2485.25 1 year guarantee.

He also said he would repair my cluster for $380 parts and labor.

I asked him what he would do if it was his car. He laughed and said he would repair it because he knows how to do it...but said it really is my comfort level...If I don't want to worry about another cell going bad etc.

 

My husband and I have decided to have the car repaired and give it to our son. That had been our plan. It was never my intention to sell the car since it has such low mileage....and Toyota's last forever right? I figured he could use it for years, and it would be the perfect college car. But I was thrown for loop when the dealership told me this past Friday it was not worth fixing. :/ I am glad I did a little research and discovered the opposite.

On Friday the dealership offered me 1500 as a trade in with a hard push to sell me another car. On Saturday Carmax offered me 2500 cash even with all of the warning lights flashing including the dreaded red triangle, and today the mechanic offered me 3000 if I decided not to fix it...so I guess the car is not as worthless as the dealership made out. They act like they are doing you a favor to take it off your hands. But the best part of this whole situation is that I feel like I found a great mechanic that I can trust. I found him while following up on some advice given to me from another member here. My husband and I plan on taking our cars to his shop for all future service and maintenance. Thank you to all who responded. Without this site I surely would have sold my Prius and given up a perfectly good car with a lot of life left....and then we would have had to purchase some other used car for our son. As an aside...this Prius is the car he learned to drive in...so it's kind of fitting that it be passed down to him.

 

Hi! I actually am not taking the car to Avi. I was afraid the car could not make that drive. It was only 15 1/2 miles but that is an hour drive here in the Los Angeles area. I found a shop that does repairs and service for Toyota's just 3 miles from my house. Hopefully it all works out. They have my car now.

 

Master Tech Auto Repair Shop in Torrance.

Master Tech - 11 Photos & 135 Reviews - Auto Repair - 18411 Hawthorne Blvd, Torrance, CA - Phone Number - Yelp

 

So I got my car back! Everything is working. I decided to have my 90,000 service while he had it. Time will tell I guess, but I am happy that I decided to have it repaired.

 

Hello. I asked the mechanic to check out my car because my last big check was the 60,000 mile check. I always get notices from Toyota when things are due....and I believe it is based on years or miles whichever comes first. The actually suggested maintenance schedule is sitting in my glove compartment so I will take a look tomorrow. I basically have only needed to get my fluids and oil changed. I wanted everything checked...breaks etc. I told him I did not need my oil changed because I had just had it changed a few months ago. After his inspection he said I needed a new engine air filter ($14.33), a cabin air filter ($15.58), a new set of front break pads w/shims ($62.70), and a drive belt ($20.42). He said he would service my rear breaks...shoes/clean, lube, and adjust. He replaced the front brakes and resurfaced the rotors. The front brake replacement labor was $130...the servicing of the rear brakes was $47.50. I thought he said he rotated my tires also, but I don't see it on my invoice sheet. I really have no idea if these are good prices as I did not compare pricing. But it was convenient because he already had the car, and I just trusted that he would be fair. He showed me all the replaced parts when I came to pick up my car without my asking to see them. I am sure someone hear will let me know if I was charged too much. I have pretty much always taken the car to the Toyota dealership for servicing prior...except for some oil changes...so compared to that, it did not seem excessive. Oh and he also installed some new wipers I had sitting in my car and they cleaned my headlights.

So this is weird, but I had to edit my post because some of the phrases were linking to parts selling pages. Is that normal?

 

So I tried to post the picture of what the 90,000 service is, but it shows a red x...so I deleted it...but it is on their website Master Tech Auto Repair Shop. It looks like the standard service schedule in my cars maintenance manual...