2005 Prius- with new battery, 145k miles

There's a great deal of confusion and mis-trust regarding "replaced the hybrid battery" statement...

Did you replace with a new pack (lasts longer than a decade) or did you replace with an after market re-manufactured (last barely 3 years if you're lucky) ?

In general car people don't want to relate or understand the process that goes into estimating the hybrid systems value and there's so many Prius out their that the value of them fluctuates wildly based on all this confusion.

 

That's because it doesn't matter much. If you wore it out you should have replaced it. Kinda like tires or a nice audio system. I'm not saying its not worth anything. Its just not worth much. You advertise it as such, ask a few bucks more and then take what you can get.

 

That's true to... I've bought 8 hybrid packs over the years at a local wrecker for $50 each and a rebuilder I know won't flinch at buying the same thing for $200-$300. There's also plenty of people that sell used packs on craigslist in the $800 range that at times are no different than the $50 ones I bought. The market has always been confused about value and add high voltage risks to that and it makes accessing value very difficult.

 

You can recover most of the loss by upgrading to a used Gen3 Prius 2015 or older and put your near brand new battery pack in your upgrade and put the original pack from Gen3 in your Gen2 before you sell it.

 

Your car is worth another $1000-1500 if you provide proof that you have a genuine new Toyota battery. All bets are off with used, refurbished or experimental stuff. This assumes there is nothing else wrong with your car--why are you selling and what are you asking?

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

No, you were not ripped off, it is just the market does not understand or recognize the value of a Toyota new HV battery. However, there will be savvy people out there who will, some will be genuine and pay you a bit more for it ($1,500 - $2,000) and there will be some of those savvy people who will try and rip you off and take the value for themselves. Just push back against the evil ones.

Personally, I'd keep the car for another 4 years and keep that value for myself, unless there are other maintenance issues now coming up.