Day 1 SNAFU - dead battery

Oh wow... What a bummer... What a rotten way to start with a car you're for sure gonna love.

First step is to get clear on your state's vehicles emission testing and then find out if a cheap $130 after market catalytic converter on Ebay is sufficient to get your registration renewed each year.

On the bright side, at least you don't live in California which I'm pretty sure is the only state that requires original Toyota Cat, which would of set you back $2500.

 

No, that didn't do it. That blinks all the time the car is shut down (and possibly no key fob present), indicating that the immobilizer feature is set.

(*) That wasn't it either, catalytic converter theft shouldn't have any impact on the 12V battery.

(*) Massive bummer. Converter theft is bad enough whenever it happens, but on the very first night is a whole lot worse. And before comprehensive insurance (if you purchased that feature, not required) even took effect. :-(

 

Unless something has changed, the three (3) states that require such are CA, NY and Maine. It may not be all of NY state, unsure.

 

That’s awful.

an elderly Prius is a very tough car for a young lady to own it usually will have many many issues that require lots of wrenching and electrical investigations that unless you can do it yourself will soon become very very expensive at the dealer. My dealer is $150 an hour and if I was forced to use them every time I had an issue that car would have been long long gone.
If you had come here first I would have waved you off this car.

the biggest hard ship is the failure of the hybrid battery not the 12 volt battery which is your concern here. Hybrid battery will be your next issue.

let’s see how the car was taken care of or if any recent issues
Go to Toyota.com join the forum it will ask for the cars vin get it off the insurance card.
Once joined look at the cars service history it show you every time it has seen
A Toyota dealer for service. Look there for severe issues many cars are traded in on the spot when dealer hits you with $5000 repair bill.
Off to auction it goes.

Main reason people sell there G2 Prius is a failed hybrid battery or the engine is a severe oil eater or just really high miles people seem to own there 2s till there done. Myself included.

how many miles on this car?

 

On the other hand if you like to learn to fix stuff or have a friend or family member who does, this website will give you all the information you need to make the repairs yourself and it won't cost very much and when Prius are well cared for they're incredibly reliable and maintenance free for the most part.