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ELITE SERVICE: Meter running on hybrid repairs

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by jkash, Jul 6, 2004.

  1. jkash

    jkash Member

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    Prius replacement battery to cost $6,320

    An owner of a Toyota Prius just learned he eventually will need a $6,320 battery.

    Dean Rudie of Minneapolis has more than 80,000 miles on his Toyota Prius and hasn't had problems with his car, other than a bad accelerator pedal assembly. He is eyeing the end of his 100,000-mile battery warranty with trepidation.

    "I called the dealer and found out it will cost $6,320 to replace the huge, 110-pound battery," said Rudie, 53. "This has given me pause."
     
  2. Bob Allen

    Bob Allen Captainbaba

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    That sounds way out of line to me. I understood that the Classic Prius battery replacement was about 3k max, which is bad enough, but that the '04 Prlus has an improved battery which costs about half of that to replace. I also read somewhere that Toyota took apart a 2001 Classic with 200k miles on it, and found the battey still seviceable. I wouldn't spend too many nights awake worrying about this, although it is something to think about.

    I knew from the day I decided to get a Prius that I would never make back the money I saved at the fuel pump. The whole point of this car, for me, is low emissions and environmentally sound manufacturing and recycling. The Prius is pretty much as green as you can get and still have a reasonably functioning car with good range and performance. We are all in this together and eventually, we will all be getting battery replacements. The ones who will really be grousing about the cost are those who thought they could save money on gas enough to offset the operating costs of the car.
     
  3. richard schumacher

    richard schumacher shortbus driver

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    What a load of FUD. That would be the price to replace his battery *today* out of warranty at that dealer. When he actually does replace it out of warranty, then he'll have a meaningful data point.
     
  4. priustaxi

    priustaxi New Member

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    Just for your information i had a 2001 Prius as a taxi and put 190,000 miles as a taxi with no battery problems.My conversations with Toyota have told me that the life expectancy of the battery's is 13 years or 150'000 miles.That expectation is on speculation. My taxi is still the highest mileage to date.The battery pack is a modual unit that if there was to be any replacement it would be module by module.There is a total of 38 modulees.Each module contains six 1.2 volt cells.You would replace a part of a cell one at a time,not the whole unit at one time.

    I hope this helps you with your thoughts on an expensive repair bill.
     
  5. jkash

    jkash Member

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    Thanks for the great post priustaxi. It is nice to know that your battery has lasted for 190,000 miles.

    Is the battery in the 2004 the same as in the 2001? I know the hybrid system is different, but not the actual batteries.

    Jeff
     
  6. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    Jeff,
    I think you misread priustaxi's post a bit...he said 190,000 KMS, not miles.

    The battery in the '04 is definately different than those in the '01-'03.

    Used (minimally used) classic Prius batteries from wrecked vehicles are selling on Ebay for $500 and even less. This guy is FOS.


    Classic Battery 20K miles, no reserve, no bids
     
  7. Mirza

    Mirza New Member

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    Wasn't there a Vancouver taxi who got like 230,000 km on a Classic and the battery was completely fine? Toyota bought it from him and gave another... I read seceral articles about it.
     
  8. snarfo

    snarfo New Member

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    Assuming Toyota ever catches up with demand, don't forget the economics market law: the more stuff on the road, the more common (and thus cheaper) the replacement. By the time any of us with a 2004 (mine is on order, of course, so it will be a 2005) needs a battery replacement years from now it should be a hell of a lot cheaper.

    As for owners of the classic Prius, well, we owe them a debt of gratitude for being vanguards now that it's really taking off. My guess is that they will be paying more for battery replacements.
     
  9. Mirza

    Mirza New Member

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    only assuming that batteries will have to be replaced... it's been discussed many times before among the different groups... from john1701a and all the sources he's looked at... the battery life will peak at around 150,000 miles. After that the battery will very slowly lose its efficiency. Wayne from the Yahoo groups (at least a few of you may know him) is very knowledgeable about the Prius battery and has stated the life of the battery would be at a minimum of 300,000 or 400,000 miles (with a lower minimum for 'city drivers'). He's done some pretty interesting mods to his Prius.
     
  10. Charley

    Charley Junior Member

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    Who is "Elite Service?" Got a URL?

    TIA,

    CR
     
  11. jkash

    jkash Member

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    I think it was just the title of the article.
    Here is the link again.
     
  12. Charley

    Charley Junior Member

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    Elite Service

    That's your website. You have piles of stuff on there. Don't you have a reference URL to the article? I f you're going to reference an article tell us where to see it in total.

    CR
     
  13. jkash

    jkash Member

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    Re: Elite Service

    Charley, you can click on the blue text for the link, but here is the URL to the story.
    http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?pag...=070604b4_techs
     
  14. Charley

    Charley Junior Member

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    Re: Elite Service


    What blue text? I didn't find anything called "Elite Service" and I've spent more time searching your website than I wanted to. You could have saved us both a lot of time if you'd referenced it to begin with.

    Thanks,

    CR
     
  15. tag

    tag Senior Member

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    The "blue text" was in the very first line of Jeff's (jkash) first post:

    Prius replacement battery to cost $6,320

    That's a clickable link. Might be kind of hard to see on a light blue background, though.

    Anyway, "Elite Service" appears to be the title of the article.
     
  16. jkash

    jkash Member

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    Thanks Tag. That's what I was trying to explain. I will make the links another color if someone can explain to me how.

    Jeff
     
  17. tag

    tag Senior Member

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  18. Charley

    Charley Junior Member

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    Holy Smoke! It doesn't look blue on my monitor. But look, why not just reference the article in the usual fashion? Then it wouldn't matter what color it was.

    Sin Fin,

    CR
     
  19. tag

    tag Senior Member

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  20. jkash

    jkash Member

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    Thanks Tag. That seems a little more than I want to do, so I will just put a line at the end of the text that says
    Read article by clicking here.

    Jeff