How did retirement lead to fixing cars??!!

Nice idea, but he's still developing what he has. He's kind of the special ingredient with the way he invests so much time with each customer and his extensive knowledge of hybrids. He'd be hard to duplicate. That and I'm continually impressed by the shop atmosphere. I don't know how you replicate that.

There were four guys traveling in a car together. One from Idaho, one from Nebraska, one from New York, and one from Florida. Out of the blue, the guy from ID throws a potato out the window. Someone asks why and he says, "We have so many potatoes in Idaho that we don't know what to do with them all." Moments later, the Nebraskan tosses out an ear of corn and, before anyone can ask, he says, "We have the same problem with corn." Almost immediately, the Floridian reaches over, opens the door next to the New Yorker and kicks him out onto the road.

 

Not quite. The Prime has a one way clutch that allows MG1 to be used for propulsion and permits EV speeds up to 84 mph. Also, there is the battery charger and its controls that a regular Prius doesn't have. And the Prime has two battery cooling fans, but that's not rocket science. Suspension might be tuned a little differently, but I'm not sure about that. The Prime has a carbon fiber rear hatch that is very different from the regular Prius hatch. There are also differences in programming logic due to having a real life EV mode in the Prime. Aside from that, they are essentially the same as far as I know. Most times, the regular training would suffice. But it might be that Prius training includes the Prime. We'd have to ask someone who's been through it.

Bottom line is that, if my Prime needed something I can't do myself and Tampa Hybrids was unavailable, I would not be afraid to take it to a Toyota dealership. In fact, I had Toyota replace my brake fluid a while ago. If the staff techs don't know, there are specialists that go from dealership to dealership for those situations.

 

Agreed. People keep flooding the state, clogging our roads, jacking up real estate prices, and doing stupid stuff to feed the FL man/woman stories. (But at least they are entertaining. There's even a website! https://floridaman.com/top-10/ - actually, lots of them.)

I'm pretty convinced that most of the incredibly bad drivers I see lots of times every day were exiled here from their home states because of how bad they drive.

 

I keep leaning all kinds of cool stuff from those guys and sometimes I just discover stuff. Today, I found out that, yes, you can remove the hybrid battery from a Prius v without opening the hatch. It's a little harder, but you can do it. We were taking a nearly new battery out of a v that had been rear ended and totaled so we could put it into the used v the owner of the totaled v was buying. Getting out the styrofoam underdeck storage bins in one piece that were crushed up against the battery and the safety plug were the hard part. Also some of the stuff on the fan end was a little hard to get to since we could not remove the side panels from the cargo area. Transplant complete and the patient is ready for detailing. Oh! we also transplanted all the door panels and leather seats.

 

This was a fun little project we just got ready to put out on the lot. I only had a small part in it. Note the @PriusOffroad kit decals.
http://www.tampahybrids.com/2014-toyota-prius-hybrid-two-rear-camera-usb-bluetooth-fog-lights-new-head-gasket-136k-miles?rt=1&ri=14991893

 

Seems like it's pretty much all used cars.

 

We paid ours in April. For a 2017 Prime and a 2017 Prius, it was a total of $48. And we don't pay state income tax. And somehow Florida had an $8 billion surplus. I guess tourists do come in handy after all.

But back to the current topic, I can't justify upgrading to an EV for similar reasons. I hardly use any gas in the Prime, so no matter how expensive gas gets, a new EV would never pay for itself. And also, I suddenly find that 20% of my retirement account is suddenly gone awol. I'm not selling any of that stock till it come back. So it's a good thing this part time job fell into my lap.

 

I had a first last week. After months of cleaning EGRs (along with replacing CMs, MFDs, inverter pumps, seats, spark plugs, mirrors, doors, hybrid batteries, etc), I did my first EGR replacement. The engineer that designed that system needs to be taken out and SHOT! The others are always thanking me for cleaning the things. I should thank them for replacing them.

Seriously, it wasn't that bad for a first time. I'm sure I'll get better at it. It was nice having coaches to tell me about the tricks they use to access the inaccessible.

 

The contortions. I seem to have an insufficient number of elbows.