2007 Touring Prius Hybrid battery failure/4 computer failures

You pay too much for tires. I got my last set of 4 Bridgestone Ecopia 422's at Costco for right around $400 out the door. It would pay to shop around for your repairs as well. I'm sure you could get that computer from a junk yard and have a local independant shop do the install for quite a bit less. Are you in the USA? What State?

 

What are you talking about? The Prius is the most reliable car ever! All the jingoists on this site can't be wrong...it says so in the reliability data...that they somehow neglect to cite...
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Chevy Citation needed...will trade Prius or $$$

 

A few questions to help understand the situation:

1. Odometer reading of the 2007 Prius?
2. What driveability symptoms were evident, that caused you to seek repair service?
3. What DTC (diagnostic trouble codes) were logged by the car?
4. What four ECUs were replaced and which one did you have to pay for?
5. What "shop" is the car at?
6. The failure rate of ECUs is extremely low and the likelihood of needing to replace four at once is near-zero unless the car was hit by lightning or flooded. Unless an event of that magnitude happened, I question the technical competence of the person working on your car.
7. Has the shop contacted Toyota HQ in Torrance, CA for technical assistance?

One place to find reasonably objective reliability data is in the annual Consumer Reports review of vehicle reliability. This can be found in the April edition each year, as well as a separate book published each year.

You can also obtain some info online:
Best Used Cars | Worst Used Cars - Consumer Reports

I suggest you obtain that and compare Chevrolet model reliability against Toyota model reliability. Notice that three Chevrolet models are on the list of "used cars to avoid" due to poor failure rates.

 

I’m closing in on 90k, just had 3rd set of tires installed about a month ago. Replaced the 12V battery a couple of years ago. Replaced the HID bulbs last year. Holy crap this thing is a sinkhole for money (unless you compare it to any other vehicle on the road)

 

I can not believe that level of malfunction, unless the car was hit by lightening. No one has reported that kind of electronic failure, if it really is failure. What has been reported many times is dealership technicians that don't understand much about the Prius (although there are some dealerships that do very well), and just swap components without really confirming they have failed. Prius diagnostics are more involved than older conventional cars, and that is why this site, with its many helpers, exists: to keep people from going into these sorts of dysfunctional boondoggles.

 

Mine is approaching 80,000 miles and mine has been nickel and diming me left and right!!!

And by that I mean, I can finally pay for gas in nickels and dimes instead of having to open a line of credit like the vehicle I used to drive....

Rich12, the ax that you need to grind is not with us, my friend.....

I agree. This sounds like a potential insurance claim if anything... Maybe it was struck by lightning or a rodent chewed the main harness... something stinks here, and its not the fume' from the 12v battery this time

 

Love this. Rich12, I've given you links to reliability stats in other threads showing the Prius to by highly reliable. I'd challenge you to do the same, you contend it's not, bring us the data. Not anecdotes, data.
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I'd agree the OP needs a better mechanic. Replacing 4 computers seems like throwing parts at the problem rather than true diagnosis. At least you didn't have to pay for most of them.

Bulbs burn out, even HIDs. On the Prius from what I read about 50k is the life of the HID bulbs.

80K and 5 sets of tires is nuts. Either you're driving them hard or your tire shop is selling you tires before they're needed or both. No reason you shouldn't get 40K out of most tires instead of 16K.