starter guard

How much did they charge you for this? I might be interested in getting this for my car.

 

Welcome to PriusChat, zeeman! I've never heard of a starter guard. It was on the HV battery? There's already a main relay and a safety interlock for the HV battery. Unless the car is in READY mode, the HV battery is completely disconnected.

If you looked, you may have seen that the 12V battery is pretty dinky, but all it really has to do is boot the computers and power the radio in ACC mode. Disconnecting the 12V battery screws up lots of things, like radio presets, the auto-up driver's window, the ECU memory (you usually get a milage hit after a disconnect).

As for it resetting the hybrid system, total BS. I don't even know what that means.

 

Yep, that's why many people refer to them as stealerships.

 

Bill and Zeeman,
I am a very new Prius owner...in fact it has not yet been purchased, but one dealer (or should I say 'stealer') wants to add on the starter guard to my price. Since I am not sure how to resolve this on my own without purchasing this item and I am NOT a mechanic, I'm not sure what to do. I would be driving the car every day and not leaving it for several days unless away on a vacation, but I don't like the idea of possibly having a dead battery when returning from a vacation. Any suggestions?

 

Starter Guard is what it is. I think a trickle charger would be a better investment when you leave town for a couple weeks or more.
The dealer in Santa Monica wanted $600 for the StartGuard on my new Prius. I asked him what the profit margin was and he said they made $315 on them. I told him not to install it and charge me the $315 instead. He makes his profit and I save $300 on a POS that I don't need.
Normally, I wouldn't pay any premium on the sticker price (usually I pay invoice for a car), except Prius's are going for over sticker price in Southern California again starting in early May. Some dealers are getting 4-5000 over sticker!!
In other words, you got a great deal IMHO.

 

Hi pattytowne, welcome to PriusChat! :welcome:
You don't need to worry about your 12V battery going dead unless you go on a long (3+ week) vacation. And you don't need a StartGuard. The 12V battery is mainly used to boot the computers and close the HV battery relay. If you're really worried, it would be better if you invested in one of those combination air pump/flash light/jump start gizmos so you could use it to start your car if the little battery died on your month-long vacation. Then you'd also have an air pump to keep your tires properly inflated, and a light if you had a problem at night.

Congratulations (soon) on your new car!

 

Thanks Bill! That was the answer I was hoping for. A 3-week vacation is probably not in the near future for me, if ever! I'm lucky to get a few days off in a row here and there. I think I'm fine without it. Thanks for the help, and I look forward to having my new car and using this message board. This car is a whole new world for me, having driven a 1989 Corolla for about 19 years!

 

What the heck is a starter guard?
.
Turn off smartkey, the car draws all of 11 milliamps which the
normal battery should be able to handily provide for several
weeks. Instructions for doing so are in the manual.
.
_H*

 

I believe that was the dealer's thoughts too.


ZC1

 

Could you post us a picture of said important starter guard?


ZC1

 

Pix on the StarterGuard website:

home

"PROTECT YOUR FAMILY," "Always Professionally Installed," no prices given.

And for dealers "...Increases revenue in Finance, Sales, and Parts departments..."

Hmm...

 

Looks like something most people really don't need...

 

Do you have a financial interest in the product or the company?

Oh, really? What is your source for the data? Who did the research? How many motorists were sampled? What was the sampling methodology? What is the confidence interval? How did the researchers identify and target Prius owners, and what was the sample size and confidence interval for them?

Let's assume you really are as enthused about the product as you seem. Good for you. If you and your family have had as many battery failures as you say have, maybe it's a worthwhile investment for you. At a price of from $350 to $600, it wouldn't be for me, nor, I suspect, most other Prius owners. In the unlikely chance of a battery failure, I've already paid AAA to jump me. I can buy 2 or 3 replacement batteries for what this device would cost.

No one is spreading negative about the product; no one has questioned whether it works as advertised. Folks are only questioning the need and the price -- which, by the way, for dealer-installed add-ons often includes an exorbitant markup.

I suggest that for the sake of your own credibility, don't jump into a forum as a new member acting like a salesman for a product no one's heard of before. It's not surprising the post in the thread you started was thought to be spam.

 

Priusfax, you need to realize that with proper usage of the
vehicle, this snakeoil is NOT needed in the Prius. Like I said
in another thread, the car draws *11 milliamps* in quiescent
mode when the SmartKey is turned off. That's lower than many
other cars. Almost all of the "dead 12V" stories posted come
from leaving a door ajar, leaving smartkey turned on for three
weeks, or similar EASILY PREVENTABLE situations that certainly
don't need any sort of "low voltage cutoff" if anyone's actually
taking the extra half-second of thought. And that's clearly
all starterguard is -- something to kill the 12V connection if
the battery gets below a certain voltage. I will give you that
it's sort of an elegant idea, and has been implemented for years
in any laptop/cellphone/camera battery, so there's nothing new
there. Please stop holding it up as some sort of miracle product
around here, though, because you're up against a slew of very
intelligent, discerning car owners who will see right through
the rhetoric you're wrapping around this thing.
.
Tell it for exactly what it is, and stop there. Quit trying
to defend the fact that you've gone overboard on the testimonial
sort of thing. Testimonials do little other than raise red flags
in this group, and you're about to learn that the hard way.
.
_H*

 

$300 so that I don't have to remember to turn off the lights and lock the doors? No thanks.

 

Interestingly, the Starter Guard is not the only such product on the market.
Consider the Priority Start:

PriorityStart - Stop Dead Batteries on Cars & Boats [Priority Start! Battery Protector]

This product, which also promises to prevent a discharged 12 V battery,
seems to be marketed with the DIY-er in mind. The basic model is $89.
At this price, less than the cost of a replacement 12 V battery, maybe it
is worth consideration.

The cost of the Starter Guard is quoted to be ~$300. There then arises an
unverified implication that the dealer's take is ~$200. For what, a 15 minute
installation job? Yikes! (Now there's a gravy train I'd like to be riding on.)

At the very least, this product does not, as a part of its self promotion, crow
about it's potential use to raise revenues for dealers.

Standard disclaimer: I'm not connected to Priority Start in any way whatsoever.

 

wrench + battery = cheap discounted starter guard