Thank you, Prius Chat

I had purchased my first Prius several months ago and had loved every mile in it. Yesterday, I encountered a slight jerk accompanied by a warning light stating "Check hybrid system, stop the vehicle in a safe place". My heart sank as I bought the Prius used.

I took the Prius back to the Toyota dealership. At every encounter with a service rep, I continually got sighs and looks of "looks like you're going to have to really pay up for repairs". Expecting the worse, I began researching as much as I could about what the problem might be with the limited knowledge I had. My biggest source of information was PriusChat. I spent an hour going through the forums finding copious amounts of information about what it might be and what the possible solutions were. I tried to educate myself as much as possible before I received a call from the dealership.

The call came. I was told that my IPM needed replacement and that I would have to pay $2,700 for parts and labor. Thank goodness I did my research on PriusChat and found that the IPM for my model was covered under a 15 year unlimited mile extended warranty from Toyota (something that the service rep seemed unaware of surprisingly). I countered his offer and informed him of the Toyota IPM warranty. He was surprised to find it covered and said he would call me back. He called and confirmed the coverage and said that the repair would be covered by Toyota. This made my month and saved my savings.

Thank you to all the incredible contributors of PriusChat for posting informative threads that, in the end, saved my nice person.