Well, after considering all of the options of repairing/replacing the battery I decided to buy a new one. I'll explain my decision and why I decided what I did, hopefully it will be of help to others when making the same choice. 1) Buying Used - Well, I already bought one for $50 off of a local guy and it turned out to be deader than I thought even possible. So I wasted my money and got burned. It got me thinking, most of the ones I see on ebay are also sold as-is and who's to say I wouldn't spend several hundred dollars on another useless piece of junk? 2) Buying refurbished - This was a tempting prospect. I talked with the guy at Re-Involt and the battery would be $1,475 plus $100 shipping and another $100 to ship my old battery back. Sort of a pain in the butt, though. I'd get essentially a used-battery pack with 2nd-gen cells in there. However, one concern I have is that I plan to add an Enginer plug-in kit to this car so I need the stock battery to have the full 6.5 Ah capacity for better EV driving. 3) Buying New - Well, I checked on the price of a new one at the dealer and it was $2,299. There is no shipping involved, and I can pick up next business day. But, to make things sweeter I have a friend who works at the dealership and with his discount I can buy the new one for $1,911. According to him, the new packs from Toyota also use the new modules that do not have corrosion issues. Since this Prius is in such immaculate condition, both cosmetically and mechanically, I figure it should easily go another 100,000 miles or more so I think the new battery is a good investment, it should last the remainder of the life of the car. Plus, moving to the plug-in, I think it is the best choice as a used battery may be fine for regular hybrid driving, but in a plug-in you need the stock battery to have full Ah capacity to buffer the charge coming from the plug-in kit. So anyway, these were the things I considered, and being that I paid $2,800 for the car, adding another $2,000 for the battery means I got a nice Prius for $4,800. I see them advertised for that price often with $150,000 miles. But the thing is, one of those vehicles is likely due for a new battery so you might as well add $2,000 to the price of those if planning to buy one.
Here is another possible option: 4) DIY "Re-Involt": Buy two salvage 2G battery modules that collectively contain 56 modules, for ~$800 plus shipping. Pick 38 of those modules to populate your Classic battery case. After you are done, list the other 18 modules on eBay at $50 each, to recoup some or all of the $800 spent.
Would the new battery pack then carry the same warranty as the original one did? Either way, getting one already assembled, etc from the dealer sounds like it was probably a smart move, especially with the friend discount.
The new traction battery from Toyota would carry a one-year warranty, same as any other part purchased from the dealer's parts counter.
I had considered this option at length. This was actually option #1. There were two main reasons I chose not to do with this option. 1) There's a good chance I'd get burned buying another AS-IS battery, and when buying 2 batteries the chances of getting burned on at least one of them is pretty high. 2) I'd probably run into difficulty keeping the pack balanced if the modules from each pack had different amount of miles or age on them.
Your 1) is quite true if you buy a salvage Classic battery that is 7-9 years old. Less likely if you buy 2G batteries especially from a newer model year, say 2007 or 2008. 2) is true in theory, however in practice that has not seemed to be a significant problem for those Classic owners who have pursued the 2G option. In any event, buying a new battery from the dealer is the best technical solution to the problem, good luck!
The statement about the new battery from Toyota being updated to the new modules that do not have corrosion issues is not accurate. All Gen1 packs from Toyota have the original Gen1 cells and are subject to the corrosion issues. With that said, Gen2 modules also have some corrosion issues, but not bad enough to cause failures in the 1st 200,000 miles or more. The good news is that the corrosion is not normally an issue until around 120,000 miles, so this is probably your best bet. Even better is the fact that you will soon be driving your Prius. Congrats!
