I have an arbitration date set for my 2007 Prius. I have a power loss situation with the hybrid system that Toyota has tried to repair on many occasions, but problem still persists. It is covered under CA lemon law, and arbitration is to determine settlement value be it repurchase or replacement. Issue is that they deduct usage based on a life of 120K mi.; so since these issues started at 4yrs & 90K miles, the paid amount ($~7K) is less than the current car value of approx ~$8-9K. Anyone have experience/learning to share, aside from getting a lawyer, which I'm considering. Thanks!
If they give you $7000 and let you keep the car then you can either keep driving it as is or just part it out and make many thousands more selling the parts. Be happy. Back in the 80's Ford build very simple and reliable cars but didn't know a thing about undercoating them, so in the early 90's my father took our '85 Mercury Cougar to Zeibart or some place like it and they fixed all the rust, repainted it and gave us a lifetime warranty. Well every year or two we'd go back and they'd fix more rust, finally after about about 5 years they sent us a check for $1700 with a letter that read something like this: Enclosed is a check for the value of your car, we are buying it and giving it to you as a gift, thus we are now absolved of having to make any further rust repairs on this vehicle. We didn't complain.
If I could keep the car and get $7K that would be fabulous, however, I don't believe that's not how that law is structured. Basically they'd buy my car back for $7K, or give me $7K towards a new car (taking the old) which doesn't really make me whole. End of the day the lemon law formula assumes the life of a car 120K in it's valuation, so at 120K+ the car basically has no value, which we know is not applicable to Prius.... It would be fine if it was issues earlier in the cars life and more normal annual mileage, but curious if anyone on this forum has experience/advice under these circumstances... thx
Take a look on car value sites like KBB and NADA, then bring those with you to negotiations. That is your proof and this tactic has been used with success in courtrooms. I've done some light research into pricing recently and came across a lawsuit from NJ where a guy was claiming his truck was worth way less than he owed. They used KBB and/or NADA to determine the value, he was wrong. On KBB, using a SF zip, your car, without any options is worth $8925 is good condition. NADA will most likely have it a bit lower. Keep in mind these are private party values. If you say retail, that number jumps a grand or more. If you're still unsure or you're not getting what you want, talk with a lawyer, they have free consultations. Perhaps you could even get free legal advice through a law office in the city? I wish you luck.
Some background about this case: Power loss & low battery during climb | Page 4 | PriusChat It seems Toyota went to a lot of effort to get this resolved, even including changing the HV battery. At the last update the problem appeared to be resolved but I guess it must have reoccurred.
Great advice I've planned to use NADA and KBB to try and establish a fair value. Am looking at lawyer advice as well...
Exactly right. Toyota did quite a bit but unfortunately it's now back as a consistent problem. toyotas response this time around has been pretty slow. I dont think they know where to go from here after 8 dealer visits and no sign of a fix/plan I need to get reliable transport.
Is it still just a problem going over mountains Tone88, or has it progressed to a general loss of power?
Yes it is primarily over the mountain passes Where it occurs consistently However it does happen on occasion around town. But this is difficult to duplicate and isn't as big an issue since it usually recharges quickly since it's not a longer climb. Also if you let the car just sitting idle after 20 minutes it will go down to just one bar on the battery. I don't think this is normal but not sure. Either way I think it is some kind of electronic or sensor issue that is not telling the system to recharge the battery when it needs to
That - as we say in the biz ... is a 'rebuttable presumption'. For example - we sold our 2004 Gen II in 2010 for $8,600. It had 110,000 miles on it. 6 months later the new owner (a co-worker of mine) crashed it. T he insurance company bought him out for over $10K. You pull up a bunch of stats like that and BAM - presumption overcome. It's a lot of leg work ... but it is do-able. It's just like dealing with insurance c companies, that plan on giving you bottom dollar. .
