Please help me to decide repairs vs new car

If you need reliability, I would trade it.

 

welcome!

not sure what the hybrid synergy drive' is, the tranny? that would be a heck of a comp.
i agree with bat^^ cur your losses. a $1,500. battery is not likely to be reliable.
if you do want to keep her, get a new battery from a dealer.

 

On the one hand you got an epic deal on a huge amount of expensive work so you could get alot more miles out of it. On the other hand the value of your car is never going to be higher when you show a potential buyer all the work you've had done. So if you're gonna sell it for max price you can get, now's your chance. But if your just trading it in towards credit on a purchase towards a new car from a dealers, prepare to be insulted by their joke of an offer and drive the thing into the ground and limp it into the dealer to close on the deal. Car stealerships are almost as corrupt as the home loan industry when it comes to ripping people off with debts they'll never repay until they refinance you for the next swindle.

 

I would buy a new oem battery and keep driving the old one. You would have the top 2 most expensive and most common repairs done-brake actuator and HV battery. And the inverter done to boot. These cars are generally extremely reliable and have potential to last a long time.

The downside is that you will have spent as much in repairs as the car itself is worth, which is usually not a good idea. But if you are considering buying a new car, you will probably lose more money in depreciation—not to mention that just sales tax alone would be about half of what you’d pay towards a new HV battery.

 

OP probably isn't watching anymore but................

200K is a good run.

I would have given up on it at the first major failure.
But now is not too late to cut your losses and move on.

I don't think you can reasonably expect to get 300K out of ANY current production car.
Well, maybe a Benz diesel.

 

For 3,000$ you will get another 150,000 wonderful miles.

For 30’000$ you can buy a new one, cash flow is a rather personal decision.

 

I'm not sure why no one is suggesting that you keep driving it until the big battery goes and then make a decision. The hybrid battery does weaken over time, but it could last for a few years yet. With the other big ticket items out of the way, I would think that you would have nothing to lose by continuing to drive it as is.

 

Right, it will throw codes. You might also consider getting something like this ScanTool 427201 OBDLink LX Bluetooth Professional Obd-ii Scan Tool | eBay, which, combined with the Torque app will allow you to check the condition of the blocks in your HV battery, to get an idea about how much time you might have. Search "Torque app" on this site, to get more information on how to use this tool.

Another recommendation would be to consider the "Prolong" battery reconditioning system sold by @jeff652 to get more life out of your aging HV battery.

 

chances of getting a year or two out of a $1,500. battery are fairly poor. if it has a full labor and parts warranty, and you don't mind the downtime, it will last as long as the warranty and the company installing it.

 

definitely a crapshoot. best bet is the longer warranty, if you can trust the company to honor it.

 

When your battery is bad it will throw a bunch of lights and error codes... When your battery is old it loses capacity, in some instances it can lose half of its total capacity and still function normally. This is what the mechanic meant by the charge levels rapidly changing. There's a process called battery re-conditioning where you drain your battery down low and recharge, drain your battery down even lower and recharged, then drain your battery to almost zero and recharge. This process re-activates all the stagnant crystallized electrolytes that went unused for a long time and caused you to lose capacity. By doing this treatment, as well as refreshing annually you may well get many more years out of you battery. To learn more about this check out the FAQ page on this website: Prolong Grid Charger Dealer Installer Map – Hybrid Automotive

 

I'd be very curious as to exactly what is being replaced here.
Because Hybrid Synergy Drive, is more or less a term Toyota applies to the whole working Prius. There is no separate part called specifically THE "Hybrid Synergy Drive'.
What are they replacing and calling...the Hybrid Synergy Drive?

Somewhat cynically suspicious of the "smaller shop" because why would they replace "something" for free? Then suggest the battery is failing and you should just get rid of the vehicle?

At the very least, they are swapping something out of your vehicle and replacing used. I'd want to know what that is.

 

Good point... More specifically, if they swapped out the transmission because they screwed up and damaged yours, then it'd make sense. But you need proof!