Purchasing Brand New HV Batteries from Dealer

Sounds like a good price to me.

 

That could very well be the best listed price ever mentioned on the forum. Don't forget there will be ~$1300 core fee added and then refunded when the old battery is returned. The new battery is not just a direct bolt-in and will require some components from the original battery to be removed and installed onto the new battery. Mostly the electronics section with the ecu, relays, etc.

 

there are threads here detailing what you get and how to swap the other stuff over.

call the dealer and ask if you can pick one up, and about the return core charge

 

That's great news! Which dealership are you ordering from? I bet others would be interested in that price!

 

It's pretty much the only performance upgrade of significant you can do for a 15 year old Prius. Red Bullet helps a little too...

 

I wonder what the dealer charges for an installation?

 

I've read reports of them charging three hours labor. But it shouldn't really take that long if you've done it a few times. At that price, I'd make sure they clean the battery fan.

 

For a new OEM battery installation that would be a great deal especially with the enhanced dealer installed warranty. If the old one lasted fifteen years, unless you have too much time on your hands, or just want to learn how to do something you’ll never do again, why bother DIY?

 

Usually as gas prices go up, people start skimping on maintenance expenses so dealers are scrounging for business to keep their shops busy.
I’d try to negotiate a deal. As others have said, the three hour shop time is probably more than they need but more importantly the rack labor rate they charge has a lot of slack in it.

 

The best price I found today in Southern CA was $1657.50 at Ventura Toyota. Free shipping up to $200 too, as it is a bit of drive from here to there. I wonder if one could return the core at a different, and much closer dealer? Pretty sure whichever dealer gets the core is just going to ship it right back to the same central Toyota facility.

 

It takes me just over 2 hours to install yet most stealerships charge for double that amount of time and threaten you with a shortened warranty time if you don't have them install... But truth is warranty being shorter doesn't make much difference because there's no moving parts that can break and new battery pack is near always gonna be good for a decade, which is more than double the longest warranty you can get for it.

 

If you remove the carpeted trim from the top of the battery, there will be an ID sticker on the battery case top. You can get the serial number of the battery and decode the first group of digits to get the manufacture date. If it's within a few months of the cars manufacture date, then it's very likely original. There is also some green plastic tape on the driver side of the battery case. If that tape is undisturbed, it's an original.

If you have the early style sticker:
Should have an "H" as very first digit.
Next 2 digits are day of the month
Next digit is Month (1-9, x,y,z)
Next digit will be a letter. 2008 would be an "L". (K would be 2007, M would be 2009, etc)

The same system is used on the module serial numbers, except a J is 2008 and so on.