Looking forward to dumping my Prius

does the mfd say anything when you get the red triangle of death?

Perhaps one of your doors isn't closed all the way - thus causing the red triangle of death and perhaps obscure message on the mfd (battery will not charge in neutral) and draining your 12v battery - causing the prius not to start up.

 

I'm not licensed in PA, but from this:

Pennsylvania Lemon Law - PA Lemon Law Attorney

.... it would appear PA law mirrors CA.
I helped a friend get a new car in CA when these kinds of issues came up. Often, the dealer will act quick ... come up w/ a new car for you, without the trouble of going to court. They don't want that kind of publicity. Oh! on a closer read I see you have over 40K miles? That muddies the watters. I'd still look into the legal remedies so you can be armed better when you talk to your dealer. I take it you didn't get an extended warranty. PC offers a great one. At nearly 80k on our 2004, we still have over 20K miles bumper to bumper protection. Funny how all those folks that say extended warranties are of no value won't come out of the woodwork right about now. Good luck w/ your prius.

 

I'd try a different shop before I tried a different car.

 

Ditto that. This "agency" service department sounds clueless. Assuming that the original problem really was an internal battery fault the subsequent problems might have been caused by careless repair work.

Umm... you do *always* lock the car when parking it, right?

 

Does anyone else smell a rat here? Poster with two posts total, both in this thread, complaining about his car. And "agency"??? "Car store"????? Yeah, right.

Troll alert!

 

Maybe we helped him to a resolution to his problem?

 

My turn to come out of the woodwork. I'm not sure the extended warranty would be in effect as this smells like a poor Service Dept. IMO either crap replacement parts (covered under replacement part warranty) or damage caused by dealer's employee (dealer and/or employee eats this one).

Few posts, no location, strange terminology, catastrophic failure...

Does OP live under the Ben Franklin, Walt whitman, or Betsy Ross?

Maybe the Toyota dealer is just happy to see OP so it takes them three trips to fix the problem. Mr. Goodwrench took three to fix my AC and more to fix Mother's random "no start" problem with her '99 Delta 88.

 

Its all about statistics.
How many have used it from all who have purchased one, or, of all the Prius sold, how many would have needed it, and how much did the warranty end up costing on the long run.
Certainly those who never use it because of a reliable car, they will say why get one. A few here and there still doesn't make it a good deal. Now, if the car is average or unreliable to begin with, odds are much better in the owners favor.

 

I wouldn't bother with extended warranty for any Toyota.
It's simply playing the odds.

For every Toyota owner who has a problem costing more to fix than the cost of the extended warranty with their car between the expiration of the standard warranty and the expiration of what would be the extended warranty if everyone had it there are most likely 200 owners minimum who have a trouble free run. That means if there is 1 claim in 200 and that claim is less than 200 times the cost of the warranty cover overall the owners of that warranty have lost. So given that the warranty costs what? about $1000 so there needs to be a $200,000 claim to be in front overall. Not going to happen is it?
You would do better to invest the 1000 in the lottery.

I have owned some pretty old Toyotas, my last was 1990 model and I put 240.000km on it after buying it with 60,000 on it, and in the 14 years I owned it I wouldn't have spent $1000US on repairs when you exclude tyres, brake pads and shoes, belts, hoses, which I replace for preventative reasons, lubes filters and other fluids.
I put a new radiator, a new water pump(even though it was fine) and a few urethane suspension bushes to stiffen up the front end a little then 4 new shockers 10 months before I sold it.

 

So you paid $1000 for that peace of mind. How much of it have you used so far? In other words, how far in the hole are you?

An extended warranty is a very expensive way of trying to protect one's self from an incompetent service department.

 

AS a comparison we have 5 brand new Jeep Liberty Hybrids at work. I get to drive one now & then. If I drive it the same way I drive my 07 Prius I average about 29 mpg's. It handles really stiff like a truck. The interior looks like crap. Its a very truck like harsh ride. The seats are hard as hell.
The dash has these stupid little meters that look like a whoops forgot to put consumption meters in the dash It does seem to accelerate faster then the Prius but it has a much bigger motor. If I try aggressive acceleration although it has a shiftless cvt trans like the Prius the motor makes all kinds of over rev noise that's mildly disconcerting with a real loud whine too. First thing I think is didn't Jeep Engineers drive a Prius so they know what the benchmark is? Because there not even close. With the Jeep you know your in a wacky hybrid as there's a commotion going on. With the Prius no such commotion. Its just a smooth calm little car.

In fact I can say that also about GM cars across the board. Don't GM Engineers ever drive there competitors cars? Even Hundai's are now a really nice car.
I dare say the only person who is buying a GM car is someone who has not driven a competitors car. And thats sad. But I think given there current economic woes I am correct. I am aware Toyota is having financial problems too but not to the extent of Ford & GM.
When the first Prius Hybrid hit our shores 10 years ago GM should have took notice. Big time. But, they thought no the American public is moronic and will continue to buy bloated SUV's for one person to ride to work in. Why bother re-tooling. They were right...for awhile. Now its to little to late. GM is trying to roll out hybrids while Toyota is announcing its first solar powered car in 2010.
Hey GM..less VP's...more Engineeers...more innovation.
And btw GM. Its not the UAW that did you in. Its the thousands of VP's you have that don't do sh*t all day. Not to mention the CEO's and COO's and CFO's and on & on & on. If its got a C in front of it its worth another 100 grand.
GM is crying its the UAW...there making $ 28 an hour. Thats $ 58,000 a year. Yeah lets break that guys rice bowl. For a guy thats actually MAKING THE DAMN CAR. Divide that into thousands of VP's making $200,000 a year right out of school. I can put 4 workers on the line for one VP. And those guys actually do something during there 8 hour day.

And I know I'm right because upper management is so insane they show up for a poor mouth handout in Lear Model 23 Biz jets. Talk about balls.

Ok..rant over.