2001 Prius battery dies at 70K, Toyota won't pay for repair

Then there is "Re-InVolt" who make rebuilt battery packs.

Bob Wilson

 

Otis,

You ignored my previous question. Was your Prius affected by SSC 40G?

Toyota found an issue with the HV battery and offered a free service to fix it. If you did not do it, I don't see how this is Toyota's fault. The HV pack is even out of warranty period.

 

Personally... If I get 8 years out of a battery... I think I got a damn good deal.


I figure I'm going to buy another car before this battery dies off... maybe by then an American firm will have a reliable alternative, so far, they do not.


I can understand complaining if you only got 4 years... maybe even 6... but you got your use out of the storage system, and from the looks of your post, it served you well.


Good luck on your decision to get a replacement for your battery... $3000 is a cheap power supply.

 

Totally agree, the car is 9 years old, don't see how you can complain about the battery lasting so long. I am also with the mind set that we as owners (heck, as people in general) need to take on more responsibility for our products, our decisions and such. We live in such a blame society, sometimes no one is to blame.

 

The PDF said owners would get a letter about it around Aug 2004. Have you confirmed that your car is in the affected VIN number? Maybe you did not get the letter because your VIN is not in there.

 

That's the way to go for sure. There must be some used batteries out there in junkyards by now.

If you've owned a German car before the Prius, the cost would not look so bad.

 

I guess $300/yr is not bad.

 

If after 9 years the battery is dead, I don't think there is anything to complain about if it happened after the warranty - and I believe batteries do stop working reliably after x period of time - the miles driven don't count much - but I might be wrong.

Regarding the length of the warranty: what should I say??? we get 5yrs warranty on the hybrid parts of the Prius 3 (battery included) in EU... Who should complain after 6 years if the battery broke??? you or me?
Moreover, I had a VW Polo that required over the 7 years' lifetime, an average of 500€'s worth of repairs each year - stuff that simply broke before any reasonable mileage or time frame. 3500€ for "no reason", simply bad quality - well before the 9 year mark. I sold the car and promised me I would never buy VW ever again.

If 3000$ is too much to change a battery on a 9 year's old car, you should check the overall costs of ownership (buy price, fuel, insurance, taxes, etc.) and see how much does this repair affect the overall cost of each mile ($/mi). It is likely marginal over the lifetime of the car. And any other car, after 9 years, would probably incur a similar expensive repair sooner or later.

Maybe it would be interesting to know how much of the 3000$ is actually battery and how much labor cost - maybe then you could try to change it yourself, if not impossible.

BTW: after 9 years, money permitting, it would maybe make more sense to get a new and more fuel efficient car (e.g. a Prius 3?), rather than make the repair - or maybe exactly invest 3000$ in the battery and continue another 9 years with the car.

 

Thanks for the update.

Did the car have close to zero miles when you bought it?

If you were the first owner of the car, then I would agree with your comment regarding when the warranty clock should start. If the car had been a demo or service loaner before you bought it, then the warranty should start when the car is first put into service.

Regarding your second comment, essentially CEC is saying that since you didn't give your dealer a chance to make a healthy profit on scheduled maintenance over the last 9 years, why should Toyota give you a break on post-warranty support.

Regarding the 2006 Prius, as long as you are willing to pay for those tests, I'm sure the service dept will be happy to perform them for you.

Finally, who is Willard?

 

I'm unfamiliar with any tests that could have helped or prevented this situation. A battery can and will fail eventually. As long as the car is still operating normally while under warranty, you're going to have a hard time convincing a dealership to replace the battery even if some test shows premature failing on the thing. So after 10 years if the battery fails then you are going to be in the same boat you are in today.

The good news is that so far, it appears the newer batteries are likely to hold up better than the ones used in the 1st gen prius.

 

I hope you find a reasonable solution to the battery failure. It is good to know how this might manifest itself rather suddenly. I can understand how it feels that they weaseled their way out of any warranty coverage (I have personally come to realize that the warranty on my car is likely not worth much as coverage was similarly denied for me on a plastic shied for the HV wires).

 

Hey Otis!

I was in pretty much the same situation as Toyota also denied warranty to my battery.

Check out my post here to see what I did to fix my battery for roughly 600$: http://priuschat.com/forums/generat...ead-toyota-denies-warranty-2.html#post1058686

Hope this helps!

 

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