2005 failing hybrid battery questions

Now that my 2005 Prius hybrid battery (10 years, 4.5 months / 93,100 miles) has been replaced, and I’ve driven the car about 130 miles without incident at a full range of speeds and conditions, here’s the specifics of the resolution I received from Toyota and the dealership.

On Thursday morning, I had the car towed to the dealership where I’d purchased it. The dealership diagnosis confirmed a failed hybrid battery, and quoted $3,241 plus tax (about $3,500) for replacement. At my request, dealership reached out to Toyota for any possible accommodation. Dealership claimed their rep offered no coverage, and I’d have to pay full freight for repair. I signed the estimate, told them to go ahead, and I returned home.

At home, I called Toyota (800-331-4331, option 4: “Concern or problem with vehicle or dealer”). The customer rep who answered took down minimal information about me, my car, and the dealership. While I was on hold, she called the dealership’s service manager, and requested pricing prior to her doing any “research.” The service manager had to get back to her, so the Toyota customer service rep said she’d call me back.

She did so, after only one hour. She reported that the dealership had given her a revised, reduced price for the job: $2,588.67 parts, $225.59 labor, for a price of $2,814.26 plus tax. She then said that Toyota would be willing to pay $1,000.00 of that price, reducing my cost to $1,814.26 plus tax. She asked if I would accept that, and – stunned at how easy this had been – I accepted.

The next (Friday) morning, after several calls verifying the progress and completion of the repair, I found that the dealership felt the $1,000.00 reduction accepted was to be applied to the original pricing. I spent the next hour and a half playing telephone middleman between Toyota and the dealership. With the aid of two more Toyota customer reps, as well as a callback from the original rep (who wasn’t even in the office that day, but who rang in to help anyway), I straightened that out before going to pick up the car.

So my final price was $1,814.26 plus tax, for a total of $1,966.20.

Lesson(s)/bottom line(s):

-- Don’t take “No” from the dealership as the final answer. Ask Toyota yourself.

-- Be sure the Toyota case clearly itemizes the agreement and pricing accepted, in case the dealership claims the arrangement was different.

-- Perhaps I could have bargained for a better deal. But I felt pretty d*mn good about cutting the price of this expensive repair by about 45%, and getting the repair done, all in just a bit more than 24 hours.

-- As others have reported, I find it a bit ridiculous that the replacement new hybrid battery is only warranted for 12 months.

I give this round to Toyota, whose telephone reps I found uniformly helpful, clear, and persistent. The dealership, while not actively unpleasant, lost points for several instances of apparent hedging and slow, uncertain response.

wjtracy, you’re welcome to shoehorn this story as you see fit into your collection of hybrid battery replacement resolutions.

Thanks to all who’ve weighed in here, and elsewhere on these forums, for all advice and information.

 

I had my doubts about that, JC91006. But (of course) can't prove it.

 

Although I'm all set now, slimfrancis, it's always nice to see a local resource recommended. I might have reached out to priuskings for a quote (although I'd rather have a new battery), had I known they were (relatively) local, and did "house calls." ;-)