Followup on Refurbished Battery

Hello. At the beginning of May, I posted about my 2006 Prius with 179,000 miles needing a new battery. I chose to buy a refurbished battery. Here is the thread: 2006 Prius with 179,000 and battery just died | PriusChat

It is now over 3 months later and 4,000 miles and here is what happened. My original battery averaged 45.6 mpg for the life of the battery. The new battery worked its way to 45.7 mpg and stabilized at about 3000 miles. At about 3500 miles it dropped for no reason to 45.3 mpg and stayed there. At 4,000 the battery died.

I brought it back to the place I had it replaced. He apologized for this and stated that this was the first battery in over 6 years where he had a problem. I reassured him that if anything is unlikely to happen (except winning the lottery), it would happen to me. He said that a cell failed in the battery.

I received a new refurbished battery which was fully covered for labor and parts. I have now had this battery for about 300 miles and it is at 48 mpg, which is higher than I ever averaged in my original battery. So the saga continues.

I thought about buying a new 2015 Prius package 4 with Solar package. But I just could not get myself to do so. The out the door price (in Northern Virginia) would have been $29,700 including cargo net, floor mats and paint sealant. I know in 23,000 I will need to change the tires. I know that there may be some other maintenance but I just could not part with a perfectly working car (now that the battery is replace again).

Thanks
Michael

 

17,000 miles later and the car is still going strong. Just passed 200,000.

 

Progressive automotive in Hamilton Virginia. They installed a refurbished battery for $2130 or so with a 3 year warranty. Mine was the first to go bad that he did. But they replaced it and the new replaced one is doing well.