2007 Hybrid Battery Failure - Dealer Trade In Experiences?

Well, it finally happened. My trusty '07 with 167K miles threw the hybrid battery warning light today. It is still drivable, but the gas engine is coming on constantly, the battery bars are draining extremely quickly (going from 5 to 1 after accelerating from a red light), and the battery fan is going non stop, so I'm about to raise the white flag.

At this point, it seems like a dealer installed new hybrid battery would run $3,200 - $4K in the Orange County area. I'm at the point where I think I'd rather trade it in, but I'm wondering if anyone has any advice on dealer trade-in experiences with a Prius that has a failing hybrid battery? Besides the battery, the car is in great mechanical condition, but I feel like the dealer is going to know that I don't exactly have a ton of leverage with my current situation

I'd most likely want to buy a used Package IV or 5, maybe a plug-in from 2012 - 2014 for record.

Hoping I can get some stories of how you guys played similar situations with dealers (to your advantage)!

 

Thanks for all of the feedback everyone. Great call out about NAPA - in my previous searches I only found refurbished batteries that had 1 year warranties, which scared me (especially after reading a decent amount of not-so-positive feedback on Priuschat about refurbs).

I feel like rolling into a dealer (if the car makes it that far) will only get me a trade in of around $1K, which just seems wrong at this point since everything else functions perfectly on the car (well except all of the window seals / weatherproofing strips that . . . melted arrrghhh).

 

Thanks for the heads up on that other thread, and I'm in Newport Beach now - no more AZ for me

My final resolution was having Hybrid 911 come to my house to survey the situation. Turns out one block was bad, but I decided to play it safe (wanting to avoid a future domino effect and any potentially unsafe situations) and just had them put in a new battery with Gen 3 cells for $1,500. The process took about an hour and fifteen minutes, and then I hoped in the car and drove 25 miles or so. 52MPG - wow (that's with aftermarket 17 rims). I was averaging 38MPG for the last three years and figured it was the spark plugs (or maybe my wife's driving habits haha).

I'll try and update this thread if there are any unusual circumstances with the battery, but for now the Prius is driving great, and I think I might just keep it as a second car (to destroy with mountain bikes, surfboards, cats, etc).

 

I chose them based on the positive Yelp reviews - the constant theme seemed to be that they were really honest, so I took the plunge. I got the 1 year warranty - a two year warranty was an extra $250, but I went with my gut that the newer Gen 3 cells should hold up for quite some time (well, at least I hope they do).