About to buy a 2007. Scared about the cost of battery replacement, if needed.

welcome!

if you buy an older prius, you have to plan on a new battery. start doing your research for the best price.
you don't want a greentec battery, you want a new oem toyato battery, or one from a member here, 2k1toaster.

honestly, it sounds like you would be better off with a corolla.
all the best!

 

no, never used one. if you're set on prius, read through the problem threads and make sure the warranty covers the expensive repairs like a/c, tranny, engine, hybrid battery, brake actuator, inverter and etc.

 

I've been driving a 2007 everyday since Jan. 2012. Bought it with 104K on it... About to hit 232K on it. Not even a hiccup with how well it runs. The battery pack is indeed old and charges and discharges much faster than normal, but never had warning lights for anything other than the inverter cooling pump, which was fixed for free under a recall warranty. I've been helping friends with rebuilding their battery packs... It's challenging stuff to learn, but pretty straightforward once you go through the process a couple times. Do you like to work on cars at all? Or have friends who want to work on them? All the skills you get working on hybrid batteries will be incredibly valuable if you have plans to one day have your own off grid solar powered home and want to build the system on your own to save money. As for the vehicles history... The best Prius to buy is one that has been driven every day. When the car sits for weeks or months without being used it can be a problem. Also to maximize the health of your hybrid battery learn all you can about the basic concepts of charging, balancing and reconditioning here: Prolong® Battery Systems FAQ – Hybrid Automotive But in general the money you save at 50mpg over the course of 100K miles will pay for the cost of the car/battery pack, and yes like all cars things can go bad and cost a fortune, but Toyota's are super reliable. Read through this thread I created in 2013 to get a sense of how top notch that reliability is: Did you buy a Prius with 100K+ miles? Share your story here! | PriusChat

 

There is a high catalytic converter theft rate in los Angeles, make sure you don't park the car on the streets. If you don't have garage parking, best you not buy a 2004 - 2009 prius. The catalytic converter runs $1500 plus and is stolen frequently.

As for a 2007 with 130k miles, make sure there are service records to back up the mileage. Many in los Angeles have rolled back mileage

And if everything checks out, you should prepare to buy a newer battery from a recent wreck ($1000-1500), don't buy a refurbished battery and expect it to be reliable.

 

A new traction battery, Installed and warrantied for three years by a Toyota dealer, 3000$, and get 50+ mpg, shop around, or spend 1000$ for a prolong device to recondition your 8-9 year old worn out batteries (traction), and get 40ish mpg, for a while, then spend 3000$ for new factory batteries, it’s your money and time.

 

Unless you can be certain a rebuilt pack contains a complete set of modules from a later model wreck with low miles, I would second the opinion to stay away from a rebuilt battery pack. (The Gen 3 cars, years 2010 to 2015, have modules that can be put into a Gen 2 pack). If you need to replace the HV battery, your safest bet is still to go with a new one from a Toyota dealer.

Buying a used hybrid is always a bit of a gamble. However, I should note that I took the gamble on a 2007 with a whopping 211k miles a couple of years ago, and it seems to have paid off. Now with 267k miles, it has given us no problems whatsoever. You can mitigate your risk somewhat by getting the VIN on the car you propose to buy and plugging into the toyotaowners.com website to see what work has been done on the car at Toyota dealers. If the website shows very little work has been done at the dealer, you will want to see maintenance records from the previous owner proving that it has been well cared for at other reputable shops.

How well a Prius has been treated by previous owners counts for something, but the longevity of the hybrid battery in particular depends on a lot of other factors that have nothing to do with how well the car was cared for. Some of these are: 1) how regularly the car was driven, 2) whether or not the previous owner had pets whose hair has clogged the HV battery fan, 3) how hot of a climate it has lived in, 4) and how many steep hills it has had to climb in its lifetime.

My reasons exactly for taking a gamble on an older Prius. I actually wanted to buy a new one eventually, but wanted to see whether I liked the older model first. I actually prefer our Gen 2's design over our Gen 4's, but the Gen 4 is overall a nicer ride and has much more advanced tech.

Few, if any, warranty providers will cover an HV battery replacement. Its longevity is too unpredictable for them. The same thing might apply to the inverter, the next most costly repair.

I hope this helps. I do not want to discourage you from buying the car you are dreaming about. You just need to know what you are getting into.

 

Yep! Warranty is a dishonest used car salesman's very trick in the book... Self warranty on the other hand, as in a set aside the money you save on gas in a separate bank account would be wise. But you'll probably end up like me and spending that warranty money because the car never has anything wrong with it.

 

DO NOT GO TO THE DEALER

Green Bean recycles batteries and has a 5 year warranty on them. The kicker is they come out to wherever you are, replace the battery and take the old one, and do it in about 30 minutes. I've had my Green Bean battery for a year with 0 problems and the car runs great. I think it cost me $1,500 to replace (I paid with cash, with card it's like $50 more). I seriously recommend them!!

I tried to post a link but because I'm new it won't let me. Just search Green Bean on Google and you'll find it. The customer service was great too.

 

The good news is that by living in California, you will receive a 10 year/150k mile warranty on your hybrid battery. This is if the car was sold, registered, and lived it's life in California (or another CARB state). If the owner purchased the car from Vegas and was auctioned off to a seller in LA, then it would receive the standard 8 year/100k mile warranty.

I would look for a 2011 with low enough miles that you can drive it until it's 10th birthday without passing 150k miles. At least you'll be covered for a replacement hybrid battery. It'll give you a few years to save up for a replacement battery down the road, or you can use the savings towards an electric vehicle. There's a reason why this Prius is for sale, and there's a non zero chance that it was because the owner sensed the hybrid battery was weakening.

If you buy an '07, plan on having a repair fund that will cover the cost of installing a new OEM hybrid battery, and hope for the best. Or look for an older Prius that already has a replacement OEM hybrid battery at a reasonable price.

 

I don't want to hijack the OP's thread, but is this factually true or urban legend? I don't drive mine but 2-3 times a week, but it's parked in a garage (50-75F) and the hybrid battery will always register 50% upon power-off. Li-on batteries are happy at this charge state, so what harm is it?

 

Have no way of knowing without good data... In general it seems people who let car sit unused for months have the most problems. Also seems high mileage cars like Taxi cabs get way more miles out of the life of a battery pack and there's plenty of low mileage cars with hybrid pack problems. I suspect the depth of discharge and recharge and heat as determined by road conditions, driving habits play a role. Not sure how much a Prolong charging system would help, but there are solid reasons for why it does. Would be a good discussion on a new thread.

 

It's true. The thing you have to know is that the Prius is not concerned about the capacity of the battery. The Prius is concerned with the variation of voltage between pairs. That simple. As a battery ages, its internal resistance increases and the actual capacity decreases. You've got 14 pairs (28 individual) battery modules each with 12 cells (6 per individual battery module). The car only monitors every 12th cell.

As you drive the car charges and discharges them and this action keeps them all pretty well equalized. When you let it sit though, they all self discharge. NiMH discharge much more quickly than lithium and since they are all different, the longer you let them to sit without being actively managed, the more out of whack with one another they will be. That's why Prii that sit and are old usually die. It's not the sitting or the self discharging that kills it. But it does allow it to drift enough out of range to trigger a failure prematurely.

 

.. but only on the original battery, not on any battery replacement.

It seems quite unlikely that you will find any reasonable used car warranty that will provide adequate coverage on this battery. While such warranties may cover a lots of things, that battery will almost certainly be excluded. Or the warranty company will probably find some way to deny coverage, such as by going out of business before you can file a claim.

For an old hybrid, the possibility of a battery replacement must be rolled into your repair budget.

 

How do you get 1000 for the Prolong setup? It’s currently 670 dollars I believe. If you need someone to install it I guess it could be that much. If the OP installs it themselves it’s 670. When the battery goes bad you take the harness off and sell the whole rig here on PC for 370 and it would sell fast. I would take a chance at 300.

 

There's no reasoning with Lucifer... Always trolls threads on here to argue hybrid packs are bad even when they go several hundred thousand miles without so much as a single warning light. This time lucifer is purposefully exaggerating cost of Prolong system to "prove" his unfavorable resource wasting perspective.