Vsc light on, Master triangle on & can't accelerate!

In general, dealer parts prices can be seen making big moves at weird times for weird or unknown reasons. It's some crazy mix of supply, demand, weight and warehouse space taken up by the part, allocation of manufacturer resources, and maybe twenty other things. Sometimes very high-turnover parts are expensive because of supply and demand, and sometimes very low-turnover parts are expensive because they sit around taking up warehouse space. Sometimes they're heavy. Sometimes they're light but big and weirdly shaped,

I remember first buying my gen 3 and seeing both underhood brake parts priced near $2k each, and then later saw them more like $700 each, and more recently they seem to be a bit higher again. I seem to remember the list price of the gen 1 steering gear going up around the time Toyota announced a free replacement program, and I figured they probably wanted to make sure they weren't selling too many over the counter to be able to have stock for the free replacements.

Why the price change on the battery? Who knows? Maybe in another six months or a year it'll go down again.

I haven't checked prices on batteries for other generations, to see if they've all gone up similarly, or if it's more the gen 3 and they might be shifting production more to other batteries.

Somebody inside Toyota probably knows, but most of us don't.

 

I think they say certified hybrid mechanic so they don't have to work on it.

 

Has the miles been mentioned?

 

Bad shuddering can be and often is a sign of a head gasket. I would verify the cause before investing in a hv battery if that is causing you financial strain.

A popular US YouTube mechanic would say “it could be an endless money pit”.

Last I heard Nexpower is not selling lithium anymore due to reliability and smoke (although they blame others). Now selling Sodium which could fail in freezing weather and have less energy density. Regardless shipping to the UK would take months and might add $1000 US if it’s even legal to use in the UK.

Head gaskets are common and can cost $2000-$4000 for a gasket job or $2500-$7500 for a replacement engine. “ABS” (Brake Booster) repair down the road is $2500. All US dollars.

Most mechanics do not know how to properly diagnose and repair hybrid specific issues and some don’t do engine work on them simply because of the adjacent hybrid parts. The last thing most shops want is to fix an expensive part only to find they guessed wrong or there were two issues. So using a hybrid experienced shop is recommended. In the US finding and using small hybrid shops can save 50% over dealer prices. It’s worth shopping around and a drive in most cases.

Hidden costs of high mile hybrid ownership

Shudder video (many do not immediately lose coolant and conventional hg tests may give a false negative)

Car Care Nut HG Borescope at 7:40 (a good hg diagnostic)

 

"Mechanic's special" refers to sell the car outright to a private party that's willing to take on the repair challenges of the car. If you haven't already noticed; there seems to be a 'cult like' followers for these cars; kind of like the old VW bugs or VW camper vans.
Try Facebook marketplace or something like Craigslist on your side of the pond...