Geriatric Planning: 2010 Prius Gen 3 Solar Hello everyone, BACKGROUND I have an aging 2010 Prius Gen 3 / Solar Package. It has its share of cosmetic blemishes I side and out. Mechanically everything has been excellent. Brakes and tires were recently replaced, along with the small 12volt battery). 2010, and milage is reaching 90k. One dent would cost apx. 2k (or insurance deductible) to repair; dent on back left quarter panel right above tire. I would likely need to repair this one dent before selling or as a trade-in. No plans to buy soon as we have a second hat (another Prius). QUESTION Yes, asking questions about "worth" and "value" are vague and can be all over the map with variables - just asking for gut insight. Is it worth replacing the battery(these would run about how much (state is PA, a project I would likely take on myself)? Better to get the dent repaired and sell (what would be a reasonable expectation on price)? Other than the battery, what would I expect to go wrong as the vehicle ages? Do I invest now to keep the vehicle a few more years....or fix the dent and sell it off?
There's no need to replace the hybrid battery unless it stops working, and even if that happened, you're still under warranty so Toyota would replace it for free. Putting $2000 into a dent repair is probably not going to add enough value to the car to be worth it, based on your description of the vehicle. One of the more common complaints about 2010 Prius models is they can start to burn oil.
Thank you for the input. Will there be signs of a failing battery so you are not left stranded? If so, about how much time do you have before full failure to schedule replacement? Battery good for 100k? The dent could be covered by insurance just haven't decided if I want to submit as a claim. Picture enclosed.
As for the dent, I'm inclined to agree with @Moving Right Along unless insurance will fix it with a really low deductible. As for the HV battery, there are countless threads about that here, so you can get a pretty thorough education perusing the forums. But basically, watch the battery state of charge indicator. If it starts losing and gaining charge unusually quickly, that's a sign that the cells are getting badly out of balance and you're losing battery capacity. Time to replace it or at least recondition it before it becomes an emergency. On the other hand, sometimes it happens suddenly. But I think you have a 100,000 mile, 8 year warranty on the battery unless your in a CARB state. If so, it's 150,000 miles and 10 years, if I'm not mistaken.
Typically, a Prius with a battery that's dying will have conspicuously lower fuel economy and the battery charge indicator will bounce up and down from empty to full every few minutes. However, the batteries that die tend to do so after the car is over 10 years old and has more than 150,000 miles, and even after that, they have very low failure rates (between 1-3% per year after 10 years old). So while it's not impossible, it's rather unlikely that you would have any hybrid battery problems for at least a few years, if ever.
this made me laugh when i saw the title.. Geriatric Planning: 2010 Prius Gen 3 Solar this car is a young pup still. the miles on it are low. some folks around here including myself put 25k to 30k a year on the cars. That car has TONS upon TONS of life left in it. I'd keep up on maintenance, check out nuts about bolts videos in the maintenance section for awesome how to videos.
